LondonJohn
Member
I booked a First Class advance from Newcastle to Edinburgh for a Saturday in April through the East Coast website. I did this so I could chose the seat.
It wouldnt allow me to chose any of my favourite seats so I tried to change it to any seat in the carriage and it would not let me so I just bought the ticket.
Last week when travelling through Edinburgh I went to the East Coast Travel Centre to ask if I could change my seat hoping not to pay the £10 amendment fee and he said that seats AND fares were quota controlled and for the 2 or 3 levels of First Class advanced it would only let him select a seat in a particular part of the carriage however when he selected an Anytime first class ticket it came up with all seats apart from the one I had already reserved.
He said I could choose my seat if I upgraded my ticket. I told him not to worry and called East Coast trains customer relations and they reserved the seat of my choice for me and emailed me a reference number to quote at a station to collect the new reservation ticket.
I asked how I should book online to be able to choose in the future and they said that they were not quite sure but just to book any seat and call them and they would change it for me.
Very helpful I must say but it does defeat the point of having the option of choosing a seat online but not being able to.
Anybody else had any experience of this ?
It wouldnt allow me to chose any of my favourite seats so I tried to change it to any seat in the carriage and it would not let me so I just bought the ticket.
Last week when travelling through Edinburgh I went to the East Coast Travel Centre to ask if I could change my seat hoping not to pay the £10 amendment fee and he said that seats AND fares were quota controlled and for the 2 or 3 levels of First Class advanced it would only let him select a seat in a particular part of the carriage however when he selected an Anytime first class ticket it came up with all seats apart from the one I had already reserved.
He said I could choose my seat if I upgraded my ticket. I told him not to worry and called East Coast trains customer relations and they reserved the seat of my choice for me and emailed me a reference number to quote at a station to collect the new reservation ticket.
I asked how I should book online to be able to choose in the future and they said that they were not quite sure but just to book any seat and call them and they would change it for me.
Very helpful I must say but it does defeat the point of having the option of choosing a seat online but not being able to.
Anybody else had any experience of this ?