Priv Travel on The Night Riviera

pitdiver · 27 Jun 2019

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am trying to book two Priv return tickets on the abover service. I am slightly confused as it seems that I can only get a discount on the train fare not the sleeper supplement.
Is this correct as BR Fares shows I believe a twin berth fare (Twosharing) at £55. Advice would be appreciated

RailUK Forums

Surreytraveller · 27 Jun 2019

There is no Priv discount on the sleeper supplement. You either get a Priv discount on the public inclusive fare, or fill in a box and pay the supplement. The former is usually cheaper, but quota controlled. If the quota for staff travel is already full, then you have to do the latter

pitdiver · 27 Jun 2019

Surreytraveller said:
There is no Priv discount on the sleeper supplement. You either get a Priv discount on the public inclusive fare, or fill in a box and pay the supplement. The former is usually cheaper, but quota controlled. If the quota for staff travel is already full, then you have to do the latter

I assume by Public Inclusive fare is Berth and travel.

Surreytraveller · 27 Jun 2019

pitdiver said:
I assume by Public Inclusive fare is Berth and travel.

Yes..

pitdiver · 27 Jun 2019

Just done a dummy run, seems like the public inclusive fare is £410 so I assume priv will be normal. Am I right I will have to book this at my local station?

Surreytraveller · 27 Jun 2019

pitdiver said:
Just done a dummy run, seems like the public inclusive fare is £410 so I assume priv will be normal. Am I right I will have to book this at my local station?

Yes, or you might be able to do it over the phone. You won't be able to do it online

richardderby · 27 Jun 2019

GWR will not book it over the phone, i tried calling them recently, and they will only check availability. tried booking a twin berth on priv a few months ago, went to various stations in London, and booking office staff hadn't the fogyest what to do. gave up in the end, and took the 10.06 day train down to Penzance. the system is not user friendly for rail staff.
see here also
https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/priv-supplement-on-night-riviera-sleeper.146287/

Surreytraveller · 27 Jun 2019

Is it not the same as issuing any other Railcard discounted ticket? Back when I used to work in ticket offices, the ticketing issuing system was 'dumb', in that it did what you told it to do, and therefore the clerks had to know what they were doing otherwise you could issue anything for any price (although it would catch up with you if you made silly errors - or tried to commit fraud!). These days, I thought the equipment was a bit more clever, but taking away the need for so much skill and knowledge from the staff - but the other side of the coin the machines are almost foolproof - or am I being too simplistic?

pitdiver · 27 Jun 2019

It was so easy booking CS last year just before they stopped booking privs on line. Now when they have sorted out the Mk 5s and I book my trip to INV I have got to doit at my local stn,that should be fun. I think I might go up to Eus/Stp/KX and do it there.

RJ · 27 Jun 2019

richardderby said:
GWR will not book it over the phone, i tried calling them recently, and they will only check availability. tried booking a twin berth on priv a few months ago, went to various stations in London, and booking office staff hadn't the fogyest what to do. gave up in the end, and took the 10.06 day train down to Penzance. the system is not user friendly for rail staff.
see here also
https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/priv-supplement-on-night-riviera-sleeper.146287/

It really is not that hard for booking offices to issue sleeper tickets, honestly. I can do it where I work.

Whichever booking offices you were going to hadn't trained their staff on how to issue Advance tickets.

RJ · 27 Jun 2019

pitdiver said:
It was so easy booking CS last year just before they stopped booking privs on line. Now when they have sorted out the Mk 5s and I book my trip to INV I have got to doit at my local stn,that should be fun. I think I might go up to Eus/Stp/KX and do it there.

Sadly the system was left wide open for abuse - people were sharing the code with their friends and it found its way onto consumer value websites before long.

Are there any updates on whether Virgin can do these tickets? Recall reading that the software wouldn't allow it and the local ticket office at Euston isn't obliged to sell any sleeper tickets at all.

district · 27 Jun 2019

Priv sleeper (or indeed public sleepers) are not difficult. They were taught on my ticket office course and I have managed to keep my competence by selling them and also practicing issuing them between customers. They are not much different from issuing normal Advances.

