I haven’t used the ECML much in the last 2 years because of Covid and before that always aimed for a 225 and a seat in the centre of a carriage. Ideally K29/31.
I find it bumpy wherever you sit but perhaps i look out for it. Other passengers may not notice it as much.
Different menus that LNER offer. https://www.lner.co.uk/the-east-coast-experience/first-class/menu/
LNER, along with various other TOCs had, pre-pandemic, made services available to book up to six months before departure. During the pandemic that got axed as in some cases they were barely able to confirm timetables six weeks before departure (sometimes even less). But LNER have been getting back to making APs available around six months before departure in recent months. Usually weekends and bank holidays don't go on sale until the more traditional 12 week window but even they will go on sale further in advance if there's no engineering work planned.
Hard to say but I would expect availability to be much more restricted (at least at the lower price points) than in previous years by simple virtue of their being far fewer first class seats (see post 7,397 in this thread).
Considering dish doesn't include a proper breakfast (just the bacon roll, porridge, etc) I'd hope that some of the dine services will be morning trains with a proper breakfast!
Says it returns in the Dine menu on the website.
So it's not going to be an every train then?
Honestly I’m not sure how the menus are going to work, it seems a bit faffy for no real reason.
This bit at the top really sounds like they will be running them at the same time.
There will be different menus depending on the trains varying between Deli, Dish, and Dine (when released later in the month) so there will always be an offering onboard
I got two sandwich runs and 5 beers between London and Edinburgh over the weekend. Probably more luck of the draw with the crews, and the fact that it was a very empty train, but definitely felt more pleasant than previous experiences.
I think that's just "2 left at that price point" rather than only 2 cheap advances left altogether. There might only be a couple of the cheapest ones of each price point on the train, particularly if they have added in a much cheaper price point just so that they can say "from £x" in adverts.
Probably just trying to see what matters the most to people when choosing to go standard or first class. Wouldn't be worried.
I’d be a little more wary. The last time they did a similar survey they used it to justify the removal of the first class quiet coach as it apparently came “last” in the reasons people said they travelled in first rather than standard.
They surveyed me on whether I'd be excited to see a new range of red crockery. I'd be surprised if more than 10% of the ideas ever make it off the drawing board
Was this under Virgin by any chance? Surveying about red cutlery really sounds like a Virgin-esque thing to do.
First class is quieter anyway, and there is a quiet coach in Standard, so it probably makes sense that for most people its presence in First is not important.
This was last year. I thought it was a bit jarring tbh, and went to some lengths to fully express both my distaste at the colour-scheme they were proposing, and just how very strongly I thought that garish new crockery wasn't the best investment at this stage. It seemed like a really odd question to be asking anyway, since they were barely using any crockery at the time.
That is a bit jarring… maybe the team behind the surveys needed something to do?
Well you could see the results of the poll and about 65% said they would continue to travel First Class anyway even without complimentary food and drink...
Usually, but I've experienced a carriage of people going to London for the football in First Class.
