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New LNER website

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AY1975

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Looking at the new LNER website, it would appear that the ticket booking process is largely unchanged from what LNER has inherited from Virgin/Stagecoach. However, under FAQs there is a reference to the "new booking experience", and when you click on there it says you need to re-register if you wish to use the new booking experience.

Does anyone know whether this is something new that LNER has just introduced? Or is it just referring to when Virgin East Coast revamped its website, in which case LNER presumably hasn't got round to removing this from the FAQs yet? I can't find any obvious way of re-registering.
 
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transmanche

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Or is it just referring to when Virgin East Coast revamped its website, in which case LNER presumably hasn't got round to removing this from the FAQs yet?
I think you have answered your own question.
 

westv

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Come on LNER, sort out the seat map issue. It doesn't work on some services and hasn't done so since the new site went live last year.
 

westv

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There is a very complicated reason why it's doesn't work, it basically NRS( the national reservation system) rather than the website.

Sounds like the same reason it occurred the last two (I think ) times but it seemed to take a lot less time to sort it out then.
 

mallard

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Yeah. Means they can get rid of using NL65 (exEMT set) on regular service.

And if EMT get it back, they might finally be able to run regular services with complete, correctly formed 8-carriage HSTs (not suggesting they get rid of the 6-carriage trains, just that they stop the regular short-forming, use of TFs in leiu of TSs, etc. on the 8-carriage trains).

But it'll probably go straight to the scrapyard...
 

CyrusWuff

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Basically the problem can't be fixed the easy way when a trains already been opened for reservations and we've yet to find the hard way.
Given how railway systems tend to work, I suspect the hard way is likely to involve:
  • Temporarily closing the service(s) involved for new reservations
  • Recreating it/them with a temporary Retail Service ID
  • Manually transferring all the existing reservations over
  • Deleting the original train(s)
  • Recreating it/them with the correct Retail Service ID
  • Manually transferring the existing reservations back
  • Deleting the temporary train(s)
  • Reopening the corrected service(s) for reservations
Or, to summarise, more trouble than it's worth.
 

FQTV

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The LNER website can't currently issue tickets originating or terminating at London Zones U*****.

Web Support acknowledge that it's an issue, but have no time frame for resolution.

I thought that it might be worth mentioning here, in case others are head-scratching and wasting time trying.
 

FQTV

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Has it been previously able to sell such tickets? I’m sure it hasbut I’ve not had the need to buy them I may be mistaken.

Yes, always; and other TOC sites still have no trouble doing so, but if you want to avail of a Super Off Peak Online Only fare, or would like seat selection or WiFi in Standard, you’re limited to the LVIRGINR site of course.
 

SaveECRewards

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Yes, always; and other TOC sites still have no trouble doing so, but if you want to avail of a Super Off Peak Online Only fare, or would like seat selection or WiFi in Standard, you’re limited to the LVIRGINR site of course.
It’s a temperamental beast! It’s almost officially a year old. Although it was available in beta form earlier, the switch date from WebTIS was 1st August.
 

Wallsendmag

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Yes, always; and other TOC sites still have no trouble doing so, but if you want to avail of a Super Off Peak Online Only fare, or would like seat selection or WiFi in Standard, you’re limited to the LVIRGINR site of course.
No it hasn't been available on the new site but we have a roadmap for a solution to retail it correctly.
 

SaveECRewards

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The new 'family' ticket has been promoted on social media. Can the website issue these properly? No it can't!

Can LNER not test things properly before promoting them, it took me less than 10 minutes looking around to find out the issue. It only works correctly if you're travelling as one adult and one child, if you're travelling as two adults, two children you're charged double. Any of the other valid combinations don't work.

More info: https://saveecrewards.co.uk/blog/new-family-ticket
 

Paul Kelly

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https://trainscanbecheaper.info/ will sell the new tickets correctly for variable numbers of adults and children. Note that the fares are quota-controlled and so more likely to appear on trains on which cheap advances are commonly available (e.g. the Newark trains).

Speaking as someone who appreciates data being kept clean and tidy and things being done in a neat way, I really have to say it's awful the way LNER have implemented this as a "family" of eight different ticket types for every possible combination of adults and children (e.g. see here: http://www.brfares.com/#!fares?orig=DHM&dest=KGX and scroll down to Advance Purchase Fares – Standard Class). So messy! Why couldn't they have done it with just one ticket type that allows a variable number of passengers, like the Scotrail Friends Fare? Many TIS will already issue group tickets like this as a separate coupon for every passenger - I wonder if that was a worry?
 

CaptainHaddock

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I'm rather disappointed LNER haven't tried to attract new and lapsed customers with a Seat Sale or Hot Cakes type promo. Maybe once the school holidays are over?
 

SaveECRewards

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https://trainscanbecheaper.info/ will sell the new tickets correctly for variable numbers of adults and children. Note that the fares are quota-controlled and so more likely to appear on trains on which cheap advances are commonly available (e.g. the Newark trains).

