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2 Britrail Pass Seat Reservation Questions

We will have a Britrail Pass and will be taking a London to York route on a Saturday in September. We plan to get a reservation for that, which I understand is free if done in the train station.

My 1st question is do BOTH of us have to be present to get the seat reservation slips? My dad will be arriving in London a couple days prior to me and could get the reservations for us both. Otherwise, we would need to get them on Saturday when I arrive. Last time I did that, reservations were "sold out" for the day and we had to "hop on" and find a seat. I am trying to avoid that this time.

My 2nd question is if one person can get both reservations, does that person need the Britrail pass to show the ticket agent to issue the seat reservations? If so, I will make sure my dad has the pass with him so he can get the reservations for us.

Posted by
342 posts

Charles, about 3 years ago when my husband and I used BritRail passes, I made seat reservations for the first couple of train trips in person at the first rail station we came to. I just showed the counter attendant the BritRail passes to prove I did have "tickets", but my husband did not have to come with me to the counter.

We'll also be in York in September, but taking the train from a different area. I'm working on all the point-to-point tickets now.

Posted by
17432 posts

We were just there last month, four traveling together on a multi-person pass. I made all our seat reservations at a small station without the others present. I did have to show the pass. I took along a printout of the trains I wanted ( actually from the Deutschebahn website) to show the agent. That made it easy.

Posted by
573 posts

Thank you both for sharing your experience with this. Sounds like I can send my dad with the pass and he can have our reservations taken care of before I get there. Perfect!!! Thanks again!!

Posted by
16895 posts

Sounds like a good plan. I'm sure they won't need to eyeball both of you for the reservations, but they will need to see you when you get your pass activated. I've made some reservations in Europe without showing my pass (e.g. saying it was in my hotel room when it was really in my money belt) and that happened to work, too.