No seat reservation coupon

[lm149]

Hi, I booked 2 sets of advance tickets on the crosscountry website recently and received them both yesterday. However both of them are missing the seat reservation coupon (even though the seats are written in the confirmation emails). So I have 3 coupons -the number that were isssued: one with my address, one debit card sales coupon, and one 'journey' coupon saying "Valid only with reservation (s) " at the top.
Problem is i was never sent the coupon with the specific service and seat number on it.
Phoned XC customer service and was told not to worry because the seats will be reserved..but i'm not 100% convinced because i'm worried i might be forced to buy another ticket on the train...
Hope that all makes sense, what do you think about this?
Chrs

 

[glynn80]

Hi, I booked 2 sets of advance tickets on the crosscountry website recently and received them both yesterday. However both of them are missing the seat reservation coupon (even though the seats are written in the confirmation emails). So I have 3 coupons -the number that were isssued: one with my address, one debit card sales coupon, and one 'journey' coupon saying "Valid only with reservation (s) " at the top.
Problem is i was never sent the coupon with the specific service and seat number on it.
Phoned XC customer service and was told not to worry because the seats will be reserved..but i'm not 100% convinced because i'm worried i might be forced to buy another ticket on the train...
Hope that all makes sense, what do you think about this?
Chrs

I wouldn't be convinced either, as you rightly say the ticket in question is only valid with the relevant reservations. If the reservations are not with the passenger the guard has limited options to determine which service the Advance ticket is actually valid on. I have seen on numerous occasions passengers being charged full single fares for not having the relevant reservation.

The person you spoke to at Customer Services seems to of got the wrong end of the stick, they believe you are complaining that your seat hasn't been reserved rather than you haven't got the reservation coupon for the relevant train service.

I would speak to them again and demand the coupon, if they refuse ask to speak to their immediate superior who hopefully will have a little bit more sense.

 

[lm149]

Ok, i'll call them back on Friday.
My hope was that it would be ok if i printed off the booking confirmation screens from their website because that shows the specific seat and service. And seeing as the 3 coupons if have received actually say 'issued as 3 coupons' its not like i lost the 4th coupon or anything. But maybe thats wishful thinking especially if i get a guard who's in a bad mood!

 

[glynn80]

Ok, i'll call them back on Friday.
My hope was that it would be ok if i printed off the booking confirmation screens from their website because that shows the specific seat and service. And seeing as the 3 coupons if have received actually say 'issued as 3 coupons' its not like i lost the 4th coupon or anything. But maybe thats wishful thinking especially if i get a guard who's in a bad mood!

What tickets exactly have you got?? And what exactly have you bought? If you want me to take a look at this you could PM me the details. The reason I say that as if it says issued as 3 coupons and you have 3 coupons I may be missing something.

 

[lm149]

Apparently i cant PM because i need to post more.
I booked an advance single on the XC website from X to Y at 10:20 for a date in February, seat C26. This has shown up fine on the booking confirmation.

I would have expected to receive 4 coupons for this journey. I only received 3: one "not valid for travel" showing the delivery address, one "debit card sales voucher", and one coupon saying "Valid only with reservation (s)" which shows that I am travelling from X to Y on the day in February. However I did not receive (and I dont think was printed) the coupon which normally says "only valid with ticket xxxxx" at the top, and shows that I would be travelling at 10:20 in coach C seat 26.

Hope that clarifies

 

[Techniquest]

Definately chase it up, as it's an Advance fare and the TM on the train will very likely ask for it. Granted, they're not always asked for but there are some very desperate grippers who will ask for it and charge you for a brand new ticket if you don't have it.

 

[TEW]

I wouldn't call asking for the reservation coupon desperate as its the only way of telling which train your Advance Ticket is valid on and if you don't have it they should charge you the full fare.

 

[Techniquest]

Well most TMs don't ask for it, so I get the scent of desperate when they start asking people for reservation tickets.

 

[Pumbaa]

Definately chase it up, as it's an Advance fare and the TM on the train will very likely ask for it. Granted, they're not always asked for but there are some very desperate grippers who will ask for it and charge you for a brand new ticket if you don't have it.

AKA most NXECs! Miserable bunch...

 

[Techniquest]

It is why I liked those airline-style tickets, they had your service, time, seat and everything on it, none of this fuss over having lots of tickets.

 

[Pumbaa]

I hated them - too big, no wallets for them and they looked like airline tickets, not train tickets!

 

[Techniquest]

True, but at least all the relevant information was in one place!

 

[ashworth]

Those airline style tickets were much better if you were travelling by an unusual route because they had all your train times printed on them even for unreserved journeys.

There are still a few very cheap journeys that are available due to fare anomalies which are obvious mistakes on the computerised system. When booking them online with the airline style tickets you then have proof that this was booked as a valid route and fare!

Are there any TOC websites that still issue the airline style tickets with all this detail?

 

[yorkie]

Does it say "Issued as 02 Coupons" in the top right?

 

[lm149]

Hi, it says "Coupons: 003" so evidently the 4th which would have the seat number/specific journey time on it hasn't even been printed even though I reserved one..

 

[yorkie]

So in the top right corner of the ticket it says "Issued as 01 Coupons"?

And it says 3 coupons on the receipt? (Bad wording if so, the receipt and address label should not count as "coupons"!)

If the ticket says issued as 01 coupons then that proves that there is no additional coupon for you to have lost, thus proving it's not your problem. It's an internal railway matter, and they can't charge you for it.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

It sounds to me like they didn't print it.

