New LNER booking site?

[Bletchleyite]

It seems there may be a new version of the LNER site (new.lner.co.uk) doing the rounds. However I can't actually access it, I get bounced back to the normal one.

However another poster says they get it:

Sadly not.

The execrable thing appears at random and is alive and spitting this afternoon.

Can anyone else see it and on what type of device? Could they post some screenshots etc?

Thanks.

 

[H F Stephens]

It seems there may be a new version of the LNER site (new.lner.co.uk) doing the rounds. However I can't actually access it, I get bounced back to the normal one.

However another poster says they get it:


Can anyone else see it and on what type of device? Could they post some screenshots etc?

Thanks.

Above screenshot shows the principal ticket selection page at new.lner.co.uk.



Above screenshot shows the seat selector interface at new.lner.co.uk.

Google Chrome web browser on a PC.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Looks like the normal one to me. The tabbed display happens if you use a narrow display e.g. a vertically oriented phone or size your browser window down to that shape. That'll be why I couldn't see the difference

 

[styles]

I've never used the seat selector so can't comment on that, but the prices matrix looks the same as it does now doesn't it?

 

[Ze Random One]

I've been using the LNER site for a long time (plus its predecessors, ever since they put in the "MixingDeck" interface), whatever they have done recently which introduced this booking engine update has finally driven me away.

Neither my wife nor I could find the option to "add" additional tickets to the basket any more, and the information density is just terrible for a computer (you used to be able to see the whole carriage at a time on the seat selector, not any more), plus you used to be able to get a good overview of all the pricing.

I do wonder if this was yet another way of "trying to make split tickets difficult to buy", I wouldn't put it past them.

LNER's webmasters have also clearly been going super zealous on blocking any nonstandard browser, I just get blocked outright when using Chromium on a Raspberry Pi (in incognito mode).

The forum's own new booking engine is now clearly superior in many ways and this was the final tipping point for me to take the plunge. I'll miss the automatic delay repay, but hey ho.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The other general downside of the seat selector is that it doesn't have any indication, bar the door pocket seats, of which seats lack a decent window view, nor looking at the image above which are the priority rows.

 

[mikeg]

I've gone on to the LNER site and can't see much difference. Either way it's still an utter pile of rubbish. Doesn't recognise some basic aspects of tivket validity, for example, shows 'any permitted' SOS as available, but not 'via Doncaster' for travel from Selby to Kings Cross via York.... which of course involves travel via Doncaster. Also struggles with the variety of fares from Selby to Sheffield: The Rotueing Guide clearly states that a 'via Leeds' ticket can be used 'via Doncaster' when the cheaper fare would apply (as the latter fare route is cheaper, unelss I'm missing a negative easement), but forces anyone wanting to go out via Doncaster and back via Leeds to choose the overpriced 'any permitted' ticket.*

Also the same obsession with pushing 'fixed tickets'.

* That said, most booking engines are guilty of that one.

 

[styles]

I do wonder if this was yet another way of "trying to make split tickets difficult to buy", I wouldn't put it past them.

I doubt this, given LNER is one of only a handful of TOC websites which offer any form of split ticketing in their journey planners. If they didn't want to sell them, they just wouldn't.

 

[Mainline421]

I doubt this, given LNER is one of only a handful of TOC websites which offer any form of split ticketing in their journey planners. If they didn't want to sell them, they just wouldn't.

And that's why they stopped selling them a while ago, they don't want to.

 

[H F Stephens]

I've never used the seat selector so can't comment on that, but the prices matrix looks the same as it does now doesn't it?

No. The previous version presented Standard and First Class tickets in the same single-view matrix; they're now tabbed and have to be toggled-between.

I've been using the LNER site for a long time (plus its predecessors, ever since they put in the "MixingDeck" interface), whatever they have done recently which introduced this booking engine update has finally driven me away.

Neither my wife nor I could find the option to "add" additional tickets to the basket any more, and the information density is just terrible for a computer (you used to be able to see the whole carriage at a time on the seat selector, not any more), plus you used to be able to get a good overview of all the pricing.

I do wonder if this was yet another way of "trying to make split tickets difficult to buy", I wouldn't put it past them.

LNER's webmasters have also clearly been going super zealous on blocking any nonstandard browser, I just get blocked outright when using Chromium on a Raspberry Pi (in incognito mode).

The forum's own new booking engine is now clearly superior in many ways and this was the final tipping point for me to take the plunge. I'll miss the automatic delay repay, but hey ho.

It appears possible to still 'force' the site back to the old interface, which may be of particular interest/use to those wishing to avail of AmEx (et al) cashback.

The process is to put a random search in, select a random non Advance ticket (to avoid locking out any limited availability for the journey you actually wish to make) and go through the log in to your account stage and as far as the Delivery Information page at new.lner.co.uk/buy-tickets/delivery-information/.

At this point, go into the address bar and delete 'new.' and press enter.

The site will then revert to lner.co.uk/buy-tickets/booking-engine/ and the previously-selected ticket will disappear into the ether of an unclaimed basket.

You should then be able to buy tickets through the old process, including the functionality to add multiple tickets to the same basket and use the panoramic seat selector for LNER-operated services.

And that's why they stopped selling them a while ago, they don't want to.

As I understand it, the implementation of the functionality was blocked from the website at the last minute, as the DfT wasn't a fan.

It was released to the App. only, quietly.

Then it disappeared from the App., too.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

It will be fascinating when all the TOC-specific retail sites vanish into a national one under GBR.
Presumably the third-party sites, if they survive, will still be around.

 

[styles]

It will be fascinating when all the TOC-specific retail sites vanish into a national one under GBR.
Presumably the third-party sites, if they survive, will still be around.

Will all the TOC-specific sites be combined though?

We've got even less information about ticketing plans under GBR than we do livery.

 

[Spire Sam]

Will all the TOC-specific sites be combined though?

We've got even less information about ticketing plans under GBR than we do livery.

I don't know as it's been explicitly mentioned other than vague mentions of "Simplifying ticketing" which could mean any number of things. It would certainly make sense to combine them though.

 

[styles]

I don't know as it's been explicitly mentioned other than vague mentions of "Simplifying ticketing" which could mean any number of things. It would certainly make sense to combine them though.

'Simplifying ticketing' was also Grant Shapps' main driver for GBR, then it was basically dropped.

Even if we get a simplified fare structure, I'd be surprised if the ability for TOCs to sell tickets is removed.

 

[Trainbike46]

'Simplifying ticketing' was also Grant Shapps' main driver for GBR, then it was basically dropped.

Even if we get a simplified fare structure, I'd be surprised if the ability for TOCs to sell tickets is removed.

The way I understand it, is that over time the public facing TOCs will mostly disappear. If that happens, so will TOC-specific ticketing sites. I doubt that will happen anytime soon though!