Speaking as someone who appreciates data being kept clean and tidy and things being done in a neat way, I really have to say it's awful the way LNER have implemented this as a "family" of eight different ticket types for every possible combination of adults and children (e.g. see here: http://www.brfares.com/#!fares?orig=DHM&dest=KGX and scroll down to Advance Purchase Fares – Standard Class). So messy! Why couldn't they have done it with just one ticket type that allows a variable number of passengers, like the Scotrail Friends Fare? Many TIS will already issue group tickets like this as a separate coupon for every passenger - I wonder if that was a worry?

I knew VTWC had family tickets but I'd never really looked at them as they're no use for me. It appears that VTWC do their tickets properly (i.e. one family fare that's valid for a group of between 1-2 adults and 1-4 children rather than having a different ticket type for each possible combination), the VTWC one is also open on the return leg and available in first class.

I wonder if the implementation in the current way was more to do with a limitation with the booking engine LNER use. If that's the case it's even more embarrassing if they made this compromise and it still wasn't working properly.

I also checked that you can correctly buy these LNER family tickets through the VTWC website, so presumably all trainline based websites can sell them without issues. I tried with GWR and no luck, so WebTIS based sites currently can't sell them.

I'm rather disappointed LNER haven't tried to attract new and lapsed customers with a Seat Sale or Hot Cakes type promo. Maybe once the school holidays are over?

Me too! VTEC have been rubbish this year with sales. Every 'sale' they've had this year has been invite only which means they lose out on word of mouth publicity. I thought LNER would have launched with a big sale. They could launch the sale now for travel after the school holidays. If you've picked up one of the discount coupons at GetNorth 2018 you'll see they're not valid for travel until September after the schools return.

Perhaps there's someone who joined the LNER commercial team that thinks public sales are bad and it's better to offer targeted offers. Problem is it just annoys people when a friend tells them of the latest sale and then they find they're not eligible.
 

Merseysider

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I'm rather disappointed LNER haven't tried to attract new and lapsed customers with a Seat Sale or Hot Cakes type promo. Maybe once the school holidays are over?
It’s mostly the same people in management so maybe they just don’t care :{
 

aar0

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I used the website in its LNER form for the first time on Saturday, and have somehow spent 30p more than I needed to and also been demoted to standard class. Is this an issue with it or any issue with me being thick?!
 

Paul Kelly

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I wonder if the implementation in the current way was more to do with a limitation with the booking engine LNER use.
Yes that thought occurred to me too after I made my previous post. I have a feeling you may be on to something there...

The way they've done it also makes it really inflexible for variable size groups. All TISs can only issue the same ticket type to all passengers. So if you have a group of 2 adults and 6 children, that's OK, because you could issue two lots of 1A+3C tickets. But with a group of 3 adults and 5 children you're stuck because the passenger group can't be evenly divided into two groups of the same size, so with LNER's inflexible group tickets you can't issue that. If it was one ticket type with a variable number of passengers a TIS could just issue two of these tickets and notionally assign differently-sized passenger groups to each.

It also leads to oddities when, for impartial retailing purposes, booking engines need to show all valid tickets. E.g. as shown in the attached screenshot from Trainline - for a group of 2 adults and 4 children, both the 2A+4C ticket (1 of) or the 1A+2C ticket (2 of) are valid, so impartial retailing dictates that they must both be shown, even though the latter option is twice the price.
 

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SaveECRewards

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It’s mostly the same people in management so maybe they just don’t care :{
It seems odd that 2017 there was a lot of decent sales (Hot Cakes offered quite a few weeks, there was the usual sales in January and other key times too) but towards the end of 2017 and into 2018 every promotional offer was targeted. Even when the promotional email has called it a sale it has only been available to those who were sent the offer.

As far as I know the key people in management are the same now as they had in 2017, have they suddenly went off public sales? Also perhaps they're worried that their site can't cope with the demand. Their WebTIS based site often had issues with coping with demand during sales times.

Yes that thought occurred to me too after I made my previous post. I have a feeling you may be on to something there...

The way they've done it also makes it really inflexible for variable size groups. All TISs can only issue the same ticket type to all passengers. So if you have a group of 2 adults and 6 children, that's OK, because you could issue two lots of 1A+3C tickets. But with a group of 3 adults and 5 children you're stuck because the passenger group can't be evenly divided into two groups of the same size, so with LNER's inflexible group tickets you can't issue that. If it was one ticket type with a variable number of passengers a TIS could just issue two of these tickets and notionally assign differently-sized passenger groups to each.

It also leads to oddities when, for impartial retailing purposes, booking engines need to show all valid tickets. E.g. as shown in the attached screenshot from Trainline - for a group of 2 adults and 4 children, both the 2A+4C ticket (1 of) or the 1A+2C ticket (2 of) are valid, so impartial retailing dictates that they must both be shown, even though the latter option is twice the price.

Is that true that absolutely all tickets have to be shown? After all they generally only show the cheapest tier of each of the 'advance' fares so I'd think the same would apply in the case of the family tickets. If you purchase an LNER family ticket on the VTWC website for 2 adults and 2 children it just shows the cheapest option rather than also showing the more expensive option which is the one LNER gives.

Another issue is the trainline website incorrectly states that the return leg can be used on any eligible train. On the LNER version of this ticket it's restricted both directions. The Virgin Trains website gets this correct even though their version of this ticket is flexible on the return leg.
 
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