Sir_Sheep · 28 Jun 2019

Is there any easy way of searching across a range of dates to find the cheaper, inclusive fare? Or is it a case of searching each date individually?

RJ · 28 Jun 2019

Sir_Sheep said:
Is there any easy way of searching across a range of dates to find the cheaper, inclusive fare? Or is it a case of searching each date individually?

That's something that can be done at a ticket office.

Sir_Sheep · 28 Jun 2019

That's something that can be done at a ticket office.

Cool! Good to know ☺️

district · 28 Jun 2019

RJ said:
That's something that can be done at a ticket office.

We have the ''Check Journeys with Available Places'' and the multiple availability grid to compare available advances against trains across the whole day or week. It is extremely slow to load on STAR though!

Wallsendmag · 28 Jun 2019

pitdiver said:
It was so easy booking CS last year just before they stopped booking privs on line. Now when they have sorted out the Mk 5s and I book my trip to INV I have got to doit at my local stn,that should be fun. I think I might go up to Eus/Stp/KX and do it there.

Don't bother with Euston they don't sell sleepers allegedly

district · 28 Jun 2019

If you are struggling booking sleepers please PM me.

pitdiver · 29 Jun 2019

district said:
If you are struggling booking sleepers please PM me.

I certainly will, not sure when going though. Looking to use the Inverness or Aberdeen sleeper as an alternative to flying. The issue being that we have to connect with a flight to Kirkwall or a ferry. Will have to do some in depth research to get it right. The problem with my local station is the time it takes, thats what they tell me.

district · 29 Jun 2019

pitdiver said:
I certainly will, not sure when going though. Looking to use the Inverness or Aberdeen sleeper as an alternative to flying. The issue being that we have to connect with a flight to Kirkwall or a ferry. Will have to do some in depth research to get it right. The problem with my local station is the time it takes, thats what they tell me.

If you know the dates and times you need to travel it takes no time at all. I will PM you.

IKB · 1 Sep 2019

To update on this: you can purchase PRV rate Night Riviera tickets over the phone as I have done it recently.

As stated above, GWR offer two options:

1. 75% discount off the most expensive Advance-Inclusive package in each type of accommodation (solo or twin) on presentation of a TOC Privilege Card, or
2. Purchase a Priv-rate ticket and pay the sleeping berth supplement. (£55 each if sharing, £80 if single).

Option 1 availability is quota controlled. If no Priv-rate advance package tickets are left, you will need to take Option 2.

This is documented on the Rail Staff Travel website, page 16:
https://www.raildeliverygroup.com/files/Publications/services/rst/RST_Where_Can_I_Go_NSG.pdf

I had originally visited the booking office at Paddington, to be informed that there were no PRV tickets on the sleeper - not just for the night I wanted, but for the entirety of the three month booking window. I have a feeling the clerk was ill-informed. Even if the quota controlled tickets (option 1) had all been sold (unlikely over a three month period) then I should have been offered option 2 above.

IKB · 1 Sep 2019

RJ said:
Sadly the system was left wide open for abuse - people were sharing the code with their friends and it found its way onto consumer value websites before long.

Its a shame this online facility was withdrawn. I hear what you say about abuse - there's always some people who spoil it for everyone. BUT, if a proper ticket check is conducted before boarding, this should be possible to safeguard against. At the very minimum you should be possession of your PRV card, and I don't think any rail staff would object to taking along their photographic TOC staff ID or other identity document (eg passport) to prove they are the person on the PRV rate card. That is an easily manageable way around around any abuses, without having to withdraw the entire facility. Any chancers using someone else's PRV either don't travel or have to stump up the full fare before being allowed on (remembering that CS do the ticket check before you board at Euston).

Haywain · 1 Sep 2019

district said:
We have the ''Check Journeys with Available Places'' and the multiple availability grid to compare available advances against trains across the whole day or week. It is extremely slow to load on STAR though!

Not every TIS has this option. Someone asking for this at a ticket office without the ability to do such a search could become quite unpopular!

