LNER seat reservations

[38Cto15E]

Hello Members, I have just booked my first LNER Azuma journey from Newark Northgate-Aberdeen and back in First Class, changing at Newcastle outbound and Edinburgh on the return.
It is in two weeks time and the seat offering wasn't great, currently with LNER is it possible to move to another seat which has already served it's purpose and is not reserved for the remainder of my journey or has not been taken up in the first place?

I wouldn't normally ask this, but with the LNER ( Covid and must have a reserved seat policy) presumably all seats are either reserved or blanked off.
TIA

 

[Bletchleyite]

LNER is now back to normal with reservations other than the timetable data, so yes, you can move into a spare seat if you wish, give or take that technically the Advance T&Cs require you (and long have done) to sit in the booked seat so they can ask you to if they wish, very rare though.

 

[route101]

If the seat reservation displays are on, should make it easier to move seat. Never been told to sit in your reserved seat from a guard.

If the seat reservation displays are on, should make it easier to move seat. Never been told to sit in your reserved seat from a guard.

 

[Farang]

Yes, you can do this. We recently travelled first class with LNER. Our reserved seats were a long way apart (our cock up when booking online), LNER couldn't change them either online or over the phone so I sat in a more convenient seat which had a green light and nothing was said when our tickets were checked.

 

[thejuggler]

The last two LNER services I took the seats were booked, but there was a units swap and we had a 2x5 set not the 9 car the seats were booked in.

 

[800001]

Who did you book with? On lner you can choose your own seat with there seat selection tool.

You can also reserve seats om there app, without the need to purchase a ticket. I would suggest doing this.

 

[yorkie]

You should be able to choose seats with Trainsplit or LNER, however as reported in other threads lately there has been an issue with the reservation system and some people have found this option unavailable.

It's also unavailable if it's an Advance fare and the last one at that price point/tier.

The reservation systems are generally on these days; I did go up to Aberdeen last week and it was off until Newcastle when it was turned on. All other recent trains have had the system on throughout.

Changing at Newcastle is a wise move; you will get more food offerings (if you want them!). You can of course force the change point on Trainsplit but not on LNER's own website.

 

[800001]

You should be able to choose seats with Trainsplit or LNER, however as reported in other threads lately there has been an issue with the reservation system and some people have found this option unavailable.

It's also unavailable if it's an Advance fare and the last one at that price point/tier.

The reservation systems are generally on these days; I did go up to Aberdeen last week and it was off until Newcastle when it was turned on. All other recent trains have had the system on throughout.

Changing at Newcastle is a wise move; you will get more food offerings (if you want them!). You can of course force the change point on Trainsplit but not on LNER's own website.

Reservation lights should now be should on all trains.

Green, available for the whole journey.
Amber will now show 'May be reserved later'.

 

[yorkie]

Reservation lights should now be should on all trains.

Green, available for the whole journey.
Amber will now show 'May be reserved later'.

It wasn't on the 1000 KGX to ABD until NCL a week ago today. Other than that, it's been several weeks since I last noticed it wasn't.

 

[38Cto15E]

Thank you for all your help, it is an Advance so perhaps that it is why not much availability is showing. I did book on the LNER web site.
Thanks to BM's input I feel a lot happier now.

 

[Tomo]

Does LNERs booking system tell you if your window seat actually has a window?

 

[306024]

Does LNERs booking system tell you if your window seat actually has a window?

Doubt it. Just got off a LNER service from York and one poor lady (and small child) was given the seat in 1st right at the end that doesn't have a window, despite amber lights in most of the coach. Kind catering crew moved her to a better seat.

 

[APT618S]

Reservation lights should now be should on all trains.

Green, available for the whole journey.
Amber will now show 'May be reserved later'.

Not working on 1N33 2000 KGX SUN (Kings Cross - Sunderland). Just boarded at York.

 

[800001]

Not working on 1N33 2000 KGX SUN (Kings Cross - Sunderland). Just boarded at York.

So there's a fault with train or someone has forgotten to load them in.
Not the end of the world

 

[deep south]

On Sunday while waiting for our GC service at KGX, there were a number of LNER services announced as having no seat reservations...

 

[El Blanco]

We travelled on LNER (first) a few weekends ago. Seat reservations were all over the place. On two out of three legs our seats were double booked. On all three legs the digital reservation signs were not working.

The train manager told us both times that there are different reservation systems depending on whether you book via LNER or Trainline. And that these systems can’t talk to each other hence the double bookings. I was told to submit a claim via the Seat Guarantee scheme.

 

[_toommm_]

We travelled on LNER (first) a few weekends ago. Seat reservations were all over the place. On two out of three legs our seats were double booked. On all three legs the digital reservation signs were not working.

The train manager told us both times that there are different reservation systems depending on whether you book via LNER or Trainline. And that these systems can’t talk to each other hence the double bookings. I was told to submit a claim via the Seat Guarantee scheme.

They're both linked to the National Reservation System (or whatever it's called these days) so there should be next to no duplicate seat bookings. Often what looks like a duplicate seat booking is one passenger changing their seat and forgetting, instead just referring to their ticket; or it's a cae of someone being on the wrong train and wrongly trying to claim that seat regardless.

 

[El Blanco]

I was just repeating what the Train Manager said when both our parties raised it with them. I’ll see what comes back via the claim through the Seat Guarantee scheme.

 

[YorksLad12]

The train manager told us both times that there are different reservation systems depending on whether you book via LNER or Trainline. And that these systems can’t talk to each other hence the double bookings. I was told to submit a claim via the Seat Guarantee scheme.

That does sound like tosh (TM, not you). If the systems can't talk to each other then a fair proportion of a busy train with reserved seating would be double booked, and people would notice.

They're both linked to the National Reservation System (or whatever it's called these days) so there should be next to no duplicate seat bookings. Often what looks like a duplicate seat booking is one passenger changing their seat and forgetting, instead just referring to their ticket; or it's a cae of someone being on the wrong train and wrongly trying to claim that seat regardless.

I managed that once, when I caught the always-busy 1803 from London back to Leeds, only to discover that my HR colleagues had managed to book me on that service for the day before, which was the day I travelled *to* London. Fortunately we all saw the funny side of it, and I only had to stand as far as Peterborough...

 

[DanNCL]

There are a lot of unusual (and incorrect) carriage layouts appearing on the reservations for LNER at present. Some I've seen include showing coach K on a Mark 4 set as a composite coach rather than enitrely first class (definitely a Mark 4 set as the rest of the coaches matched up for one), and in one case it even offered me coach P, which of course is the DVT! Somehow doubt I'd have been allowed to sit there had I taken that reservation rather than changing it to a passenger carriage
Given that, it's hardly a surprise that reservations are going out of the window so frequently.

The reservation screens haven't been working on any of the Mark 4 sets I've been on over the last few weeks. On the 80xs it's been roughly 50/50 from as to whether they've been working or not.