We purchased tickets from Chester to London on Virgin trains website and chose the option to "collect your tickets from Chester." and it provided me with a Booking Reference. When we arrive at the train station in Chester, do we need to find a ticket window to collect the tickets or are there machines to do so? How much time should we allow for this? It's a weekday in August and the train is at 12:30 in the afternoon.
Thanks!
You will find machines but you may also be able to take the Booking Reference number to the manned ticket office and they will issue the tickets. I would print out the booking reference number. Be sure to take the SAME debit card with which you purchased the tickets and you insert that into the machine when told to do so by the instructions that appear on the screen. You will also be told to tap in the Booking Reference number. I would be at the station between noon and 12.10 but you should be able to get the tickets at any British railway station once you have arrived in the UK.
My brother from the US had never collected tickets before and I watched him put his US credit card in the machine and type in the short code on the screen, and watched the little tickets printed and fell to the pickup window where he put his hand in and collected them. All was in order and the whole process (at a machine without a queue) took about 2 minutes.
If you allow 15 minutes or so you should have no problems....
Thank you both so much!!
Remember to collect your tickets you MUST have two things with you at the time: - the card you used to pay for the tickets and the collection code provided to you when you bought the tickets.
You can also collect them at any station which has a machine.
Make sure you pick up every bit of cardboard that the machine gives you. You may be given separate cards for tickets & reservations, and if travelling on an Advance ticket you'll need to show both.
