reservations

John R

Hero Member

Posts: 4416

reservations

« on: October 26, 2014, 17:06:19 »

Walking down the 1415 Padd to Cardiff on Friday, trying to find an unreserved seat, which were as rare as hens' teeth, it occurred to me that online purchasing is making this problem worse. Once the train departed of course many of the seats remained untaken. I expect they had bought flexible tickets, chosen a return train closest to when they thought they would be travelling, and automatically got a reservation for that one. The booking systems almost force you down that route.

Has the time come to start charging for reservations again? It only need be a nominal sum, say 50p, to encourage people on flexible tickets to only reserve a seat if they intend to travel on that service. If there are accusations of profiteering (which there almost inevitably would be) then the base fare could be reduced by around 30p, to balance out and make the overall cost approximately revenue neutral.


	Logged

JayMac

Data Manager
Hero Member

Posts: 19245

Re: reservations

« Reply #1 on: October 26, 2014, 17:32:14 »

I don't think charging is the answer.

Mixing Deck booking engines default to 'no reservation' when selecting a walk-up ticket. trainline based engines offer a Yes/No question with no default selected. Perhaps the prompt to reserve a seat when a walk-up ticket is selected could be worded better ("Only select 'Yes' if you intend using your selected service") and trainline should also default to no.

As for expecting flexible tickets had been purchased, there's no way of knowing that from a reservation slip. Equally possible that unclaimed seats are Advance Purchase (or walk-up) ticket holders who've chosen to sit elsewhere or someone who's chosen not to travel.

If I don't have a reservation and see an unoccupied seat with a slip, I look at the details and if the origin station has already been passed, or it's an origin after my destination, I take the seat.


	Logged

"A clear conscience laughs at a false accusation."
"Treat everyone the same until you find out they're an idiot."
"Moral indignation is a technique used to endow the idiot with dignity."

ChrisB

Transport Scholar
Hero Member

Posts: 13019

Re: reservations

« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2014, 09:59:41 »

The apps are the problem, aren't they. I think they automatically reserve on services chosen, even if its a flex ticket


	Logged

Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

Pages: [1]

« previous next »