National Express £5 seat reservation charge

D1Andrew

Looking for ways to avoid this blatant money raiser? I think I can book National Express train tickets through the First Great Western site and get free seat reservations. There is a £1 booking fee but no credit card charge? Does anyone know of a site where I can avoid all these extra charges - some hide a £1 booking fee in the ticket price.

Mike1901

Try virgintrains.com - last I tried they didn't charge a booking fee, regardless of operator. It's run by thetrainline, as opposed to NXEC which is run by another system (I can't remember offhand what it's called).

alared

NEX only charge £5 for certain tickets,if you book in advance this charge doesn`t apply.
Never got on a train yet where there wasn`t someone sat in my "booked" seat and had to ask them to move.:mad:

KeithP

D1Andrew, welcome to the forum.
Alared, has given good info.

From the NXEC website...

Seat Reservations

If you would like to reserve a seat in Standard Class, a fee of £2.50 will be added to the ticket price. This fee applies to each leg of your journey that you wish to reserve a seat on.
Reserving a seat is optional and the fee applies to the following ticket categories:

• Standard Anytime
• Standard Off-Peak
• Standard Super Off-Peak
• Rangers and Rovers (including BritRail)
• Weekender
• Superbreak (and other Inclusive tour tickets)

Seat reservation charges do not apply in First Class or with Season tickets on National Express East Coast services. If you are travelling in First Class or with a Season ticket, seat reservations can be made free of charge.
If you are travelling on an Advance ticket or a Standard Business Package your seat reservation is included with your ticket and you will not be charged the reservation fee.

It can clearly be seen that seat reservations are optional in most cases, and are included free of charge in Advance tickets.

So, to answer your question...
Continue to use the NXEC booking system.