Virgin Contact Centre - are they correct?

I have an Advance Single from Chester to London. The only 'booked' portion however on the ticket is my seat from Crewe to London. I had originally planned to use the 9.55am from Chester to Crewe to connect with the 10.29 at Crewe - I don't have a reservation on this service but it's the closest 'connection'

On reflection I decided to go on a slightly earlier train, the 9.35am Virgin service to give me time for a coffee. I rang Virgin to reserve a seat as I know it's a busy train but I was told I couldn't have a seat reservation and that I couldn't travel on that train but had to go on the 9.55am.

Are they correct - I thought I could catch any train from Chester to Crewe on that morning?
Thanks

You can only use a non-reservable train, so it would have to be another TfW.

They are correct not to offer you a reservation on that train.

You are allowed to take "appropriate" connecting services, however the view of the rail industry is that you should only take non-reserveable trains to make the connection.

If arriving on time is particularly important to you (and moreso than claiming Delay Repay compensation if you are delayed) I would recommend that in future you book through a website that allows you to specify additional interchange time, for example sites such as Trainsplit allow you to go to Advanced options, specify change at: Crewe, and add additional interchange time (which is added to the minimum interchange time).

Another option for a journey such as Chester to London would be to specify the use of Virgin Trains only (or Virgin plus West Midlands Trains, or exclude TfW, etc...) again this is in Advanced Options on websites that have that facility.

If you really want to use that service, you can always just turn up and ask the guard for permission to travel with them as far as Crewe. There is a good chance of this being granted, but you would have to be prepared to take the risk of waiting at Chester.

Sorry if this has been discussed before, but how is an average passenger supposed to know that appropriate means non-reservable? And how do they know which services are reservable in the first place?
If a Virgin guard told me that a certain service wasn’t appropriate because of this rule I would be a bit miffed.

freddie1729 said:

Sorry if this has been discussed before, but how is an average passenger supposed to know that appropriate means non-reservable?

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It's a fair point, but seems to assume that the average passenger will know that on occasion they are entitled to use different trains from the ones shown on their advance ticket.

freddie1729 said:

Sorry if this has been discussed before, but how is an average passenger supposed to know that appropriate means non-reservable? And how do they know which services are reservable in the first place?

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To put it simply: they can't.

Is there any recorded incident of someone getting in trouble for using an Advance on a connecting train that is deemed 'inappropriate' because of the non-reservable rule?

Starmill said:

To put it simply: they can't.

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Aren't reservable services defined in the timetable?

AlterEgo said:

Aren't reservable services defined in the timetable?

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Sometimes. Northern's timetables don't show which of their services are reservable, though. Furthermore, Northern (and others) do say fairly clearly you can't reserve a seat on any of their trains, which might confuse people into thinking that all of those trains are non-reservable. The concept isn't properly defined.