When you book it at a train station it will say 2 coupons (for a single ticket), one for the ticket, one for the reservation, even if you buy two tickets, you will have two sets of '2 coupons', the VAT Receipt and C/C Receipt do not count (I believe it is to make sure you have the correct number of tickets). This being the case I think the VAT and C/C receipts both count as 'coupons' for 'online' bookings so that they make sure you get the right number of tickets!

You should definately try to get a new copy of that coupon because without it your ticket is not actually valid and a fussy TM that got out of the wrong side of the bed will not be interested in what the sales dept. did or didn't do.

If they will not 're-print' the coupon for you (ideally get the rejection in written form), take a printed copy of your confirmation and all three 'coupons' with you. If you get charged extra (you shouldn't but you never know) you should pay the TM (argueing about it could get you in hot water) and get a receipt (and, if you can, the TMs name - its not his/her fault, but it might help identify that you were on the right train, etc.) and complain to the TOC, telling them the whole story, you should get your money back without any further questions.

I would probably normally say argue your case on board, but I've heard about, and seen, some pretty shocking 'Customer Service' on the trains of a few TOCs recently.

 

[yorkie]

I saw another example of this today. Where it normally says "Issued as 02 coupons" (or 03, 04, whatever) on the ticket, it was blank. There were 3 coupons and one of them was the debit card receipt, one was the collection receipt, and one was the ticket. No reservation coupon was present.

NXEC ticket office issued a replacement "coupon" on a NXEC excess pad with no fuss.

lm149 - any chance you can scan the ticket in please? I'd be interested to see if it's identical to the one I saw today (which I believe will be scanned in and uploaded here in due course!)

 

[lm149]

yorkie, yes, it is identical - i compared it with a past ticket and it is blank where it should say "issued as 02 coupons".
Showed it to an XC train manager on my journey back to uni, along with the booking confirmation I'd printed, and she said that would be fine because the references on the ticket and the print-out matched.
I trust her more than the ticket sales people who eventually (3rd phone call!) told me to send back the tickets for re-issue, after telling me different things previously!

 

[John_158]

To be on the safe side you could go down to a Railway Station and Book Some more seats Free Of Charge.

 

[Max]

To be on the safe side you could go down to a Railway Station and Book Some more seats Free Of Charge.

Nope, they don't allow you do this with advance tickets if a seat has already been booked. I've tried before and they said I would have to pay an admin fee. Madness really!

And to be honest, the issue here is that an advance ticket needs a reservation, not so much to show the seat, but more to show the service booked on.

 

[yorkie]

To be on the safe side you could go down to a Railway Station and Book Some more seats Free Of Charge.

Please stop posting duff advice.

Can I request that you please do not post in this section unless you are posting a new topic for yourself requesting advice or you are absolutely certain the advice is sound. This is because you have posted poor advice on several occasions now.

A station should issue a compulsory reservation free of charge to go with the ticket, and this was done at York by NXEC, but that's not the same as "booking more seats free of charge", at the very least your advice can be described as ambiguous and it has already been mentioned that this was done, so why post?

 

[glynn80]

Please stop posting duff advice.

Can I request that you please do not post in this section unless you are posting a new topic for yourself requesting advice or you are absolutely certain the advice is sound. This is because you have posted poor advice on several occasions now.

Seconded, it is starting to become an issue, where nearly all advice/information posted by yourself is flawed.

 

[Trains06]

Those airline style tickets were much better if you were travelling by an unusual route because they had all your train times printed on them even for unreserved journeys.

There are still a few very cheap journeys that are available due to fare anomalies which are obvious mistakes on the computerised system. When booking them online with the airline style tickets you then have proof that this was booked as a valid route and fare!

Are there any TOC websites that still issue the airline style tickets with all this detail?

I dont know if there website does, But I think it does - The phone does!

Virgin.

 

[voyagerdude220]

Please stop posting duff advice.

This is because you have posted poor advice on several occasions now.

I personally would have suggested to hire a magic floating carpet, or a teleporter for the day, as you'd get a more succesful outcome. :roll:

 

[ashworth]

I dont know if there website does, But I think it does - The phone does!

Virgin.

Can anyone confirm whether Virgin do issue airline style tickets when booking online from their website?
If they do, I may consider swithcing from using the Nat Ex East Coast or EMT websites for booking some more obscure journeys!

 

[Bayum]

This happened when I booked my friends train seats to Cornwall...

We were with XC though, and I dont think there was a single ticket check so I can't say anything - but we got the tickets and reservations at the Station just before we travelled, and he only got 2 ticket things and it said 2 out of 3... 5 minutes later another hadn't appeared so we just left

 

[Pumbaa]

Can anyone confirm whether Virgin do issue airline style tickets when booking online from their website?
If they do, I may consider swithcing from using the Nat Ex East Coast or EMT websites for booking some more obscure journeys!

Yup - Virgin issue Airline tickets. NXEC and EMT use normal ticket stock. I use NXEC website as I think it's the nicest one to use.

 

[ashworth]

Thanks for that info.
Yes, I usually use NXEC as I also think it is the best to use.
However, the airline style tickets are useful for some AP tickets using a roundabout route that involve a number of changes of train and some unreserved portions of the route. Just in case something goes wrong you have all your details of connections as proof that you are allowed on that route and service.

There are also a few very cheap Day Return fares avilable by rather strange, long routes, where it could be useful to book one of these tickets oline in advance to save any questions on the day of travel.

 

[yorkie]

This happened when I booked my friends train seats to Cornwall...

We were with XC though, and I dont think there was a single ticket check so I can't say anything - but we got the tickets and reservations at the Station just before we travelled, and he only got 2 ticket things and it said 2 out of 3... 5 minutes later another hadn't appeared so we just left

Interesting. Any chance you can scan these in so I can see if it's the same issue?