XC 10 Minute Reservation Question

[beeza1]

We are going on a trip later this week using XC, as it's going to be a fairly long journey we could really do with reserved seats, problem is we won't know what time we are going until the day of travel.
I use XC's TMR frequently when travelling alone.
I was wondering, is it possible to book adjoining seats with this system?
Booking online is not an option.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

We are going on a trip later this week using XC, as it's going to be a fairly long journey we could really do with reserved seats, problem is we won't know what time we are going until the day of travel.
I use XC's TMR frequently when travelling alone.
I was wondering, is it possible to book adjoining seats with this system?
Booking online is not an option.

No, the system does not let you select a specific seat. Sometimes you are lucky and that is what you get, but there are no guarantees. Make sure to send one TMR request with the " 2" at the end; if anything gets you two seats together this is perhaps the most likely to.

Once it is the day of departure, the only way you can select specific seats on XC is if you buy a ticket online through their website and use the seat selector.

 

[beeza1]

No, the system does not let you select a specific seat. Sometimes you are lucky and that is what you get, but there are no guarantees. Make sure to send one TMR request with the " 2" at the end; if anything gets you two seats together this is perhaps the most likely to.

Once it is the day of departure, the only way you can select specific seats on XC is if you buy a ticket online through their website and use the seat selector.

Thanks for that, I suspected that would be the case.

 

[221129]

And hope that the service you intend to use hasn't had TMR disabled for it.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

I would also suggest you send your "TMR" text as early as possible on the day of travel. Leave it too late and you're likely to get the dreaded "there is no seat availability for your requested journey" response.

 

[BluePenguin]

No, the system does not let you select a specific seat. Sometimes you are lucky and that is what you get, but there are no guarantees. Make sure to send one TMR request with the " 2" at the end; if anything gets you two seats together this is perhaps the most likely to.

Once it is the day of departure, the only way you can select specific seats on XC is if you buy a ticket online through their website and use the seat selector.

If you send a text to their automated system on the day of travel you you have a good chance of reserving a seat.

Depending on which way you are going, you might want to reserve a seat in the opposite direction than the one you prefer. E.g if travelling from south to north of Reading reserve a "backwards" seat so that your seat is forwards for of rest of the journey

For my last 5 journeys I needed to travel at a moments notice and got seat reservations minutes before the train was due to arrive. I've never been forced to buy tickets through the XC website.

 

[beeza1]

Just booked seats for travel later today, put the "2" at the end of the message as suggested above by "ForTheLoveOf" and it has allocated us 2 adjoining seats, as I stated earlier I have used it many times when travelling alone, now it's good to know multiple seats can be booked if required.
Thank you for your help.

 

[Kite159]

If you send a text to their automated system on the day of travel you you have a good chance of reserving a seat.

Depending on which way you are going, you might want to reserve a seat in the opposite direction than the one you prefer. E.g if travelling from south to north of Reading reserve a "backwards" seat so that your seat is forwards for of rest of the journey

For my last 5 journeys I needed to travel at a moments notice and got seat reservations minutes before the train was due to arrive. I've never been forced to buy tickets through the XC website.

Apart from XC don't guarantee which way round the stock will be so being clever to book a "backwards" seat for the reversal at Reading [on a Basingstoke - Birmingham journey] might backfire when your 'backwards' seat rolls into the station being forward and you end up facing backwards for the longer leg.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

Apart from XC don't guarantee which way round the stock will be so being clever to book a "backwards" seat for the reversal at Reading [on a Basingstoke - Birmingham journey] might backfire when your 'backwards' seat rolls into the station being forward and you end up facing backwards for the longer leg.

Indeed, CrossCountry don't say which was their seats face. It's all Coach X Seat XXA. The A indicates it is non-directional, as opposed to F or B which is used by some TOCs, most notably ScotRail in my experience, to denote forwards and backwards facing seats. Unfortunately, even that falls apart when they have reversing services, such as Mallaig to Glasgow!

 

[paddington]

Last month I travelled on an XC service formed of coaches A, C, C and A. In any case it was not possible for people to get to either one of their two possibly reserved seats if they boarded at the wrong door.

 

[Deafdoggie]

Last month I travelled on an XC service formed of coaches A, C, C and A. In any case it was not possible for people to get to either one of their two possibly reserved seats if they boarded at the wrong door.

XC coach A is always first class, unless a Turbostar. Then it would be two Turbostars joined together, so you could see which one had paper labels in it