So we have an interesting dilemma that I'm sure someone knows the answer to.... My wife, daughter and I each have a 2 day First class Britrail pass to travel between London and Edinburgh. I understand that the 4-1/2 hr train is on LNER but for some reason I can't find how to make a seat reservation. We want to be on the sea-side of the train to see certain things along the way, and have a window, so that part is important to us.
It appears that through Britrail's website, we can reserve a seat at the cost of $30 each but a friend thinks we will be able to just do it at the ticket counter when we show up to Kings Cross in London in May and it won't cost extra. We're looking at 13:00 or 13:30 so maybe the train won't be as full as other times?
What are your thoughts? We bought the 1st class to surprise our daughter and make it special. Thanks in advance!!
Posted by
Lake District, England
5758 posts
Making a reservation is simple and it is also always free.
Britrail charging $30 is outright fraud.
Anyway do it on this we page between 12 weeks and 1 hour before travel- https://www.lner.co.uk/travel-information/make-a-reservation/
I haven't personally used this method, as I always reserve with a ticket purchase. But hopefully you will be taken to a seat chart. Out of London you want to be on the right hand side of the car facing forwards. You can't all have a window seat and be seated together as the 1st class cars are in a 2+1 seating.
Normally the single seats (so 2 round a table) are on the right hand side of the train like this- https://www.lner.co.uk/globalassets/_page-structure/azuma-content/Azuma-seat-maps
with the 1st class cars K to M at the rear end of the train in the direction of the travel (the 'London' end in industry speak)
At that time if day and that far north by the time you reach the coastal views 1st class should be quiet- so just move to any unoccupied seats. On those trains you get served the 'Dine' menu- this is the current menu- https://www.lner.co.uk/globalassets/lner2321-dine-3-oct-2023-lner-menu-6pp-598mm-x-200mm-print.pdf
Posted by
OP
Colorado
6 posts
isn31c - thank you. That got me close. I was able to use the LNER app to get to the part with seat reservations - but Britrail didn't give me a booking number - so I used "0" and that reserved us 3 seats. Groups of 4 are on the port side and not Starboard. so it didn't go like I hoped it would with finding seats together on the right side but I'm guessing as you say that we can probably move around eventually.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
32767 posts
you won't have a booking number (from Britrail or anybody else) because you won't have a booking. You won't have a travel ticket for any particular train, you have a pass. You just want a particular seat. So you were successful!! Congrats.
Britrail charging $30 is outright fraud.
Also, I fundamentally disagree that Britrail charging a fee for a service that you can get elsewhere is fraud. In fact RS may want to edit that to avoid legal trouble. Fraud is obtaining by deception. They are charging for a service. Different thing. Yes, any staffed rail station can make reservations up to quite close to travel, and they don't charge. But somebody is doing the work and that work costs the rail industry money. Very generous of them.
Britrail also provide the service, and they, as a profit centre, choose to charge for the service. Is £30 too much? Maybe. But. The price is what a willing buyer and a willing seller agree on, and people pay that so they must be willing.
There is no breaking of a law, no deception, and no fraud. There is no price cap on that type of service.
Our job here may be to say that there is an alternative, which I and others do.
Posted by
Lake District, England
5758 posts
That is not quite correct that you don't have a booking number.
Although it is not a number you should ever have to use, in your confirmation e-mail you have been given an 8 figure alpha numeric 'Booking Reference' for your seats. Something like NLCGC72R [made up example]. Keep that e-mail just in case it should be needed. You were also given on screen a different 'Seat Reservation Number- something like JK308695.
All you should ever need is your seat numbers, but you never know.
I knew about that as I recently did a seat only reservation with Great Western (the only national seat only on line seat booking portal) and got one (for an Avanti West Coast Train), so have just done the same on LNER for a random train on a random date (to try out the system) and got such a booking reference, the same as on Great Western.
You can only book LNER seats on the LNER portal.
Posted by
OP
Colorado
6 posts
isn31c and Nigel - thank you both for the insight. I should clarify a couple of things - when I was going thru the process of selecting seats on the LNER app, it first asked for my booking # - which of course I don't have because I bought a pass on Britrail, which doesn't have one. And further, the Brit rail pass was sold through ACPRail. They did not provide a number with the pass. Once I bypassed the confirmation # with a "0", I did get a confirmation number from LNER with my seat reservation. I hope this helps someone who is trying to figure out this same thing.
I also think that people outside the UK have a different process and things are called different names? It’s pretty confusing but I think it’s going to all work out just fine now!