pacer142

Not necessarily.

The way the railway does these things, there are a load of Advance ticket types, you don't see these but they are still there. You used to have, on VT, at different (ascending) price levels:-

Virgin Value A
Virgin Value B
Virgin Value C
Virgin Advance A
Virgin Advance B
Virgin Advance C

Not all of these would be available on every given train. The latter three tended to be more than an Off Peak (Saver) Single, so while they were sometimes available on off peak trains they often weren't, as no-one would ever buy them.

These were "shielded" from the passenger when the simplification came in. I guess it is possible that due to ticket changes you'd pick up one of the higher ones and use the quota up, or that quota may not have any seats in it for that train, either deliberately or in error.

If you want to see these, try this link. Each is a separate ticket type, but the sales UIs merge them together.

http://www.brfares.com/#fares?orig=1072&dest=0438&rlc=

Neil

Oxon Flyer

A true Flyertalker would have just gone home and dashed off a snotty email to head office demanding a compensation package of free tickets, status upgrades and thousands of frequent railer points ....

exilencfc

Ticket office staff do seem to be a bit useless, especially at larger stations. The concept of I already have a valid ticket for train X I just want a seat reservation is completely foreign to most of them. The only one who grasped it straight away was the bloke at St Erth who was pulling treble duty as booking clerk, train dispatcher and station master.

stut

It does seem to vary station to station. My local station, for example, is excellent - they're always happy to help you find the best ticket, do splits, and know all the rules (and will make sure you're allowed to buy your ticket at the destination if the queue's too long in the rush hour). They've even set up a book exchange for commuters, and really take pride in the little station!

King's Cross are pretty good too. St Pancras, however, are hopeless. Given the complex peak restricitons on First Capital Connect, you'd think they'd be able to issue a peak excess, but no... I ended up having to carry an old one with me, so that they'd be able to use it to refer to.

Bear in mind, too, that ticket sellers (including on-board conductors) get commission for sales. The barriers at King's Cross have upset a number of East Coast (and GC/HT) conductors as a result!

stifle

My understanding is that train operating companies get 9% of the value of the tickets they sell, but only on-train sellers and RPIs get commission themselves (perhaps 5%), not ticket offices.

You are perfectly entitled at King's Cross to ask to be let through the barrier in order to board a FHT/GC service if you want to buy on board.

Jimmie76

They can use the ATOC system for checking ticket/train validity but you do have to know how to use it first. I'm guessing some of the VT staff don't know how to use that, I hope they have it available.

Jimmie76

I was told off by a jobsworth on FGW that my ticket wasn't valid in 1st when it was (and I could prove it with the relevant page from the fares manual) and told me to head back to standard in full view of a fairly full carriage. So I took his name the train headcode (both of which he supplied) and then spoke to the duty manager at Paddington when we arrived. He told me to check with the ticket office - who confirmed I was correct - and then contact customer services.

Bloke I spoke to at FGW customer services was appalled and said he would pass this on to the blokes line manager and he would get an earful. He said that they had a bad enough reputation without Train Managers trying to make it worse. He also told me that he was going to sort me out with a refund of the price difference between standard and 1st. I said that wasn't necessary but I did want this guy retrained (no pun intended) before he was allowed near customers again. He said he was writing the email with the recipients being his boss and the line manager of the "onboard idiot" so that it was guaranteed to be followed up.

FGW are usually good in my book but this guy needed his head examining, I had the fares manual page open on my netbook and he refused to read it.

railways

But did you move? I hope not!

Jimmie76

Yes because once again I was threatened with the transport police once we arrived and they had better things to do, like deal with the bloke who had just assaulted the duty manager at Paddington.

I did have it confirmed that he had been torn a new hole in his nether reigons by his manager a few days later though. Wasn't so bad as I hung out at the buffet free drinking hot chocolate (I did have a 1st ticket after all ) and chatting up the attractive young lady behind the counter.