Right to refund? packed train no seats.

mumx3

Can someone tell me what if anything can be done, my daughter brought an open return ticket with First Great Western from London To Devon costing £53.

Journey up was fine she had a seat, but travelling back the train arrived at Newton Abbot it was completely full no seats at all. Things got no better the whole journey, as whenever the train stopped it picked up even more passengers, still no seats so Daughter and many others spent the whole journey 2hr 50mins sitting on the floor outside the toilets.

She wrote to FGW and they said because she didnt actually book a seat then there is nothing they can do, re a refund.

Is this right, or should she keep fighting for at least the return part of her journey to be refunded??

How these trains sell so many tickets knowing the train is choco block is just wrong and dangerous!!:mad:

Linus2864

As a commuter and train user, I sympathise with your daughter and find it annoying if there are no seats, but when you buy your ticket you are paying for the journey and not a seat.

For a long journey it's worth reserving a seat, especially during school holidays and if the journey (like your daughter's) is a holiday route.

L

thegirlintheattic

Not unless you reserved a seat - as it was an open return that is usually not possible without some time spend on hold to the call center.

Billy-no-Money

For future reference - even if you've already bought your ticket, you can go to any station and add a reservation up to two hours before the train starts its journey* (assuming of course there are still some unreserved seats left).

So if you've got an Open Return because you don't know when you'll be travelling you can reserve a seat when your plans are a bit clearer.

According to the National Rail site reservations are free at the time of buying the ticket so in theory there could be a charge for this; but in practice I think it's usually free.

I don't know if this would have been useful in this situation of course.

(*Note this is the start of the TRAIN'S journey, not the time you're joining the train)

dzug1

mumx3 wrote: »

How these trains sell so many tickets knowing the train is choco block is just wrong and dangerous!!:mad:

But the ticket was not sold for that train - it was valid on any one of probably 300 or so trains. I doubt if every one of them was that full. Some will have been nearly empty.

dzug1

Billy-no-Money wrote: »

According to the National Rail site reservations are free at the time of buying the ticket so in theory there could be a charge for this; but in practice I think it's usually free.

FGW charge £5 for reservations except those made at the time of buying the ticket - which are free

mumx3

Thanks everyone for the replies, all very helpful and I'v learnt things i didnt know.

Next time I will make sure my daughter books a seat,

ani_26

According to terms and conditions of carriage, when you buy a ticket, you pay for transportation from a) to b), not a seat, and this may include transportation by a replacement bus service. Job done.

Tilt

I remember once travelling from Wolverhampton to Portsmouth with my young son via Bristol on advance tickets. Advance tickets mean that you have to use specific trains and they mostly have seat reservations for most of the journey. On this occasion, our tickets from Bristol stated that we were in seats in coach 'D' which I thought was strange because normally that leg of the journey is operated by a 3 coach sprinter type train. When we arrive at the platform at Bristol TM for the Portsmouth train, sure enough there was no coach 'D' and there were around 200 Bristol Rover fans waiting to board the same train! I approached the train staff and insisted that they either find us seats or provide us with alternative transport to Portsmouth as I was with a small child with luggage. They duly allowed us on the train before anyone else so we could find seats. BUT when the train was loaded, it was literally rammed full to certainly over capacity which I too considered to be dangerous. Surely you would think that when there is a football match on, they would put extra carriages on... wouldn't you?

missile

There is a finite capacity. It is not always possible to find extra coaches to give everyone a seat. Would you rather those without a reservation are told train is full when there are no seats available?

shaun_from_Africa

ani_26 wrote: »

According to terms and conditions of carriage, when you buy a ticket, you pay for transportation from a) to b), not a seat, and this may include transportation by a replacement bus service. Job done.

Sounds very much like a direct quote from the Ryanair terms and conditions!