Hello there. I was planning to take a return from Derby to Dundee, travelling up on the first train on 5/6 and coming back overnight, on the sleeper, via Crewe. I haven't yet purchased my ticket or the sleeper supplement. With the strike for 24 hours from 17:00 4/6, I've now got a bit of a quandary. I presume if I buy the ticket and supplement now and the railway can't transport me, they'll refund my ticket, but will they refund the sleeper supplement too (given that train won't be directly affected by the strike)? Conversely, if the strike is called off, how late can I leave booking the sleeper berth (I really don't want to travel back overnight in a reclining seat)? Thanks for any advice.
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Sleeper berth and strike
- Thread starter gpmartin
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RailUK Forums
In my experience Dundee-Crewe is rarely full, even on a Friday night so you should be able to book the berth right up to the day. The one caveat to that is that usually they shorten the Aberdeen portion of the sleeper for the summer, I don't know if this is happening this year. If it is then it may be busier.
gray1404
Established Member
Totally agree, right up until the day of departure.
You could always ring Serco Caledonian Sleeper on 0330 060 0500 or 0141 555 0888 Monday to Friday 08.30 to 20.30, Saturday 08.00 to 15.30 Sunday 15.30 to 20.30. You can ask them how many berths are left and this should give you an indication. If you were to book an pay the supplement now and the service was not to run due to the strike, they would refund this to you in full without an admin fee. I suggest if you did this though you try to arrange for a ticket on departure option so that way, if you didn't travel, the ticket could be simply cancelled in the system when you phone back requesting a refund and you would not have to physically send it back to them.
Normally this is the case, however I had to cancel a berth supplement a couple of weeks ago and was told I had to collect the ticket and send it back to them. To give them their due, I posted it first class and received the refund on the second working day.
gray1404
Established Member
How did you get on phoning them?
That is strange that they made you do that, I wonder why they just couldn't cancel it on the system as per usual. can be annoying sending tickets back in case they get lot in the post.
That is strange that they made you do that, I wonder why they just couldn't cancel it on the system as per usual. can be annoying sending tickets back in case they get lot in the post.
To explain the situation in a little more detail, what had happened is that I had a change of plans and ended up with two supplements for different days. I tried calling but the queue was long so I emailed them instead.
Again, to give credit where it's due, they replied within 30 minutes. I asked if I could cancel without collecting or move the date out to another day but they insisted that I had to collect the supplement and return it by post along with a form from their website. Maybe it's a different process if you do it over the phone.
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