RichardJ · 1 Sep 2019

IKB said:
I hear what you say about abuse - there's always some people who spoil it for everyone. BUT, if a proper ticket check is conducted before boarding, this should be possible to safeguard against. At the very minimum you should be possession of your PRV card, and I don't think any rail staff would object to taking along their photographic TOC staff ID or other identity document (eg passport) to prove they are the person on the PRV rate card. That is an easily manageable way around around any abuses, without having to withdraw the entire facility.

I think the problem was that the tickets booked in this way didn't indicate that they were priv tickets, just that they were discounted, so the only way for an inspector to realise that a priv card was required was to spot that the price was unusually low. I don't know why it wasn't possible to issue 'real' priv tickets.

Lemmy99uk · 1 Sep 2019

I went to Whitehaven booking office a few weeks ago and booked 2 priv solo sleepers Paddington to Penzance for mid November.

£33.75 each and the transaction took about a minute.

RJ · 1 Sep 2019

IKB said:
Its a shame this online facility was withdrawn. I hear what you say about abuse - there's always some people who spoil it for everyone. BUT, if a proper ticket check is conducted before boarding, this should be possible to safeguard against. At the very minimum you should be possession of your PRV card, and I don't think any rail staff would object to taking along their photographic TOC staff ID or other identity document (eg passport) to prove they are the person on the PRV rate card. That is an easily manageable way around around any abuses, without having to withdraw the entire facility. Any chancers using someone else's PRV either don't travel or have to stump up the full fare before being allowed on (remembering that CS do the ticket check before you board at Euston).

In theory yes, a ticket check would weed out the frauds. But would you want the job of bouncing people with a ticket, albeit a dodgy one off the last train of the day from Rannoch or Ardlui?

RJ · 1 Sep 2019

Haywain said:
Not every TIS has this option. Someone asking for this at a ticket office without the ability to do such a search could become quite unpopular!

I don't mind at all - I've been checking availability on other Priv holders behalf during quiet periods ever since the option was taken away from the CS website. From the resulting discussions it became apparent staff around the country were having a very hard time getting Priv sleeper tickets booked at ticket offices so I also check Night Riviera availability. The idea is that the tickets are booked online or at ticket offices with staff that can do it. It saves them a job having to hunt for availability.

It's no bother to flick through dates on RJIS at my rural posts. It takes less than 5 seconds to check each date individually and usually with things like this the customer would be satisfied after the first 5 or so dates with availability are found.

IKB said:
I had originally visited the booking office at Paddington, to be informed that there were no PRV tickets on the sleeper - not just for the night I wanted, but for the entirety of the three month booking window. I have a feeling the clerk was ill-informed. Even if the quota controlled tickets (option 1) had all been sold (unlikely over a three month period) then I should have been offered option 2 above.

It's unlikely there would nothing on any train for 3 months especially as summer has been and gone! I found a load of available dates for someone a couple of weeks ago. You'd be lucky to find something within about 4 weeks but if you can be flexible, there will more choice with more notice than that. If you ever intend to use the service in the future you can PM me and I will check when I am in.

greatkingrat · 2 Sep 2019

There are four levels of advance fares available for the Night Riviera - £135 / £89 / £74 / £59 (assuming a journey London - Penzance). As far as I can see the staff fares are only available on trains where the public advance fare is £74 or £59. Once it reaches the top two levels, the staff quota seems to be withdrawn.

Lemmy99uk · 3 Sep 2019

greatkingrat said:
There are four levels of advance fares available for the Night Riviera - £135 / £89 / £74 / £59 (assuming a journey London - Penzance). As far as I can see the staff fares are only available on trains where the public advance fare is £74 or £59. Once it reaches the top two levels, the staff quota seems to be withdrawn.

According to the current Rail Staff Travel Guide, you are only eligible for Priv rates on the most expensive adult inclusive package i.e. the £135 tier.

That tallies with the tickets I’ve bought at £33.75 each (quarter of £135).

greatkingrat · 3 Sep 2019

Yes, the priv fare is always £33.75, but it is not always available (even when there are £135 public rate tickets still available).

Priv Travel on The Night Riviera

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