Caledonian sleeper seat reservation

[156421]

If I have an anytime/off peak ticket and wish to travel a portion of it using the Caledonian Sleeper (let's say for argument's sake Inverkeithing to Crewe) do I need to email them to ask for a seat reservation or is there some other way? I vaguely recall a workaround involving, of all operators, GWR website which enabled booking a seat on the Caledonian Sleeper?

 

[Haywain]

Booking direct is probably best, as they will take your contact details so they can let you know if it gets cancelled. If you can reserve through GWR your contact details probably won't be taken.

 

[SargeNpton]

Booking direct is probably best, as they will take your contact details so they can let you know if it gets cancelled. If you can reserve through GWR your contact details probably won't be taken.

Or if the train is diverted via the East Coast due to engineering works and doesn't call at Crewe.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Via GWR's site does work though. That said it has no seat selector so you may want to email them so you can e.g. ask for a single seat if possible. You could keep reserving via GWR until you got one, but given the low availability blocking a load of the seats that way (you can't cancel them) would be grossly antisocial. Unlike purchasing a ticket there's not a basket stage where you can keep adding until you get what you want then remove the bad ones.

 

[CyrusWuff]

If I have an anytime/off peak ticket and wish to travel a portion of it using the Caledonian Sleeper (let's say for argument's sake Inverkeithing to Crewe) do I need to email them to ask for a seat reservation or is there some other way? I vaguely recall a workaround involving, of all operators, GWR website which enabled booking a seat on the Caledonian Sleeper?

A Ticket Office should be able to do that for you. The only thing that may catch them out is the need to capture your contact details.

 

[Mag_seven]

Or if the train is diverted via the East Coast due to engineering works and doesn't call at Crewe.

Only if its an unscheduled diversion - they will not sell you a seat reservation to Crewe if it's a scheduled diversion.

 

[156421]

Via GWR's site does work though. That said it has no seat selector so you may want to email them so you can e.g. ask for a single seat if possible. You could keep reserving via GWR until you got one, but given the low availability blocking a load of the seats that way (you can't cancel them) would be grossly antisocial. Unlike purchasing a ticket there's not a basket stage where you can keep adding until you get what you want then remove the bad ones.

Seems like this system is just waiting for a "rogue user" to book out an entire train. It's similar to the XC seat reservation during covid when they DEMANDED that all passengers must have a seat reservation and set up a text number and there was a defined syntax something like "hh:mm TLA-TLA" where hh:mm is the scheduled departure time and TLA denotes the start and end stations of the XC journey, and a seat reservation was granted with no questions asked; but nothing was to stop a nefarious actor from sending hundreds of textual messages thus booking out an entire train. Booking the entire train from say Tamworth to Birmingham New Street would mean no reservations available from Edinburgh to Plymouth and such. However in the case of Caledonian Sleeper this would probably mean thousands of pounds of lost revenue rather than relatively incosequential loss of passengers during covid.

 

[MrJeeves]

Seems like this system is just waiting for a "rogue user" to book out an entire train.

I will say I have inadvertently turned up to the sleeper and realised I've booked 4 seat reservations for this leg for 2 people...

Albeit, that ended up being good as it meant an passenger could board with no reservation since there was extra space

 

[156421]

I will say I have inadvertently turned up to the sleeper and realised I've booked 4 seat reservations for this leg for 2 people...

Albeit, that ended up being good as it meant an passenger could board with no reservation since there was extra space

Where do they allow passengers to board without a reservation?

 

[MrJeeves]

Where do they allow passengers to board without a reservation?

This was at Euston, on the sleeper to Glasgow. They asked the staff nicely if they could join the service even though they had no reservation, and the staff said they had no issue, provided there were free seats before departure.

I spoke up (they had just boarded the service and were waiting in the seated carriage to see which seats were remaining at departure) and said I had two extra seat reservations if they needed them.