I will be traveling to UK in December with a family of four, and was wondering on how to make seat reservations with SCOTRAIL on a BritRail pass. Although BritRail Pass website offers a reservation service, I believe it is a bit expensive to charge $30 for each person on a reservation on top of an already not inexpensive pass. Any pointers someone can give me on how to reserve with SCOTRAIL without incurring extra costs? Thank you in advance!
Posted by
Wengen
2376 posts
Which trains do you want to reserve? I doubt you can even reserve seats on many Scotrail services. Anyway, the go to place would be the station.
Posted by
Lake District, England
7324 posts
For reservations on any train company in the UK, use Great Western Railway (counter intuitive as it may sound)-
https://www.gwr.com/your-tickets/seat-reservations.
You will need to form an account with GWR first, and can then make the reservations for free.
This is the only way to do it for free unless you are in country where you can do so for free and for any train in the country at any staffed station.
Reservations for Scotrail open every Thursday 12 weeks (or so) before travel.
Posted by
OP
6 posts
WengenK - I plan on reserving seats from Edinburgh to Inverness with SCOTRAIL and also a sleeper train from Inverness to London. I think there are two rail companies that offer a sleeper. Although for regular trains reservation is needed, everyone seems to think it is advisable to make one especially during the holiday season. Now, for sleeper trains reservations are mandatory. I just began researching on all this and there's a lot of conflicting information out there.
Posted by
OP
6 posts
isn31c - Thank you very much for the info! If you don't mind me asking, why would a third party company offer such a service for free on behalf of different rail companies? Am I being way "too American" for failing to understand how can it be reliable (and free) ? Thank you once again!
Posted by
Lake District, England
7324 posts
I think you are, as you say, just being American in the thought process. Any, or all, train companies COULD offer reservations only like that- the computer systems exist industry wide.
GWR is the only one so far to do that (LNER also do, but only for their own trains).
For the Sleeper GWR run a sleeper from London to Penzance and Caledonian Sleeper are the only ones from Scotland to London.
That room has to be booked with Cal Sleeper not with GWR- the only exception to the general rule- https://www.sleeper.scot/
BritRail or any other pass does not include the cost of the room- just seated travel. Thus you need to buy a room supplement. Cal Sleeper open bookings 12 months early. You need to get that soonest in case the rooms sell out.
On their booking page you need to tick the box which says 'Room Supplement only'.
Posted by
OP
6 posts
isn31c - Thank you very much for your invaluable tips. Yes, I was under the impression I was being over skeptical, it is great to see companies thinking about customers and providing these complimentary services. I am just not used to it, but definitely love it! If you don't mind me picking your brain a little more, for traveling in the UK would you agree that BritRail would be the best option from someone like me coming from the US? Reason I ask is that on some of the rail companies I've noticed a myriad of other "rail cards" as an option but I would assume they are for domestic use while BritRail would be the best discounted option for a foreign tourist? Once again, thank you very much!
Posted by
Lake District, England
7324 posts
@ eddie- Without seeing your full itinerary I can't give a definitive answer but in most cases a Britrail pass (unless it is the brilliant London and South East one) is not the most economical solution.
All the railcards (like Family and Friends in your case) are available to a worldwide audience, as are the various domestic rover (multi day) and ranger (1 day) tickets.
Now some people like Britrail, even at a slight premium to the overall cost, for it's flexibility to use any train at will.
And that's fine.
But if you can or are willing to buy Advance tickets for specific train departures like GLA-INV (say you now know you will be on the 1009 on 3 December, by Advance tickets for peanuts, if you think you may want to be on the first train or the 0800 or the lunchtime train buy a flexible ticket). Except for some obscure products there is no ticket type available only to the domestic market.
It is very different to how things work in the US.
All railroads talk to each other (if sometimes through gritted teeth), and you can buy anyone's tickets through any other company. I know that is anathema to US railroads. Imagine trying to buy a Brightline ticket from CalRail for instance. If that was the UK you would be able to.
Posted by
OP
6 posts
isn31c - Thank you again for the thoroughly explanation. You're 100% right, it wouldn't happen here, and it is so crazy how we tend to have a mindset based on what we know, that it prevents us from contemplating other possibilities... And here I am getting philosophical. I will certainly follow these tips and will try to come up with a fixed itinerary to try to get advantage of discounts/cheaper fares that may be available. Once I have the itinerary ready I will then shop around. Once again, thank you very much for taking the time to give me these pointers. Have a great one!