England FlexiPass

The class must be on them, who did you buy them off? I'm struggling to find the current format.

Do they have a large barcode along the top? In that format it should show class above your name.

If it is printed on security backing card within a grid it will be in a box at the right.

There are no reservations on Heathrow Express or Southeastern Highspeed (who don't have First Class anyway). Bear in mind that the passes must be validated at the Heathrow Express ticket counter before use and are NOT valid on London Underground. If you take a taxi from Paddington tell the driver you need the Pancras Road entrance for Southeastern Highspeed.

Reservations are often not possible on short distance trains, especially in the south east of England but for a group of 4 would be advised for long distance travel and can be made at any ticket desk with the right computer, you don't have to go to the starting station.

Thank you for the info on the necessity of validation at the Heathrow counter before using the passes. I purchased them from VisitBritainShop.com. Oh good grief, I just saw that under 'Class' (in fine print) it says '1' So sorry for the trouble, but thank you for that information on Heathrow and the pass. No kidding, I'd looked 'everywhere' on those tickets and couldn't find First Class. Grr. Thanks.

Validation should be before you use it, doesn't have to be at Heathrow unless you use the Heathrow Express train. If, as an example, you arrived to find that HEX had problems and there were no trains for a while you could buy Undergound tickets to St Pancras for £6 each and have the pass validated at St Pancras. Since you've got the pass and there are 4 in the group, you may as well use HEX and a taxi but in other cases paying for the direct Underground might be a better option.

FYI to save you looking the services from St Pancras to Canterbury West are standard class only (although if connecting at Ashford that train might well have). Southeastern also doesn't offer seat reservations.

Thank you very much SteveB and Marco. Appreciate the info.

Which other journeys are you making? We could then give you an idea if reservations are needed and/or possible.

Generally first class is only really worthwhile on journeys more than a couple of hours long. Some trains on shorter journeys or commuter lines might just have a few seats in a small first class section, whose only one advantage is that they're slightly bigger. On longer journeys, though, first class means all sorts of good stuff like free food and at seat meal service.

We used First Class Flexi-passes in 2015 and they were great. One of the train trips was from Kings Cross to York and on to Durham, on Virgin, and it was nice to have plenty of room and food! So the trips we'll be taking by train are from Heathrow Express to London; London to Canterbury to Dover; London to York to Durham; Oxford to London (a late train).

Interestingly, yesterday when I contacted the vendor where I purchased the First Class Flexi-passes, they wrote back with this:
"It is actually not necessary to book seats with a Britrail Pass. It is only recommended on very busy lines and needs to be done directly at the station, it costs 10£."
Really??? £10 to reserve seats on a train I've already purchased tickets for??

Well there won't be any kind of additional benefits on the Oxford to London Paddington train as there are no buffet services left on them unless possibly it has come from beyond Oxford, eg Hereford. If it is a train to Marylebone then these are standard class only.

As for the reservation fee this sounds like what Britrail agents charges online. Reservation is free if done at a station, although the need to do so first class outside busy times is limited.

£10??? where did they get that from?? Insane.

London to York/ Durham is worth reserving if you want 4 seats together.

by the way, how you getting from Durham to Oxford? That's also worth reserving.

Right. Ridiculous price for reservations. But we'll have time once in country to make the reservations from London to Durham, and free, or nearly so, if I remember correctly. Renting a car in York and will drive from there to Oxford after visiting both Durham and York. Thanks.

While reservations do cost money in other countries, they should be free with a BritRail England pass, up to (I think) 24 hours before the scheduled train departure.

You may not be aware, but there's no connection between Britrail (which issues tourist Rail passes that can only be bought by foreign visitors) and Britain's train operating companies. The TOCs honour the passes but I don't know what the financial arrangements are between Britrail and the various train operating companies. But I thought it would be useful for you to understand that the passes are not issued by the train operators. And that might explain why some of them will charge for reservations.

Reservations aren't essential - all the long-distance trains will usually have at least one completely unreserved carriage (often carriage U) and there will be some unreserved seats in the other carriages too. But if you're travelling at a busy time you will find there's a mad rush at the station to get on the train and grab an unreserved seats so you may want them as back-up. If you think British people are polite, just wait till you see a rush-hour train.

The T rain O perating C ompanie s have a trade association which used to be called ATOC but is now absorbed into the Rail Delivery Group which also includes Network Rail and some governement minders. RDG has a marketing group/committee which handles multi company "products" such as the national Railcards (something often overlooked by visitors from abroad) and the Britrail and Interrail passes. Britrail was an old brand originally started by British Rail and was given to ATOC when BR was broken up and privatised. RDG contract sales agents for the various overseas markets. Notably Rail Europe (started by French state operator SNCF but now in partnership with Swiss state operator SBB), ACP Rail (a private irish agent) and trainline (UK based but with a european sales network). These agents will takes a commission from sales but most of the money goes back to RDG. How RDG carve up this and the money from ordinary tickets which are valid on mulitple TOCs is a subject that would crash this server.......

Britrail was an old brand originally started by British Rail and was
given to ATOC when BR was broken up and privatised.

I stand corrected!

Anyway, it's a minefield.

Thanks everyone for your very helpful information. It looks like the only seats I'll need to reserve are on Virgin, London to Durham and then Great Western, Oxford to London.

Only some trains from Oxford to Paddington have reservable seats - those operated by HSTs. Those operated by Turbos do not. The latter only have a very small first class section at one end (or at one end of each unit if they are being run in multiple).