Manchester-London this weekend: no bookable tickets

[TheManOnThe172]

Trying to book Manchester-London: Out Sat 21, back Sun 22. Trainsplit has "Not Available" against all of the direct trains, and I am offered no trains at all when starting to try and make a seat reservation via GWR (in contrast to normal all-seats-gone experience of being allowed to select a train, asked preferences, and only then told there are no reservations available).

Via Sheffield is not clever because of replacement buses. There are some journeys possible via Oxford but clearly a lot slower than direct trains - it would be maddening to book that route if direct tickets are going to become available between now and the weekend.

Does the blanket "not available" response point to reservations not yet having opened? Is there any way to find out when (if ever) they might open? Could one book a flexible ticket, without a reservation, from a ticket office and take one's chance for an unreserved seat? Or would one risk being refused sale of the ticket, or turned away at the departure station without a reservation?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Does the blanket "not available" response point to reservations not yet having opened?

Yes.

Is there any way to find out when (if ever) they might open?

There is a page on the Avanti site saying when tickets are released, I can't find it but someone else may have the link.

Could one book a flexible ticket, without a reservation, from a ticket office and take one's chance for an unreserved seat? Or would one risk being refused sale of the ticket, or turned away at the departure station without a reservation?

You won't be turned away without a reservation other than possibly from Glasgow if it's utterly heaving. Booking offices and non-planner TVMs should be able to sell Off Peak Returns.

 

[jfollows]

https://www.avantiwestcoast.co.uk/travel-information/plan-your-journey/timetables has some information but not what the OP wants yet; it gives a link to sign up for alerts when tickets become available though.

 

[TheManOnThe172]

Tickets not yet on sale, three days ahead: what a way to run a railway!

Many thanks for the advice

 

[Kite159]

Remember there is an option of the LNR+TfW only offpeak return which is cheaper than the Any permitted offpeak return presuming when Avanti does release tickets they cost a lot

 

[Bletchleyite]

Remember there is an option of the LNR+TfW only offpeak return which is cheaper than the Any permitted offpeak return presuming when Avanti does release tickets they cost a lot

You at least know what an off peak return will be.

 

[Trackman]

Tickets not yet on sale, three days ahead: what a way to run a railway!

Many thanks for the advice

I noticed this too for a similar journey for Saturday.
I checked on national rail, it said the release date was today for Saturday.
Checked on Avanti's website greyed out.
Checked on Trainline for the hell of it, there are a couple of advances in the evening for Saturday but the rest are sold out.
Not sure what is going on, a glitch, tickets not released today (how can they sell out so fast as the release date was today)?
Strange thing is for Sunday (tickets are released tomorrow) it's showing as either 1. Sold out or 2. Tickets available soon.

With my situation on this, I cannot commit myself to be somewhere on Saturday which is a real pain and I'm not going around the houses to get there.
I'll see what happens later or at worse first thing in the morning.

 

[Bletchleyite]

You can commit to being somewhere on Saturday. You'll be able to buy an Off Peak Return on the day.

It's utterly stupid, of course.

 

[paul1609]

BA have flights around £80 to Heathrow on Sat morning, but are expensive on the return.
Id fly down and get flixbus back (choice of departures from £13).

 

[Bletchleyite]

BA have flights around £80 to Heathrow on Sat morning, but are expensive on the return.
Id fly down and get flixbus back (choice of departures from £13).

Seriously, just buy an off peak return on Saturday. They will be available. The same thing happened last weekend.

 

[WizCastro197]

BA have flights around £80 to Heathrow on Sat morning, but are expensive on the return.
Id fly down and get flixbus back (choice of departures from £13).

Why not get Flixbus both ways, if you are using it on the return anyway?

 

[Merseysider]

Why not get Flixbus both ways if you are doing it on the way back anyway?

Their coaches are some of the most cramped out there. Many vehicles have no armrests, working plug sockets or footrests.

 

[Watershed]

Trying to book Manchester-London: Out Sat 21, back Sun 22. Trainsplit has "Not Available" against all of the direct trains, and I am offered no trains at all when starting to try and make a seat reservation via GWR (in contrast to normal all-seats-gone experience of being allowed to select a train, asked preferences, and only then told there are no reservations available).

