Can i book a seat on train for under-5?

rosie383

I am going to book tickets today to travel on Thursday from London to Belfast and will do it through Raileasy for a price of £63 for 1 adult and 1 child aged between 5-15. Under 5s are free, but I really don't want to do such a long journey without a seat for my 3 1/2 yr old. I can't find anything on the website about it, and don't want to phone them at £1/min.
I know if the train isn't busy, that it would be no problem, but I can't take the risk. Does anyone know how I can do this please?

davemorton

Buy another ticket for a 5-15 year old.

rosie383

Thanks, but I don't really want to pay another £21 if I can do it for nothing. I actually found eventually the info I was after by going into national rail conditions of carriage ( or something). It said that under 5s may occupy a seat unless it is required by a fare paying passenger. I think I will just risk it and hope that the train isn't packed.

wealdroam

Avoid raileasy's fees by booking through a train operating company.

From the Cheap Train Tickets Article...

If you're using the booking sites, beware, you’ll pay more ... the Trainline charges a £1 booking fee, plus an extra £3.50 for credit card payments. Raileasy, on the other hand, charges a £1 booking fee on every purchase over £10 (£2 if it's under a tenner), plus a 50p debit card fee and 2.5% for credit cards.

rosie383

Thank you so much. £1.50 saved!!! That's a wee bit more for ice cream when we get there!

rosie383

OK. I spoke too soon. I found the same journey on national rail enquiries and printed off the itinerary and was about to buy the tickets. An 'error' page came up, and when I tried to redo it, I can't find the same journey again.
I wanted to book from London Euston at 0710 arriving in Belfast at 1730. Now, all that are coming up are going at 0910, or 1910, both of which take over 12 hours.
The journey is still coming up on the Raileasy site but not national rail enquiries. Any idea anyone, what I can do please?

WestonDave

The 0710 service does exist if you book to Holyhead but not if you book through - this may be due to the different ferry line involved - Irish Ferries as opposed to Stena. It might be worth seeing what the cost is like if you make the journey up from 3 seperate bookings - Rail to Holyhead, Ferry to Dublin and then Dublin to Belfast.

McKneff

Try East Coast Trains, no booking fee, free 1st class postage of tickets.

rosie383

I just spoke to NRE and the guy said that the journey I want isn't coming up as it takes too long and they only show the shortest journey times. I had printed off the itinerary from the NRE site and had it in my hand, reading off times to him as he was trying to tell me that the journey didn't exist!!!!!!
I will look at doing it in 3 stages, but suspect that it'll probably be cheaper to just pay the extra £1.50 to book through Raileasy.

wealdroam

You could try Sailrail.

Not sure whether they charge fees though.

rosie383

I tried sailrail, but the website doesnt give times for journey and says to check on NRE for times of train and ferry. I could phone them, but it's an 0844 number so would probably cost more to phone them, than to book through Raileasy.
I looked at booking each bit seperately, but just to get to Holyhead alone, would cost £84+ so didn't look any further than that.
I think I will just have to book through Raileasy.