Splitting seat reservations on advance tickets

daniel78 · 20 Sep 2013

Hi,

I have bought two advance tickets for a train journey (Manchester Victoria to Glasgow, via Preston, Northern & Virgin). The tickets are issued as 3 coupons; two travel tickets, and one seat reservation coupon for two passengers.

Could the reservations be reissued so that there are separate seat reservation coupons for each passenger?

RailUK Forums

hairyhandedfool · 21 Sep 2013

In short, no. Tickets, generally speaking, can't be re-issued. The only way to get separate reservation coupons is to book tickets individually, but then there is no guarantee that you will get reservations together.

bb21 · 21 Sep 2013

daniel78 said:
Could the reservations be reissued so that there are separate seat reservation coupons for each passenger?

Not as far as I know. If the tickets are supposed to be given to separate people, then you will just have to let the most responsible person keep the reservation.

Next time choose a TVM that does so if you need the reservations issued separately. ToDler machines, despite all their problems and faults, do reservations separately, whereas machines such as FasTicket don't.

John @ home · 21 Sep 2013

hairyhandedfool said:
The only way to get separate reservation coupons is to book tickets individually

Not always. Some ticket machines always print a separate reservation voucher for each passenger.

bb21 said:
choose a TVM that does so if you need the reservations issued separately.

Agreed.

bb21 said:
ToDler machines ... do reservations separately, whereas machines such as FasTicket don't.

Are you sure? I think it depends on the Train Company, rather than the machine type.

At Leeds station the dozen or so East Coast machines print a separate reservation voucher for each passenger. The Northern machines, both the older six and the two new ToDler machines, issue one voucher for up to four passengers.

bb21 · 21 Sep 2013

John @ home said:
Are you sure? I think it depends on the Train Company, rather than the machine type.

At Leeds station the dozen or so East Coast machines print a separate reservation voucher for each passenger. The Northern machines, both the older six and the two new ToDler machines, issue one voucher for up to four passengers.

I must admit that this is new to me. I have collected from various machines around the country and so far my experiences have tallied with the conclusions I have drawn but if your evidence suggests the contrary, then you may well be correct that it would depend on the TOC. I haven't collected multiple reservations from Northern machines so that is definitely a blind spot for me.

Great, another layer of complication.

David Goddard · 21 Sep 2013

Do they need to be separate? You are clearly travelling together so I don't see any need for separate coupons.

Eagle · 21 Sep 2013

Are the seats together, though?

bb21 · 21 Sep 2013

David Goddard said:
Do they need to be separate? You are clearly travelling together so I don't see any need for separate coupons.

Some people prefer to have separate reservations, especially if they would be coming from different places on the day. That way if one person messes up, the other person still has a valid ticket. Otherwise if the person with the reservation coupon fails to turn up, it would be much worse.

greatkingrat · 21 Sep 2013

Advance reservations usually say something like "only valid with ticket 12345". How does that work if there are two tickets and only one reservation?

island · 21 Sep 2013

The reservation quotes the first ticket number with which it is valid.

John @ home · 22 Sep 2013

David Goddard said:
Do they need to be separate?

bb21 said:
if one person messes up, the other person still has a valid ticket.

Exactly. I try to arrange my meetings in London for the same day that my partner, whose meetings are set many months in advance, has meetings there. My meetings are arranged at shorter notice. We usually meet at King's Cross for the journey home.

Lots of employers now insists on Advance tickets being used. If a meeting over-runs and a train is missed, an employer will usually refund the additional cost for the person delayed, but not the extra cost due to there being another ticket in that person's wallet because only one reservation voucher was printed.

Mojo · 22 Sep 2013

lt's also a nuisance with companies like Virgin at Euston where they want to check your reservation on the 'barrier.' Occasionally I might book tickets for a friend and me; and then we turn up at different times so one of us would have to wait around on the concourse rather than the first person to arrive being able to take a seat.

daniel78 · 22 Sep 2013

bb21 said:
Some people prefer to have separate reservations, especially if they would be coming from different places on the day. That way if one person messes up, the other person still has a valid ticket. Otherwise if the person with the reservation coupon fails to turn up, it would be much worse.

That's pretty much it. A change in my plans means I'll be starting my day elsewhere and travelling into Manchester to meet my friend. If I arrive late in Manchester I'd normally be safe in the knowledge I could get my advance ticket endorsed for travel on the next train. If I had separate reservations the worst case would be that I just meet my friend in Glasgow an hour later.

Looks like I'll just have to make sure I get up early and leave lots of time to connect in Manchester. Thanks for the responses everyone.

Olympian · 22 Sep 2013

Does it make a difference to what's printed if you book the tickets as 2 separate journeys for one passenger each, rather than one journey for 2 passengers, even if purchased together in one transaction on a website such as East Coast? You may not get seats together, but wouldn't you be guaranteed to get separate reservation coupons every time?

bb21 · 22 Sep 2013

I believe that if you purchase them as two separate tickets then you will have them printed separately. Of course, unless you are allowed to select your own seat, you may not have seats that are together if you do that.

Splitting seat reservations on advance tickets

daniel78

Member

RailUK Forums

hairyhandedfool

Established Member

bb21

Emeritus Moderator

John @ home

Established Member

bb21

Emeritus Moderator

David Goddard

Established Member

Eagle

Established Member

bb21

Emeritus Moderator

greatkingrat

Established Member

island

Veteran Member

John @ home

Established Member

Mojo

Forum Staff

daniel78

Member

Olympian

Member

bb21

Emeritus Moderator