Via Sheffield is not clever because of replacement buses. There are some journeys possible via Oxford but clearly a lot slower than direct trains - it would be maddening to book that route if direct tickets are going to become available between now and the weekend.

Does the blanket "not available" response point to reservations not yet having opened? Is there any way to find out when (if ever) they might open? Could one book a flexible ticket, without a reservation, from a ticket office and take one's chance for an unreserved seat? Or would one risk being refused sale of the ticket, or turned away at the departure station without a reservation?

You can easily buy a ticket now without a reservation by using one of the OnTrack Retail sites (as used by GTR's Southern, Thameslink and Great Northern brands as well as Southeastern), searching for a future date where reservations are available and then saving the journey as a 'favourite'. Journeys which have been saved as 'favourite' can be booked for any selected date without having to search for itineraries. This avoids the obstacle of Avanti not yet having released reservations, whilst having (falsely) marked their trains as compulsory in the timetable data.

Entering via points which mean that the suggested itineraries avoid the use of Avanti services (e.g. via Atherstone) should also get you results and allow you to buy your ticket through another retailer, if you prefer. All this being said, I would note that it's likely that cheaper Advance tickets will be released once reservations are opened; obviously, if you prefer the flexibility of an Off-Peak Return, this is a moot point, but combining an Advance in one direction with an Off-Peak Single in the other may still be cheaper.

Another alternative would be to buy one of the exceptionally cheap "WMR/LNR/TFW ONLY" routed tickets. The Off-Peak Return, which has no time restrictions at weekends, costs just £46.70. The Super Off-Peak Return, which isn't valid to depart Manchester on the Saturday before 10:30 (or between 16:00-19:00) but has no Sunday time restrictions, costs even less at £36.30.

In the southbound direction on the Saturday, the official journey time when using these operators is around 4 hours - but you should easily make the 5 minute connection at Crewe onto the Euston service an hour earlier thus meaning the journey time is only 3 hours, which isn't hugely longer than the time taken by the direct Avanti services.

In the northbound direction on the Sunday, unfortunately a combination of engineering works means that sticking to LNR and TfW is a very slow option; it would involve a stopper to Birmingham via Northampton, a train to Crewe and then a TfW replacement bus to Manchester. Using Northern from Crewe or Stoke is slightly more feasible option and wouldn't cost much extra (there are currently £5 Advances on all the Crewe-Manchester stoppers that day). Avanti are also being diverted via Birmingham as a result of these engineering works, so their journey times are extended to over 3 hours - it will be a slow journey no matter how you do it.

 

[paul1609]

Why not get Flixbus both ways, if you are using it on the return anyway?

Id fly on the southbound leg for the shorter journey time giving you a full day in London and get the much cheaper coach home.
All the flixbuses Ive been on have been fine by the way.

 

[duncanp]

I was looking at going from Birmingham to London on a day trip this Saturday, which is in three days time.

It is utterly pathetic that you cannot book a return journey on Avanti for this date.

I know there are engineering works for this Saturday which will affect all services to and from Euston, but surely the timetable must be finalised by now.

It looks as if Avanti have just given up on providing any kind of service at weekends, and they barely manage to run a reliable service during the week.

 

[Hardcastle]

The great Avanti rip off while other tocs do offers & advances Avanti charge full fares on what has now become the Worst Coast mainline.

 

[Haywain]

I'm also due to be travelling on the WCML on Saturday. It is ridiculous that 60 hours out it still isn't possible to make firm plans.

 

[Stuwhu]

I think the tickets are now on sale

 

[Bletchleyite]

It looks as if Avanti have just given up on providing any kind of service at weekends, and they barely manage to run a reliable service during the week.

There was a reasonable service last Sunday, it just took them a while to admit what they were running! One Scottish cancellation that I saw.

 

[Kite159]

I think the tickets are now on sale

Indeed they are, I had an email for the Sunday around 17:15 as I needed tickets to get from Glasgow to Manchester

 

[voyagerdude220]

Strangely it seems like Avanti has already released seat reservations for the weekend of Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th February, despite earlier weekends not being released yet.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Strangely it seems like Avanti has already released seat reservations for the weekend of Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th February, despite earlier weekends not being released yet.

Presumably no engineering work that weekend.