Seat reservations on Virgin trains

BlueVinney

I've booked on-line with thetrainline.com for Christmas hols (for OH and self) from the south coast to Newcastle and back. Low fares and seats reserved BUT for a 6hr+ ride I want to make sure that we've got reasonable seats.

I've just called the (far eastern) Helpline for thetrainline and they weren't able to tell me what seats had been reserved for us or, apparently, book specific seats. Any suggestions on how I can arrange that we have seats that suit us?

emzig123

Hiya,

If you have arranged to have your tickets delivered to you then it will say on them which seats have been reserved for you. Use the virgin website to tell you which seats they are. If you aren't happy then try ringing Virgin Customer Services and see what they can do for you.

Virgin link is http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/travelling_with_us/our_trains/voyager_tour/default.aspx it will most likely be a voyager you will be on, I regularly use the Leeds-Bristol route and that's all I've ever seen!

waster_2

It will be the Virgin Cross Country service on one of their Voyager trains. They can get very full as the length of these trains is not as great as their Pendolinos out of Euston on the West Coast main line.

The seat configuration will be either two pairs facing across a table or airline style seats. With the airline style seats you could be either facing or have your back to the direction of travel. You may not be able to determine which until you get on the train and see how they have run the service (i.e. which way the train was facing when it departed). This is not normally an issue on the Pendos, as the seat numbers are on LCD's above the seats and the train direction does not matter.

matto

I've found that if they're cheap tickets they tend to be airline style seats. The train will also probably reverse direction at least twice.

BlueVinney

Thanks for your help guys.

You're confirming my worst fears. OH feels sick travelling backwards on a train so I was hoping to get 2 seats facing each other so we could change places when the train reverses at Reading.

emzig123 the web site says that tickets are despatched close to the date of the journey so I may not find out seat reservations till then, probably too late to do anything about it, but I'll try your contact suggestions.

Update. Tickets have arrived but confirmed that seats are airline style. Tried talking to telephone 'help' line (had a problem trying to explain the problem to them - think it was in India) and emailing customer service in Virgin but in vain. Seems impossible to make any changes.

Guess next time I'll return to flybe. At least I can sort out seat reservations on-line to my satisfaction. Fares were very similar so thought I'd try to do my bit for global warming but that's gone sour on me.

BlueVinney

Tickets have arrived but confirmed that seats are airline style. Tried talking to telephone 'help' line (had a problem trying to explain the problem to them - think it was in India) and emailing customer service in Virgin but in vain. Seems impossible for anyone to make any changes to seat reservations.

Guess next time I'll return to flybe and go by air. At least I can sort out seat reservations on-line to my satisfaction. Fares were very similar so thought I'd try to do my bit for global warming but that's gone sour on me.

Pity Virgin don't have the same level of flexibility and Internet savvy as a budget airline.

rdwarr

BlueVinney wrote:

Guess next time I'll return to flybe and go by air. At least I can sort out seat reservations on-line to my satisfaction. Fares were very similar so thought I'd try to do my bit for global warming but that's gone sour on me.

Yes, but you'll still have a problem when the plane reverses direction over Birmingham

Hopefully you'll be able to find some unreserved seating on the train. Remember to watch for people getting out at Reading and be prepared to nip into their seats before the new passengers get on.