Unnecessary reservation tickets

[ngood77]

Hi,

I have an off peak day return ticket, B3 restriction (irrelevant as I’m travelling on a Saturday), and for some reason the ticket machine has chucked four seat reservation ‘tickets’ at me which I didn’t ask for and don’t want, so am going to chuck them in the bin. They aren’t even for specific seats. Given my ticket is valid on any services is there any reason why I should keep hold of them ? They seem utterly pointless and a waste of cardboard. Cheers !

 

[Bletchleyite]

Is it a "compulsory reservation" TOC? Or sometimes the sales sites issue them unnecessarily. Either way no you don't need them if you have a walk-up ticket.

 

[SWT_USER]

Did you book via Uber by any chance? This has been happening to be when collecting TOD tickets booked via the app.

 

[Farigiraf]

A few weeks ago I booked tickets via the forum booking site to Horsham, travelling only on GTR and TfL. Neither operators offer seat reservations. As there were no e-tickets available, I printed out the tickets at the TVM, where it proceeded to give me an extra reservation ticket for each leg of the journey, with each of them simply stating my 'reserved' train (the ticket was flexible?) and 'no seats reserved on this train'. Wasted 3-4 pieces of cardboard.

 

[ngood77]

Thanks all. I bought them from Southeastern. I shall bin them. Cheers.

 

[sheff1]

Happens frequently. Waste of time and cardboard but someone obviously thinks it is a good idea.

 

[cav1975]

On the forum site you can disable reservations where they aren't required, but I also usually forget and end up with wasted cards too!

 

[ngood77]

Does the forum site allow me to buy PlusBus ?

 

[Adam Williams]

Does the forum site allow me to buy PlusBus ?

Yes, fulfilled to both ToD and E-Ticket (where permitted). It'll even give you a validity map directly in the booking flow:



If you zoom in, it'll show bus stops and railway stations:

 

[bakerstreet]

I know that some see these printed reservation tickets as a waste of time, but these reservation tickets have come into their own on numerous occasions across the network, especially on long-distance operators.

The conversation often goes like this.

-> This ticket isn’t valid on this service.

-> Oh, I have a reservation for this service [shows reservation(s)

[end of discussion]

 

[ngood77]

Yes, fulfilled to both ToD and E-Ticket (where permitted). It'll even give you a validity map directly in the booking flow:

View attachment 168797

If you zoom in, it'll show bus stops and railway stations:

View attachment 168798

I can’t see it as an option in the app.

I know that some see these printed reservation tickets as a waste of time, but these reservation tickets have come into their own on numerous occasions across the network, especially on long-distance operators.

The conversation often goes like this.

-> This ticket isn’t valid on this service.

-> Oh, I have a reservation for this service [shows reservation(s)

[end of discussion]

That’s not a reason for the reservation tickets, that’s a rail employee not doing their job properly. My ticket is no less valid for not having the reservation tickets accompanying it. An employee saying otherwise will know about it soon enough

 

[Adam Williams]

I can’t see it as an option in the app

The forum site is not the app

PlusBus isn't yet offered on Android / iOS. The main focus recently has been more pressing matters of throwing most of the original UI in the bin and starting again.

 

[bakerstreet]

That’s not a reason for the reservation tickets, that’s a rail employee not doing their job properly. My ticket is no less valid for not having the reservation tickets accompanying it. An employee saying otherwise will know about it soon enough

I agree but I’m dealing with reality and I enjoy avoiding confrontation where possible

 

[ngood77]

I agree but I’m dealing with reality and I enjoy avoiding confrontation where possible

Fair enough but I’m unlikely to use the services that are recommended to me on the tickets so pulling them out might make things even worse

 

[alistairlees]

Fair enough but I’m unlikely to use the services that are recommended to me on the tickets so pulling them out might make things even worse

What ticket did you buy (where from, and where to, date)? And what services were the *** reservations for?

 

[ngood77]

What ticket did you buy (where from, and where to, date)? And what services were the *** reservations for?

