Reservations Enquiry

[whole diary]

[NickB]

Afternoon,

Given that First Class is, at GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s recommendation, increasingly full of seat reservations I was wondering whether someone could provide more colour on how the reservations process works and also whether reservations are permitted in Standard with an annual seasonticket?

To cut a long story short it is coming up to renewal time and the ^800 premium for First Eastbound (that I've coughed for for 5yrs) doesn't seem such good value any more.

If I dropped back to a Standard ticket then can I make reservations to get a seat, and in your experience does this actually work? 

Thanks

[ChrisB]

You certainly could under FGW^▸ (First Great Western) (13 weeks at a time, I believe, 1 train each way per day)

Whether you still can, you'd need to ask GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) customer services - or tweet @GWRHelp

[NickB]

I've emailed GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) to find out the technicalities.
Any personal experiences would be most useful.

[Ollie]

For bulk reservations can email forward@firstgroup.com - just let them know the trains you get and the details of the season ticket (photo card and such)

[ChrisB]

Thanks Ollie - that method is still working, good to hear.

[NickB]

Thanks Ollie.
I guess I've got some decisions to take before 31st December. I bought the upgrade to guarantee a seat, but First Class now has worse provision than Standard and papers/refreshments don't even appear on some HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units))'s. That ^800 upgrade just doesn't seem worth it anymore.

[NickB]

I received the 'official' reply from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) which confirmed that I can make reservations for standard class travel as a season ticket holder.
So I think that has clinched it - after 5 years of first class (ha!) travel i'love be downgrading and saving ^800 per year.
Shame really but GWR doesn't actually run a First Class service in the Thames valley anymore.

[johoare]

I guess the real test of doing that is if you can actually get to your reserved seat (depending on overcrowding) and if you can if you are then able to "convince" the person sat there already that it's your seat and not theirs 

[NickB]

So it's finally happened - we've hit peak ticket. No seats nor reservations for the next month. So frustratingly obvious that this would happen but GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) would rather stick it's head in the sand and ignore the problems.

"Thank you for your recent email regarding seat reservations for your
journeys between Maidenhead to London Paddington.

Unfortunately there are no seats available in first class for the 07:08
service between 10-05-2016 to 26-05-2016."

Arrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhh.

[JayMac]

Yet a random selection of dates during that period for an Anytime Single for the same train, but from Reading, gives you the option of a seat reservation.

So it appears there are spare seats, but GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are barring reservations for them for Season Ticket holders from Maidenhead.

[NickB]

I'm not sure if that makes me feel better or more victimised.

Any ideas on how I can get a reservation, which is after all what gwr have forced us to do?

[IndustryInsider]

I would reply to that email with the details BNM has provided you with and ask them for a good reason why there aren't.  Advance tickets aren't available on that train (surely?), so there's no reason why the entire allocation shouldn't be reserved regardless of journey.

There, from my observations, usually seems to be under half of the first class accommodation reserved on that train, so clearly some way to go until there are no seats left.

[NickB]

Thanks - I have challenged gwr's statement and I'll see what I get in reply.

I've explored the day-ticket reservations options and it seems to me that the service in question has plenty of seats from reading to Paddington but no seats from Maidenhead to Paddington. The only conclusion that I can draw from this is that the system is only allowing a certain number of reservations from Maidenhead in order to allow more passengers 'upstream' to get a seat without reservations.

I am royally sick of the games GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are playing with their season ticket customers. I'm playing their game but they won't throw straight dice.

[JayMac]

Yep.

Moving the goalposts frequently, and now it seems they have taken the goalposts away completely.

[Richard Fairhurst]

I can understand why there's a quota. From GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s point of view, uprooting passengers who boarded the train further back (such as - purely for example on that service - those from, ahem, Charlbury) would risk driving away lucrative longer-distance passengers in favour of short-distance ones. I also suspect the resulting arguments would not be something the on-train staff would want to mediate!

But that isn't, of course, to say that the quota is currently set at the right level, or that there are enough seats available in general. I suspect the latter is the real issue, and hopefully the eventual advent of the 387s, 365s, Crossrail etc. will go a long way to relieving overcrowding in the Thames Valley.

FWIW^▸ (for what it's worth), my (entirely personal) opinion is that seat reservations shouldn't be available at all on with-flow peak services, and if they are, they should be reserved for those paying the full Anytime fare - i.e. not season ticket holders, who already enjoy a 30%+ discount on the standard fare. But I realise that might not be popular in this thread.