Staff Priv on Caledonian Sleeper??

Mag_seven said:

It is a real pain in the backside that the online facility was withdrawn. Now you are at the mercy of the booking clerk's competency to book a priv sleeper when it used to be so easy doing it online.

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I don't necessarily think it's a case of the Booking Clerks competency more like it's something that's done so rarely that it is something that has to be thought about.
When I was a BC on LUL there were certain things that we did so rarely that when we had to do them it required looking up in the UTS Manual.
(Exchanging a season ticket for higher or lower validity) Probably now a very easy thing to do.
The fact that trains run approx every 15 mins from my local station in both directions there always seems to be someone wanting a straight forward ticket from the office.

pitdiver said:

I don't necessarily think it's a case of the Booking Clerks competency more like it's something that's done so rarely that it is something that has to be thought about.
When I was a BC on LUL there were certain things that we did so rarely that when we had to do them it required looking up in the UTS Manual.
(Exchanging a season ticket for higher or lower validity) Probably now a very easy thing to do.
The fact that trains run approx every 15 mins from my local station in both directions there always seems to be someone wanting a straight forward ticket from the office.

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I find it difficult to find a member of LUL staff who knows how to put a PRIV discount onto a Zip Card! I always take the instructions with me now.

Surreytraveller said:

I find it difficult to find a member of LUL staff who knows how to put a PRIV discount onto a Zip Card! I always take the instructions with me now.

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Does it work properly nowadays? When I had a Zip Card, loading extra discounts onto it resulted in various table errors and rendered the card unusable until it was removed!

pitdiver said:

I don't necessarily think it's a case of the Booking Clerks competency more like it's something that's done so rarely that it is something that has to be thought about.

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Nowadays it's virtually the same process as booking an Advance ticket and if the clerk doesn't know how to do this when at a station designated to issue reservations, they shouldn't really be working unsupervised.

As for only doing things rarely. As a booking office clerk I'm often alone on the station and charged with getting the line blocked and evacuating the station in the event of a serious incident. Or stopping the water supply if the pipes spring a leak. Is it acceptable not to know the procedures for parts of the job because they only happen rarely?

For everything there are guides and manuals to jog one's memory in a timely manner if necessary and sales is no different.

pitdiver said:

I recently enquired at my local stn about booking CS Priv tickets. After a very long sharp intake of breath. The reply was we can do it but it takes some time so can you come back when we have two windows open. I also believe they can only book upto six months in advence.

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It takes longer to serve customers who are completely unfamiliar with travelling by rail or are indecisive, and that's quite a lot of people, than it does to do a sleeper ticket!

As for the 6 month thing I'll have a look when I'm next in.

RJ said:

Does it work properly nowadays? When I had a Zip Card, loading extra discounts onto it resulted in various table errors and rendered the card unusable until it was removed!

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It works properly if the staff load it properly. The need to put the staff discount on rather than the nominee.

When I had my priv rate added to a Oyster Card I made a the decision to have it done at Visitor Centre at Kings Cross LUL. No problem at all.
The issue with the six months was that normal tickets can only be issued upto six months in advance but CS will be them up to a year in advance this is the difference.

pitdiver said:

When I had my priv rate added to a Oyster Card I made a the decision to have it done at Visitor Centre at Kings Cross LUL. No problem at all.
The issue with the six months was that normal tickets can only be issued upto six months in advance but CS will be them up to a year in advance this is the difference.

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Adult Privs being added to normal Oystercards are fine. It's the child ones being added to Zip cards that cause the issues.
Although I did try to get Priv added at Victoria Visitor Centre once - because the boxes change colour each issue, and that year's issue was a different colour to that in her manual, she wouldn't do it!