Can't change seats on Trainsplit?

[ainsworth74]

Just trying to amend some seats using Trainsplit for a journey I'm making from Redcar to Manchester in July and whilst it's happily issued seat reservations I cannot seem to amend the allocated seats to the ones I'd prefer. When I try and confirm my changes on the seat selector I'm getting a "Something went wrong" warning and the technical details say: "Received HTTP UnprocessableEntity". Screenshot below:



I've tried it on a different date (same route) and get the same error. So is it just me or is something broken at the minute?

 

[J-P_L]

I wonder if it may be something to do with the way TPE are issuing seat reservations with social distancing.

In STD only window seats can be reserved and on 185s the standard part of coach C/G is unreserved. When having a play about with trainsplit it will spit back the same error message if you try and reserve an aisle seat or one of the STD seats in C/G.

In first only the window seats coupled with an aisle seat (so 05,08,11,14,17) should be available for reservations (although 17 is a priority seat) but for some reason it won’t move any reservations at all without an error (but booking for 4 will give 05,08,11 and 14 on the same train ).

I don’t know how the reservations are set up but I’d have thought the aisle seats would have been made “unreservable” so be greyed out but it doesn’t look to be the case from a rudimentary play about.

 

[ainsworth74]

Oh I wonder if you're on to something there! It's a good working theory at any rate so thank you

 

[bearhugger]

I made a journey with TPE from Middlesbrough to Thirsk & return yesterday. The guards on both journeys made announcements encouraging passengers to sit at window seats rather than aisle seats where possible, so that seems to back up what @J-P_L is saying.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It might be COVID related, but normally if you have the last Advance in that quota level you can't change your seat, because all of the seat selectors presently work by taking a new ticket for the new seat and then returning the old one to the quota. If there isn't one there to take, it doesn't work (you can't return it first, as if you do someone might buy it and then you're stuck). This is a limitation of NRS and so applies to all vendors that do seat selection.

Hopefully son-of-NRS will fix this.

 

[ainsworth74]

It might be COVID related, but normally if you have the last Advance in that quota level you can't change your seat, because all of the seat selectors presently work by taking a new ticket for the new seat and then returning the old one to the quota. If there isn't one there to take, it doesn't work (you can't return it first, as if you do someone might buy it and then you're stuck). This is a limitation of NRS and so applies to all vendors that do seat selection.

Hopefully son-of-NRS will fix this.

Yeah I checked for that there were plenty of tickets available at the tier I was purchasing at

 

[Haywain]

Hopefully son-of-NRS will fix this.

I believe NRS has now been switched off and everything is handled by RARS2.

 

[js517]

The problem is due to the introduction of RARS. It will eventually be fixable but for now you're likely to encounter that kind of error frequently.

 

[Wallsendmag]

There is quite a large problem with RARS2 since about 1000 yesterday.

 

[alistairlees]

The problem was with connectivity to RARS2 specifically. Same effect though - many TIS and retailers had no access to Advance fares and could not make reservations. It was apparently fixed at 2000 last night.

 

[Wallsendmag]

The problem was with connectivity to RARS2 specifically. Same effect though - many TIS and retailers had no access to Advance fares and could not make reservations. It was apparently fixed at 2000 last night.

For most but not all systems

 

[alistairlees]

For most but not all systems

Ah, Worldline MTIS?

 

[Wallsendmag]

Ah, Worldline MTIS?

No our link to RDG , finally sorted half an hour ago

 

[AlterEgo]

I won't start a new thread, but I have noticed that when booking LNER, Avanti and TPE journeys recently there has been no option to amend the default seats given. Is this a new change or related somehow to the above?

 

[yorkie]

I won't start a new thread, but I have noticed that when booking LNER, Avanti and TPE journeys recently there has been no option to amend the default seats given. Is this a new change or related somehow to the above?

How many passengers are in the booking?

 

[Royston Vasey]

This happened to me with a CrossCountry reservation on Trainsplit a few weeks ago as well with exactly the same error message.

Not only had it allocated me seats I didn't want, it also allocated me different seats in different coaches for the two "legs" of the split ticket (on the same train) and I couldn't change this!

So, I thought I'd cancel the ticket and attempt the same booking again, but it gave me the same two different seats that I didn't want.

I worked around it in the end by leaving the unwanted reservation in my basket and booking the same ticket to provide a different seat reservation, and so on until it reserved one seat throughout and it was one I wanted with a window view...

In the end I had ten identical tickets totalling £600+ in my basket, only a couple of them with the same seat throughout, and only one of them a seat I was happy with! This was after several deletions of further unwanted combinations too. Then I carefully deleted the nine unsatisfactory bookings leaving only the seat I wanted, and then booked it.

It took ages but it eventually worked!

 

[Wallsendmag]

There is a problem that is linked to the current reservation configuration.

 

[AlterEgo]

How many passengers are in the booking?

Just me.

 

[Stewart2887]

Maybe, under the current restrictions, they're trying to accomodate as many legitamite travelles as possible safely, and they want you to sit where is safe and convenient for their service. If you want a particular view, take the car?

 

[AlterEgo]

Maybe, under the current restrictions, they're trying to accomodate as many legitamite travelles as possible safely, and they want you to sit where is safe and convenient for their service. If you want a particular view, take the car?

No, that isn't what's happening here.

Social distancing is not a thing on National Rail TOCs in England since 19 July. But thank you for suggesting I drive to Scotland instead of raising a query about seat reservations, it was very helpful.

 

[Stewart2887]

I've travelled from Oxford to Edinburgh many times over the last few years. Three of us, train makes no sense financially. I've tried Trainsplit, doesn't help. 10 hour drive then...

 

[harz99]

I won't start a new thread, but I have noticed that when booking LNER, Avanti and TPE journeys recently there has been no option to amend the default seats given. Is this a new change or related somehow to the above?

Same thing happening with LNER yesterday and today, it allocates me seats then when I try and amend them to something that suits us 2, it keeps saying something went wrong try again.

 

[AlterEgo]

There is a problem that is linked to the current reservation configuration.

Suspect this hints at the real answer. I also cannot change existing seats on an LNER booking (I just tried!).

 

[Haywain]

Suspect this hints at the real answer. I also cannot change existing seats on an LNER booking (I just tried!).

It’s been going on for over a week.

 

[tornado]

@Wallsendmag , just to metion that recently I booked standard class on a TPE 397 (Nova 2) and could only select seats in B C D, but not A. Got the same error as mentioned above.

 

[XAM2175]

@Wallsendmag , just to metion that recently I booked standard class on a TPE 397 (Nova 2) and could only select seats in B C D, but not A. Got the same error as mentioned above.

Coach A on a 397 is the unreserved coach, so you won't be able to select it.

 

[tornado]

oops! ok i guess just a minor correction needed to remove that one from the seat selector.

 

[ainsworth74]

oops! ok i guess just a minor correction needed to remove that one from the seat selector.

Worth noting that @Wallsendmag doesn't work for Trainsplit

 

[Haywain]

Worth noting that @Wallsendmag doesn't work for Trainsplit

Or TPE.