SailRail Halifax to Belfast NI

[itsjustmyjob]

I've just booked this trip (via Dublin - I like to take my time!).

I wanted to travel on the 'Swift' out of Holyhead and had a choice of two tickets:

a) Sailrail 'advance' at £54
b) Sailrail 'standby' at £59

When I booked this (on VT West Coast) the conditions for the advance ticket are compulsory reservations for all reservable parts of the journey but the standby has more flexibility - only the ferry needs a reservation.

I prefer the flexibility - so have always booked the standby, even though it costs £5 more.

I've got my ticket and it has a restriction code of '6J'.
According to brfares.com, 'Reservations are compulsory on all legs.'

How can that be correct? Is the wording on the page meant to imply that 'all legs' apply to the ferry part only? The whole point of the standby ticket is that it can be bought on the day of travel. No reservations on trains would normally be possible in that case.

What's happened? Is are the wording wrong? I'm a little perplexed and confused.
Advice please!

 

[Romilly]

If you look at the FAQs on the Railsail page of the Arriva Trains Wales website, it makes it clear that reservations are needed for train & ship if you buy an Advance ticket, but that reservations are needed only for the ship if you buy a Standby ticket. I agree that the wording of restriction 6J appears not to be consistent with this.

 

[Bob Ames]

Funnily enough, my last SailRail Advance had code '6I' which states, "Reservations are compulsory on the ship leg."
Sounds to me as if 6I should be the Standby and 6J for the Advance. Perhaps the ticket issuer has mixed-up the codes?

 

[CallySleeper]

This problem applies to restriction 6L in addition to 6J.

The question is, from the wording of your post it sounds like you already have your tickets. So what do they imply? Do you have train reservations and are they mandatory?

 

[itsjustmyjob]

This problem applies to restriction 6L in addition to 6J.

The question is, from the wording of your post it sounds like you already have your tickets. So what do they imply? Do you have train reservations and are they mandatory?

I've got my tickets. Reservations weren't mandatory (although I made them), and my ticket is not endorsed 'Valid with Reservations' or whatever wording they normally use when reservations are required.

Maybe I've just answered my own query.

However, 6J does seem to contradict this!

 

[najaB]

What's happened? Is are the wording wrong? I'm a little perplexed and confused.
Advice please!

Having made about 15 to 20 SailRail journeys in the last year, I can confirm that I've not once been asked for reservation coupons on the train.

 

[yorkie]

I've got my ticket and it has a restriction code of '6J'.
According to brfares.com, 'Reservations are compulsory on all legs.'

How can that be correct?

It's not.

Advice please!

Travel in accordance with the T&Cs you agreed to when you bought the ticket.

(Don't worry about contradictory 'small print' that you went out of your way to look up, that perhaps 99% of passengers would never have any idea about)

Such contradictions are not as uncommon as you might think; this thread from 4 days ago is similar: Super Off Peak on HS1?