I'm needing to travel this week on Avanti but struggling to find a seat on a direct off-peak! After a bit of trial and error I found that the presence of an advance fair appears to indicate free seats. With this methodology the earliest bookable direct off-peak arrival to London from Wigan North Western is 17:33 (14:29 departure). From Manchester Piccadilly it's slightly better been able to arrive at 15:38 (13:15 departure)
Is there an easier/more accurate way to see if there is free seats on a service?
I will actually departing for a local Greater Manchester station so there will already be some connections involved and wanted to get the main leg as direct. I might be tempted by a non direct service but not sure if the same methodology will apply with connections.
edit:
Well maybe this is more an avanti booking issue trainsplit is seeing plenty of seats on earlier services!
Is there an easier/more accurate way to see if there is free seats on a service?
I will actually departing for a local Greater Manchester station so there will already be some connections involved and wanted to get the main leg as direct. I might be tempted by a non direct service but not sure if the same methodology will apply with connections.
edit:
Well maybe this is more an avanti booking issue trainsplit is seeing plenty of seats on earlier services!
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