It doesn’t really matter. They’re not mandatory so academic.

 

[LAX54]

Just bought some tickets from G.A for use later this week, this has compulsary reservations, but the seat reservation just says 'any seat' ! although I think the actual travel ticket does say only valid with....

 

[alistairlees]

It doesn’t really matter. They’re not mandatory so academic.

I know it doesn't matter to you, but I was interested to get to the bottom of why this had happened (as I provide ticket retailing systems).

 

[ngood77]

I know it doesn't matter to you, but I was interested to get to the bottom of why this had happened (as I provide ticket retailing systems).

Fair enough chief, see attached. The second and third legs are the ones with the ‘reservations’.

 

[Adam Williams]

Train 1: No "Reservations Available" flag. No point sending an AQ or BQ involving this service.
Train 2: "Reservations Recommended", 165s, TOC doesn't offer allocated seats on route as far as I know. Every "seat" is inventory class 2N ("Standard Counted"). Seat map provided by TOC is junk with all the seats on top of each other, as is often the case when they want to do counted places (and often the case when they don't, as well).



Train 3: "Reservations Available", TOC doesn't offer allocated seats.

If the customer didn't express a preference for reservations, none should have been requested from RARS (the industry reservation system) with that ticket type IMO, it's completely pointless for the passenger.

 

[ngood77]

Train 1: No "Reservations Available" flag. No point sending an AQ or BQ involving this service.
Train 2: "Reservations Recommended", 165s, TOC doesn't offer allocated seats on route as far as I know. Every "seat" is inventory class 2N ("Standard Counted"). Seat map provided by TOC is junk with all the seats on top of each other, as is often the case when they want to do counted places (and often the case when they don't, as well).

View attachment 168844

Train 3: "Reservations Available", TOC doesn't offer allocated seats.

If the customer didn't express a preference for reservations, none should have been requested from RARS (the industry reservation system) with that ticket type IMO, it's completely pointless for the passenger.

There is no way to request reservations on the Southeastern mobile website that I could see. They just did it.

 

[Adam Williams]

There is no way to request reservations on the Southeastern mobile website that I could see. They just did it.

That's technically an accreditation failure:



It's a TOC though, they do what they like. And because so many retail channels do exhibit this behaviour, you get left behind if you choose to go against the grain and try to follow the rules.

 

[Wallsendmag]

You could always give the accreditation team a heads up

 

[miklcct]

That's technically an accreditation failure:

View attachment 168850

It's a TOC though, they do what they like. And because so many retail channels do exhibit this behaviour, you get left behind if you choose to go against the grain and try to follow the rules.

In my experience, if the itinerary contains a train which is mandatory reservation, useless reservation coupons will be printed for trains which aren't mandatory reservation as well, resulting in a lot of rubbish and wasting other people's quota (will it?) instead.

The thing I really don't want is a useless reservation on my walk up fare reducing a quota for someone else's Advance ticket.

 

[DelW]

Train 2: "Reservations Recommended", 165s, TOC doesn't offer allocated seats on route as far as I know. Every "seat" is inventory class 2N ("Standard Counted"). Seat map provided by TOC is junk with all the seats on top of each other, as is often the case when they want to do counted places (and often the case when they don't, as well).

Re Train 2 Redhill to Guildford, you're correct, there are no allocated seats and no way of showing reservations on any North Downs Line trains.

One curiosity is that one of the reasons TOCs give for trying to eliminate CCST is that such tickets "waste cardboard" and so are environmentally poor. Yet here they are providing pointless and unasked for reservations on just such cardboard.

 

[Adam Williams]

In my experience, if the itinerary contains a train which is mandatory reservation, useless reservation coupons will be printed for trains which aren't mandatory reservation as well

It's a requirement to write all reservations to the ToD system, unfortunately.

I think there is a limitation in that most TISs will attempt to get reservations for all legs which a) have reservations available in the timetable and b) have availability as soon as any advances or mandatory trains are involved in the selected journey. What I suspect some customer would prefer is a "Only make reservations where strictly necessary" option