First Class Declassified en route

[JaguarLover101]

I was travelling with Crosscountry from Manchester->Leamington Spa on a SF upgrade to 1st (which I've since found out was a complete waste of money and I should have just paid the £12.50 weekend first upgrade instead of £15 but I digress...), there had been several announcements that the 8 car voyager would become a 4 car at New street, and sure enough there was complete and total chaos when we got to Birmingham.

The train manager said over the PA "everyone find a seat and spread out, including in First Class" which I took to mean they were declassifiying First? Sure enough the carriage fills up just as bad as the rest of the train with all the seats taken and people standing in first. Since I was travelling on a first upgrade, am I entitled to anything for the declassification? I appreciate it was over halfway through the journey which is why I am unsure.

On a side note, when I got off the train at Leamington, I was quite surprised to see that we were still dragging the rear 4 coaches with us, with them just locked out and "Door Not in Use" displaying on the displays, I guess this could have been staff shortages as this was late on a Sunday.

 

[yorkie]

I was travelling with Crosscountry from Manchester->Leamington Spa on a SF upgrade to 1st (which I've since found out was a complete waste of money and I should have just paid the £12.50 weekend first upgrade instead of £15 but I digress...),

You can claim back the "platform fee" from Seatfrog themselves. It is an unlawful "drip feeding" charge; see previous threads. If you have several Seatfrog upgrades, I advise saving all the evidence and submitting a claim once the amount exceeeds maybe £30 or so. Best not discussed in this thread it has been discussed before and at some point I plan to create a thread dedicated to the topic

there had been several announcements that the 8 car voyager would become a 4 car at New street, and sure enough there was complete and total chaos when we got to Birmingham.

The train manager said over the PA "everyone find a seat and spread out, including in First Class" which I took to mean they were declassifiying First? Sure enough the carriage fills up just as bad as the rest of the train with all the seats taken and people standing in first. Since I was travelling on a first upgrade, am I entitled to anything for the declassification? I appreciate it was over halfway through the journey which is why I am unsure.

On a side note, when I got off the train at Leamington, I was quite surprised to see that we were still dragging the rear 4 coaches with us, with them just locked out and "Door Not in Use" displaying on the displays, I guess this could have been staff shortages as this was late on a Sunday.

You can claim back the proportional pro-rata cost for the section of journey where the train was declassified. This is claimed from XC, not Seatfrog.

 

[MrJeeves]

For what it's worth, I had a Seatfrog upgrade on CrossCountry from Winchester up to Birmingham a few weekends ago, and after Oxford it was declassified.

CrossCountry have agreed, by email, to reimburse me for the full cost of the upgrade, but they left off the platform fee which I have queried with them (and not heard back). My plan was to submit a chargeback if they do not reimburse the £6 (across the two upgrades I purchased).

 

[Haywain]

am I entitled to anything for the declassification?

Maybe, in theory. If you paid (without the Seatfrog fee) £12.50, the loss of first class facility from New Street to Leamington might be worth £2.50 and you didn't actually lose out much as you had a seat in first class. You will have to consider whether it is worth trying to make a claim - personally, I wouldn't bother.

 

[mangyiscute]

On a side note, when I got off the train at Leamington, I was quite surprised to see that we were still dragging the rear 4 coaches with us, with them just locked out and "Door Not in Use" displaying on the displays, I guess this could have been staff shortages as this was late on a Sunday.

Yeah each train needs its own train manager if it's an 8/9/10 coach voyager so there must have only been one train manager available.
Just another reason why getting cross country new trains is the most sensible option - sure they can get all the 222s when EMR get the 810s but they will also need a lot more staff.

 

[StarCrossing]

Yeah each train needs its own train manager if it's an 8/9/10 coach voyager so there must have only been one train manager available.
Just another reason why getting cross country new trains is the most sensible option - sure they can get all the 222s when EMR get the 810s but they will also need a lot more staff.

Has that changed recently? It used to be the case that the rear unit needed a train manager, but the front unit only required either a train manager or a member of catering staff (along with the driver obviously!).

 

[Haywain]

Has that changed recently? It used to be the case that the rear unit needed a train manager, but the front unit only required either a train manager or a member of catering staff (along with the driver obviously!).

Judging by what seems to happen elsewhere it's that each unit needs a safety critical staff member, so that can be the driver in the front unit and TM in the rear but you also need a customer host in the front.