Guide to booking cycles on trains

[SaveECRewards]

As VTEC have announced that their new booking engine is planned to launch tomorrow and it won't support cycle reservations from launch I've put together a quick guide for anyone used to using the VTEC website to book cycle reservations.

The main point is to show them to another WebTIS site so they can carry on as normal.

The target audience is anyone on social media who used to book their bikes through VTEC and now need to know the options.

Article: http://saveecrewards.co.uk/cycling/bike-reservation-online

What surprised me is that ScotRail supports cycle reservations. They're based on Trainline but Trainline doesn't offer this on their own site. I've added them to the list for completeness.

Any omissions, suggestions, outright errors please let me know.

(BTW if you're wondering about the image in the linked article have a look at the VTEC Facebook banner)

 

[Shimbleshanks]

Worth pointing out that you can make cycle reservations at the same time as buying tickets on Redspottedhandky.com, though they do charge a £1 booking fee.

In fact I used the site to make a cycle reservation for a return VTEC journey from King's Cross to Darlington last week. Which didn't stop the train manager from trying to prevent me from boarding the 19.35 HST departure from Darlington on the grounds that other cyclists (at least some of whom who presumably HADN'T made reservations) had taken all the spaces.

Only intervention by the helpful platform staff at Darlington, who persuaded him to open up the power car space, saved the day...

 

[jopsuk]

Thank you. It's really annoying that they removed the functionality.

 

[SaveECRewards]

Thank you. It's really annoying that they removed the functionality.

If you're a VTEC customer can you please feed back your dissatisfaction:
https://www.virgintrainseastcoast.c...plaint/ticket-buying-or-facilities-complaint/

Sometimes I think VTEC are digging their own grave. The new site is close to completion so a month or so longer would have done it, but launching now and removing features we've had since 2007 is just going to annoy people.

Not to mention the email I got from VTEC mentioned the greatness of Nectar under the bit about no cycle reservations.

 

[SaveECRewards]

Worth pointing out that you can make cycle reservations at the same time as buying tickets on Redspottedhandky.com, though they do charge a £1 booking fee.

In fact I used the site to make a cycle reservation for a return VTEC journey from King's Cross to Darlington last week. Which didn't stop the train manager from trying to prevent me from boarding the 19.35 HST departure from Darlington on the grounds that other cyclists (at least some of whom who presumably HADN'T made reservations) had taken all the spaces.

Only intervention by the helpful platform staff at Darlington, who persuaded him to open up the power car space, saved the day...

Redspottedhanky is a good one to mention, being owned by Atos they're not going to change from WebTIS anytime soon and they have the alternative interface some may prefer.

If they still have the deal with Clubcard that's another benefit

BTW VTEC shut down their WebTIS about 11pm

 

[SaveECRewards]

I've updated the cycling article with the feedback suggested.

Then I decided a more general one was worthwhile when it was pointed out XC's no change fees apply to all advances booked on their site.

So here's the general article, feedback welcome: http://saveecrewards.co.uk/review/where-book-train-travel-online

Some interesting things I've found:
- Chiltern sells VTEC catering vouchers in there webtis instance. It's possibly not intentional as they've not updated the string to reflect the new franchise (it says NXEC on the site!)
- With VTWC (who's recently halved the miles earned on bookings) you get an additional mile per pound if you follow the link to Virgin Trains from the Virgin Atlantic shopping portal. It's a bit of hassle to bring the earnings up to the old level of 2 points/£ but if you collect miles on VTWC it's worth noting
- I've just realised I forgot to cover carnets in the guide - specifically VTEC ones as this guide is to help people who are missing the functionality that VTEC used to provide. The FirstGroup webtis offers VTEC carnets, the Chiltern one doesn't.