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Seat Reservations....Argggh!!

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bigdo87

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Hi guys, I'm quite new to all this so apologies if questions like this have been answered before but this problem seems quite specific so didn't think it would have been.

I'm buying 2 advance tickets, on the same booked train, but starting from different origins and want seats together on said booked train

To clarify, we both get on booked train at its London origin, but one ticket starts back from a connecting station

One ticket is Hitchin to Barnstaple, the other is London Paddington to Barnstaple as have season ticket for first bit. We wanted seats together on the Paddington to Exeter St Davids part of the journey but have been told this is not possible :( Does anyone know if this is definitely the case or have I just been misinformed.

Thank you in advance for your kind help :)
 
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DVD

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The fact that one journey starts from a different station shouldn't affect this. I suppose the Paddington to Exeter leg may already be fully reserved, but you don't have to sit in your reserved seats, most trains have some non-reserved seating, you couldn just ignore the reservations and try to sit together in non-reserved seats.

I'm not an expert on the subject so no doubt someone will correct me if I'm wrong !
 

ainsworth74

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I would have thought that if you went to a station booking office and asked for seats together on the two tickets it should be possible to do that as long as you were buying them at the same time. If you've already got the tickets and now want to change the reservation it might be a bit more difficult (I think there will be a charge) but still possible. If worst comes to worst there is an unreserved coach on FGW HSTs (or at least the 8-car versions) but I can't remember which one it is off the top of my head.

Out of curiosity who told you this wasn't possible?
 

island

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You can normally get adjacent seats in these circumstances if booked at a station, but not normally if booked online. It depends on the clerk though, as some don't know how to do it and some might not be bothered. I am also told ScotRail telesales is very good at booking things like this.

As mentioned above, if you already have the tickets and want new reservations, strictly there is a £10 admin fee per ticket for this.
 

CC 72100

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I would have thought that if you went to a station booking office and asked for seats together on the two tickets it should be possible to do that as long as you were buying them at the same time. If you've already got the tickets and now want to change the reservation it might be a bit more difficult (I think there will be a charge) but still possible. If worst comes to worst there is an unreserved coach on FGW HSTs (or at least the 8-car versions) but I can't remember which one it is off the top of my head.

Out of curiosity who told you this wasn't possible?

FGW say there is a £5 charge for each reservation made after purchase. Whether it is applied or not in practice I am not to sure of, although doing an FGW reservation at an SWT ticket office was free when I did it.

Coach E is left unreserved on 8 coach trains.
 

Flamingo

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It would be a really bloody-minded FGW TM who insisted on you sitting in your reserved seats (although with Advanced tickets you must be on the reserved train). I don't know any who would. And I'm known as one of the more bloody-minded ones!
 

bigdo87

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Thanks for your help with this, folks.

Out of curiosity who told you this wasn't possible?

It was a member of ticket office staff at Waterloo, I've had some incorrect info from somebody there in the past (wasn't too important, so no harm caused!) so thought I'd double check on this issue.

Apologies for my ignorance but what is the unreserved coach?
 

Flamingo

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Coach E and/or coach F in STD class (depending on formation and Cafe type) don't have reservations in them on FGW HST's.

At weekends and bank holidays, don't forget the Weekend First upgrade option, more chance of getting a table for two in 1st.
 

barrykas

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As mentioned, any Ticket Office should be able to do such a booking for you, providing the same ticket types apply for both journeys. It just takes a little bit of tinkering in Journey Planner (formerly RJIS) and creating a "Manual" reservation on their ticket machine when issuing the tickets.

Even where the same ticket types don't apply, it should still be possible, but it adds extra time because you need to reserve the seats with one ticket type to make sure you can get two together, then cancel them and manually request the seats when making the reservations for each ticket separately...during which time another retailer may have reserved them out from under you, meaning you have to start again...

Cheers,

Barry
 
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