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What Happens If I Buy Split Tickets for The Same Through Train Regarding Reserved Seats?

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Envoy

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What Happens If I Buy Split Tickets for the Same Through Train with Reserved Seats? Am I Going to get different reserved seats for each section of the trip?
 
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HughT

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I can only speak to my experience booking through TrainSplit. For most journeys, we've been able to occupy the same seats for the whole journey, regardless of the number of splits along the way. And I'd be pretty confident in saying that their software is set up to do that as the default. But occasionally that's not possible, and we've had to move at a splitting point. This is presumably because there aren't any reservable seats remaining for the whole journey, only for sections of it. Of course, it's quite possible that whoever's booked into the seat you're about to vacate doesn't show up, and you don't need to move anyway. But that's beyond the scope of your original question.
 

Haywain

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This is presumably because there aren't any reservable seats remaining for the whole journey, only for sections of it.
This would be the reason for Trainsplit finding lower prices in such a case.
 

_toommm_

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And it depends how many splits you have. I believe XC only allow a seat to be reserved three times on a journey, so if you’re doing say Edinburgh to Sheffield, where it could conceivably be split a good four times, it’ll only let you reserve the seat three times if it’s available for the first three splits.
 

Runningaround

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Has trainsplit managed to do this now? I've never bought a ticket off it that has reserved the same seat on each leg on some occasions the carriage doesn't exist, on others the next leg is on a different portion of a train without any doors between them.
It's why I go on the TOC's site and use their seat selector for each leg to try and get the same one for each leg.
Avanti's is useless though, can't even select a train if it's non-reservable.
 

JBuchananGB

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On a recent trip to Glasgow my wife and I had reserved seats as far as Preston, where the ticket split took place, and then different reserved seats from there to Glasgow. We changed seats at Preston. On the return journey Trainsplit had managed to reserve the same two seats for us both as far as, and from Preston.
 

Watershed

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And it depends how many splits you have. I believe XC only allow a seat to be reserved three times on a journey, so if you’re doing say Edinburgh to Sheffield, where it could conceivably be split a good four times, it’ll only let you reserve the seat three times if it’s available for the first three splits.
Although this also has the 'side benefit' that you can be sure no-one else will have a reservation for your seat!
 

Envoy

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Many thanks for your answers thus far. So, would it be disadvantageous to book direct with the train company (if knowing where to split to get the fares down) regarding keeping the same seat - being as Trainsplit appear to make an effort to stop you having to move?

What is the situation regarding TrainTickets.com as I prefer using their website as it is so well laid out? Do they let you reserve seats and do they try and keep you in the same seat throughout?
 

Watershed

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Many thanks for your answers thus far. So, would it be disadvantageous to book direct with the train company (if knowing where to split to get the fares down) regarding keeping the same seat - being as Trainsplit appear to make an effort to stop you having to move?

What is the situation regarding TrainTickets.com as I prefer using their website as it is so well laid out? Do they let you reserve seats and do they try and keep you in the same seat throughout?
Generally most booking sites will tend to use the same preferences for all reservations/legs. However, whether that results in the same seat being allocated is down to the vagaries of the industry reservation system...
 

penguin8967

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Some operators' websites will let you book seats after buying a ticket - in this case you can reserve the seat for your entire journey instead of in separate legs.
 

yorkie

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Has trainsplit managed to do this now? I've never bought a ticket off it that has reserved the same seat on each leg on some occasions the carriage doesn't exist, on others the next leg is on a different portion of a train without any doors between them.
It's why I go on the TOC's site and use their seat selector for each leg to try and get the same one for each leg.
Avanti's is useless though, can't even select a train if it's non-reservable.
Trainsplit will let you change your seat, so if the same seat is available throughout the journey, then subject to any limitations mentioned above, you can obtain the same seat.

You can go to a TOC website to do the same thing, but the same limitations apply and this only works with XC, Avanti and LNER (unless there's another operator I've forgotten about!)
Many thanks for your answers thus far. So, would it be disadvantageous to book direct with the train company (if knowing where to split to get the fares down) regarding keeping the same seat - being as Trainsplit appear to make an effort to stop you having to move?
Only the 3 mentioned above will do this and the same limitations as Trainsplit will apply.

Sometimes a through seat is not available, e.g. if the train is very heavily loaded.
What is the situation regarding TrainTickets.com as I prefer using their website as it is so well laid out? Do they let you reserve seats and do they try and keep you in the same seat throughout?

Traintickets.com is the same as Raileasy.com but with a lower share of savings rate (10% vs 15%) but the splits generally aren't as good and it does not have a seat selector.

Seat selection will work better once the new reservation system is fully online.
 

Haywain

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Some operators' websites will let you book seats after buying a ticket - in this case you can reserve the seat for your entire journey instead of in separate legs.
If the seat is available for the whole journey.
 

Runningaround

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Some operators' websites will let you book seats after buying a ticket - in this case you can reserve the seat for your entire journey instead of in separate legs.
That's handy if someone joins you for your trip later on as you can book seats next to them.
Since TFW has removed reservations they've not been missed. Get on if there's a seat sit down and none of the musical chairs or reading each reservation to find where you may have to vacate. Most don't bother reading or working them out so will stand instead of risk being in somebody's seat.
 

Envoy

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Many thanks everyone for your further responses - and especially Yorkie for giving such detail. I did not know that a new online reservation system is in the pipeline. The Raileasy commission rate of 15% of the saving is too much for me to consider using them. Trainsplit often changes the station code to a word due to a spell checker - which is most annoying. Traintickets.com does not do this so you always get the correct start and end point of your journey.
 

XAM2175

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It will be browser specific behaviour, mmm. Might be able to reproduce it and convince the browser to behave though.
I do note that Chrome tries to give me an address autofill in the origin field when using trainsplit.com (and it's even more insistent at NRE's site), but not when using v3 or new.trainsplit.com
 

Envoy

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It will be browser specific behaviour, mmm. Might be able to reproduce it and convince the browser to behave though.

@Envoy which browser / device are you using, and which site are you referring to (https://trainsplit.com or https://v3.trainsplit.com )?
It does not happen when I use the v3.trainsplit.com site - which I was not aware of until you loaded it here. I was using https://new.trainsplit.com which changes BTH (Bath) to the word ‘both’ and WNG (for Waungron Park) to Wigan. This is using an i-mac with Safari browser.
 

_toommm_

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It does not happen when I use the v3.trainsplit.com site - which I was not aware of until you loaded it here. I was using https://new.trainsplit.com which changes BTH (Bath) to the word ‘both’ and WNG (for Waungron Park) to Wigan. This is using an i-mac with Safari browser.

MacOS’ word correction is far too aggressive for me. Even if I go back and correct the correction, the OS will still correct it. It took about a year to learn that when I type ‘SHF’ into RTT I actually meant to type ‘SHF’.
 
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