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Forcing Mixing Deck to give a different route on return

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Brucey

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I'm trying to book some tickets for a Saturday using London Midland's ticket sale.

These are the trains I'd like to travel on and would like seat reservations, where possible. I'm having trouble as the return journey is by a different route to the outbound, so I can only get reservations in one direction.

Bedford - Bletchley 09:33
Bletchley - Milton Keynes Central 10:43
Milton Keynes Central - Coventry 11:13

Coventry - Nuneaton 16:42
Nuneaton - Leicester 17:23
Leicester - Bedford 18:33

Can anyone suggest a way of forcing the website to give these trains? My only other thought was don't choose an outbound train, then call Virgin's telesales to get a separate reservation for their service.
 
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Brucey

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Book outward journey and add to basket then book return journeys ( possibly split ticketing )

I'd want to do the whole journey on a single Off Peak Return (seems to be the cheapest option), so this wouldn't be possible.
 

calc7

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Try booking to Bedworth or even Nuneaton. Mixing Deck is happy to offer different routes (obviously) but adding a "via" point restricts routes offered on both portions which can be very annoying!
 

34D

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I'd want to do the whole journey on a single Off Peak Return (seems to be the cheapest option), so this wouldn't be possible.

Perhaps do no reservations online, then go into a station. Or perhaps don't bother with reservations (I never do).
 

Brucey

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Perhaps do no reservations online, then go into a station. Or perhaps don't bother with reservations (I never do).

I probably won't bother with reservations on the outbound journey. Seems a waste of time for a 29 minute journey!

I'll definitely get reservations for the return as I expect this will probably be busier and I'll be worn out by then!

Would anyone suggest having a copy of the routeing guide with me for the return journey? I know it's valid but certain staff may not feel the same.
 

headshot119

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I probably won't bother with reservations on the outbound journey. Seems a waste of time for a 29 minute journey!

I'll definitely get reservations for the return as I expect this will probably be busier and I'll be worn out by then!

Would anyone suggest having a copy of the routeing guide with me for the return journey? I know it's valid but certain staff may not feel the same.

Showing members of staff the routing guide can go either way. Fro my experience they can claim the routing guide is wrong, accuse you of making it up, or accept it.
 

MKD

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You can only get the LM SALE prices online - ie by making a booking, and reserving a specific train to get specific cheapest prices - hence I presume the OP's issue - ie not reserving and not doing it online = non options to get Sale prices.
MKD
 

Brucey

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reserving a specific train
I don't actually need to make a reservation. The ticket they are selling is just a Off Peak Return, so I can use any valid service (with the return portion being valid for 30 days).
 

MKB

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I frequently have this problem when I book Traveller tickets to Euston on Virgin's website. Because VT run so few services to Nuneaton, I sometimes need to start my outbound from Coventry on a Friday evening but want to return to Nuneaton on a Sunday evening.

I'm sometimes able to take advantage of a quirk/fault in VT's booking engine where it applies the route via/avoid only to the outbound sector. So I can ask for Crewe to Euston via Coventy to get COV-EUS outbound and EUS-NUN on the return.

I don't know whether it still does, but Deutsche Bahn's website used to allow different routings for each direction and also the ability to increase stopover times at interchange points, which was incredibtly useful. Maybe at some point they'll start selling UK tickets.
 

island

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I don't actually need to make a reservation. The ticket they are selling is just a Off Peak Return, so I can use any valid service (with the return portion being valid for 30 days).

Correct. And in fact the LM site refuses to make reservations on a Virgin service for me at the moment.
 
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