Great Western Coffee Shop

A commuter bought an advance ticket off East Coast's website to travel along the East Coast mainline. They were assigned to a table of 4. Being a solo traveller, they didn't want to deprive a family of the seats so attempted to get it changed. They tried the method on East Coast's booking engine where you move the man, but it kept yielding "error" despite other seats being available.

Frustrated and worried that the cheap fares would be snapped up, they bought the ticket. The then phoned East Coast up, who told them that they would have to travel to the station to get the reservation changed as they could only do Anytime and Off Peak over the phone. The commuter drove all the way to the station and went straight to the ticket office without picking up the tickets from the TVM as they thought it would make the process easier.

However, the commuter was left completely stunned when the clerk said that it would coast TEN POUNDS to change the seat. Let's be clear, the service (and thus the fare) would be the same it would just be a new seat and could be done in a few clicks and 30 seconds.

The shocked commuter said: "Now I understand why there is an admin fee for changing an Advance booking but why on earth does it cost to change the actual seat? The reservation hadn't even been printed so it's not as if there would be an extra reservation floating around. It's classic rip off Britain at work! Of course, I politely declined, which did not surprise the clerk who -frankly- looked embarrassed to ask for the money."

Why is this the case? Surely a passenger focused railway would offer to help in situations like this by changing the seat free of charge, especially as it was the website's fault and it would be better for East Coast to have a freed up table?

You appear to have forgotten to use "fleeced" :P

It's really not hard to change seat reservations and I've had a great experience with Virgin (although I have a special relationship with one of their staff), they change my (Advance Purchase) seat reservations regularly (by email) and are even friendly enough to put my name on the reservation system every time.

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Well it appears East Coast, unlike Virgin, FLEECE their commuters. That's shocking. >:(

On the other hand, the 'fleeced commuter' could have taken their seat at that table of four, and defied all attempts by any family wanting to sit round a table to remove them, on pain of being subject to a ranting article in the Daily Wail ...  ;D

Calm down, dear: think of your blood pressure.  ;)

Not everybody travelling on a train is commuting somewhere.  ::)

They are in Daily Mail Land ...  ::) :o ;D

This "article" seems to be missing a link to it's source. I've spent a rather long time "googling" this and cannot find one.

Care to share the source Btline or is this an exaggerated story you are telling?

Btline - telling an exaggerated story??  :o ::)

I, too, couldn't find any credible source for this story, despite extensive google searches; hence my rather facetious responses to Btline's unattributed post here.  :-X

But this commuter wanted to move their seat so a family could sit down at the table.


Who says this is an article? Why are you googling a "source" when there isn't one? ::)

Don't people think this is wrong?

EC plainly borrowing from the Ryanair book of ticketing rules.

You've clearly written it to look like an article. For me, it has lost all of its credibility.

Why is it the policy to charge ^10, or is it just East Coast?

The policy is to charge ^10 for amendments to AP tickets. I have no doubt that many other TOCs would do the same.

This "fleeced commuter" should have sat in his seat, or moved to another seat. There is no point

This topic of AP tickets again! rules are rules and any changes to a ticket is a 10 quid charge, and before you say why, because the fare could have been brought by someone else is the answer

No they couldn't! Who else could have bought the fare? It's the same fare, but with a different seat. There is no disadvantage to the TOC changing the reservation.

It's a different kettle of fish to changing class or train.

The definition of a commuter (Chambers) is someone who travels daily to and from work, so as D-M has already noted, it's not appropriate here.

Also, the passenger wasn't actually charged ^10 (as they didn't go ahead with the transaction), however, they were quoted ^10 to change the reservation.

What I find very odd is why anyone would go to the trouble of driving to the station to change the reservation purely for the philanthropic reason of ensuring that the table wouldn't be blocked for a family. Particularly when it would quite likely be reallocated to another single traveller as soon as the reservation had been changed. That doesn't ring true to me. 

Btline - you say this wasn't an article, but yet there is a quote verbatim from the "shocked commuter". So if it wasn't from an article, where did it come from?

Personally, I think there are more important issues to worry about than the cost quoted for an unnecessary and spurious transaction, so whether it's wrong or not, I'm not sure I care.     

 

Don't like the terms and conditions that apply to the purchase and use of the ticket? Don't buy it.

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The seat reservation will state only valid with ticket number xxxxx unless by fluke the same price tier was available the charge would not have been ^10 but instead  ^10 plus the difference between ticket purchased and the cheapest available (unless upgrading to first prior to journey)but I don't see the issue with doing a seat reservation aslong as is the correct train and stapling the tickets together at no charge, you don't have to sit in the reserved seat? Just be on the correct train in the appropriate class, unfortunately with most services being very busy these days a seating preference is just that ... A preference not a guarentee

I have just spent 3 minutes reading all of this thread, thankyou BTline, 3 minutes of my life that i will never get back.

I still don't see why it should cost ^10 to alter a reservation that doesn't alter the ticket in any way. It could be done in several clicks and wouldn't even waste paper.

Could even be purchased from the station in the first place :-p ... I will get my coat

No - not if you want East Coast reward points. ;)

Did the points come to more than ^10 in total  ;D

What's wrong with just turning up on the day and sitting in an unreserved seat?  And if there aren't any, then use your reserved seat.

And why does everyone think that table seats are for family use only during the school holidays?  A rather rude woman asked if I could move so her family could sit round a table.  She didn't seem to appreciate the papers spread across the table and laptop plugged in.  I refused on the basis that I had the seat reserved specifically so I could plug my laptop in.  Everyone (including other passengers) looked at me as if I was doing something wrong.

Perhaps time have changed, but when I was a little'un, travelling on public transport often meant sitting on any free seat next to a stranger.  Are children to be shielded from the travelling public these days?

(Sorry, rant over!)

The unclaimed seat then appears to be unavailable to unreserved passengers, who are left to look for (often elusive) empty unreserved seats, or sit down and take a chance that the person who reserved the seat doesn't turn up.

I sometimes find this a to be an irritation when I (as a season ticket holder with no reservation) board a busy train (e.g. the 1945 from Paddington). I have to stand until after departure and then go and see which seats are unclaimed (and there seem to be an awful lot of them!)

I suppose the person who chooses not to take up their reserved seat could always remove the label to release the seat for use by other passengers, but that's probably against some rule or other.

Hence why some company's no longer offer reservations

Yawn....

Exactly, this commuter will apparently just find their own seat, meaning the other one around the table will look reserved! You're not allowed to remove the card = fine.

A fine never enforced, and providing nobody else's reservation is also on your ticket you aren't going to get in trouble for removing your own reservation.