CrossCountry weekend firsts

[Muzer]

Has anyone got recent experience of buying CrossCountry weekend firsts? My dad is planning a day trip tomorrow where he intends to use them, but I've just noticed that all reference to them has ominously disappeared off their website, and their website is no longer selling them either. The fares are still in the DB though at least according to BRFares. Just looking for some reassurance for him!

 

[Merseysider]

I was travelling Manchester to Birmingham on the weekend and asked the guard/TM if he was doing weekend first upgrades, he said yep.

There were about 5 of us in there, all upgrading, wasn’t too busy.

Would advise having card and cash available, as he wasn’t able to take card payments due to a problem of some sort with his machine.

 

[Titfield]

I was travelling Manchester to Birmingham on the weekend and asked the guard/TM if he was doing weekend first upgrades, he said yep.

There were about 5 of us in there, all upgrading, wasn’t too busy.

Would advise having card and cash available, as he wasn’t able to take card payments due to a problem of some sort with his machine.

That is at odds with what the Cross Country website states:

Please note that weekend upgrades are currently not available to purchase whilst on board. We hope to be able to reinstate this in the near future.

Coronavirus Timetable Updates | CrossCountry (crosscountrytrains.co.uk)

To me the wording "to purchase whilst onboard" suggests it could be purchased in advance but as @Muzer states the facility seems to have disappeared from the website.

 

[WesternLancer]

Ticket offices can sell them (as they are in the fares database) but that seems not commonly known, tho not for specific trains - tho I suppose in theory a ticket office could sell one to go alongside a std class ticket and then issue a seat reservation in 1st class seat.

I have done this (not asked for the reservation part of the above tho) when staff were prepared to look and try and find them. I guess as most weekend first tickets are not available to buy like that, and XC do not operate any ticket offices AFAIK, staff in ticket offices would not typically be familiar or ever / rarely get people asking for one.

Risk would be buying one and then not being allowed to use the 1st class due to some issue related to @Titfield 's post and having to seek a refund.

 

[Titfield]

How do you find out how much one is? Coincidentally I am travelling on Cross Country on the 22nd of January.

 

[WesternLancer]

How do you find out how much one is? Coincidentally I am travelling on Cross Country on the 22nd of January.

Probably not on the XC website!

But - stick the to and from in BRfares.com and they are listed on relevant flows (I think the only TOCs w/end 1st fares that are, tho same approach works for Avanti Std Premium but in that case listed under Std Class)

eg Derby to Brum:

Look up fares for any train journey in Britain

Full details of all British rail Single, Return & Season tickets and Travelcards. Built-in Season Ticket Calculator.

www.brfares.com

listed under 1st class single fares:
'IXC Weekend Upg' - in that example : £7.50

Derby - Edinburgh listed at £20 (or possibly £25 as two entries for reasons I am unsure of).

 

[Haywain]

Probably not on the XC website!

But - stick the to and from in BRfares.com and they are listed on relevant flows (I think the only TOCs w/end 1st fares that are, tho same approach works for Avanti Std Premium but in that case listed under Std Class)

eg Derby to Brum:

Look up fares for any train journey in Britain

Full details of all British rail Single, Return & Season tickets and Travelcards. Built-in Season Ticket Calculator.

www.brfares.com

listed under 1st class single fares:
'IXC Weekend Upg' - in that example : £7.50

Derby - Edinburgh listed at £20 (or possibly £25 as two entries for reasons I am unsure of).

A fare being listed on BRFares doesn't necessarily mean it is available to purchase.

 

[janb]

Ticket offices can sell them (as they are in the fares database) but that seems not commonly known, tho not for specific trains

Actually the instructions in the internal Knowledgebase are precisely the opposite, namely,

When issued in advance, Weekend First must include a free reserved seat.

 

[Bungle965]

Very similar to VTWC where, theoretically ticket offices could sell them however for one reason or another hardly even did.

I was once told it almost an unofficial rule as to not grab the TM's commission, nevertheless I paid no attention to that.

Standard Premium is unfortunately out of our hands as that's not available on the current TIS, neither is it available to be fulfilled by anyone with a CCST (Credit Card Sized Ticket) printer (RPI's for instance) it's solely PRT (Paper Roll Ticket) only.

 

[Revilo]

Thanks, what’s PRT?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Very similar to VTWC where, theoretically ticket offices could sell them however for one reason or another hardly even did.

I was once told it almost an unofficial rule as to not grab the TM's commission, nevertheless I paid no attention to that.

Standard Premium is unfortunately out of our hands as that's not available on the current TIS, neither is it available to be fulfilled by anyone with a CCST printer (RPI's for instance) it's solely PRT only.

There was no real reason to want to buy one at a ticket office, as what if there was no seat available? I did buy them online with a reservation a few times, though.

Thanks, what’s PRT?

Paper Roll Ticket, otherwise known on here as "bog roll".

 

[Bungle965]

There was no real reason to want to buy one at a ticket office, as what if there was no seat available? I did buy them online with a reservation a few times, though.

As far as I can recall you didn't have to do it on the day of travel, you had the ability to reserve the customer a seat in conjunction with weekend upgrade ahead of travel.

 

[WesternLancer]

A fare being listed on BRFares doesn't necessarily mean it is available to purchase.

well, fair enough, but leicester ticket office sold me one (without a reservation ref the other point raised).

 

[Haywain]

well, fair enough, but leicester ticket office sold me one (without a reservation ref the other point raised).

Ticket offices have been known to sell tickets incorrectly so that can't be taken as proving anything.

 

[WesternLancer]

Ticket offices have been known to sell tickets incorrectly so that can't be taken as proving anything.

indeed, but I suppose in that case it prooved that the ticket machine could generate the w/e 1st ticket, and would take my money.

 

[yorkie]

I had no problem upgrading today

 

[Ash Bridge]

My apologies if this has already been mentioned elsewhere but I couldn’t see it. So having just attempted a mock booking to purchase an off-peak return ticket on the XC website from Stockport- Exeter St Davids, for a Saturday journey during March, it appears that the facility to purchase a 1st class weekend upgrade has now been reinstated.