On Sat, 08 Sep 2007 09:45:19 -0700,
Mr Thant wrote:
On 8 Sep, 01:56, wrote:
But while TheTrainline.com has a de-facto monopoly (it seems all the
others license their system), nothing will happen. Particularly now
Trainline is owned by some venture capital firm or other - they have
absolutely no interest in spending money improving a product which has
the market by the balls, since they get little benefit out of
passenger satisfaction, while the TOCs get the bad publicity if
Trainline's crap web-app is unable to perform such basic tasks.

Virgin now have their own non-trainline booking system (though the
Virgin-branded trainline is still around). It has options for Quiet
Zone, Power Socket, Table Seat and Window or Aisle (but not Facing or
Backwards) for any train, including non-Virgin.

https://www.buytickets.virgintrains.co.uk/

Although the Virgin website doesn't sell tickets for all their trains.

I always go to the GNER website (mainly because 99% of my tickets are on
GNER) but I recently wanted to buy tickets Watford Junction to Chester.
I'd found the tickets on GNER but then remembered that last time I'd
booked Virgin tickets via GNER the tickets had only arrived about three
days before travel which is a bit nerve wracking so this time I decided
to buy them on the Virgin website.

Went onto the Virgin website and found the Northbound ticket no problem
but the Southbound one required me to go all the way into Euston
(departing Chester at the same time as the GNER website said) and then
back out on Silverlink (and was more expensive than the GNER direct
ticket). So went back to GNER and then realized that the GNER ticket was
first class, so not only a direct train and cheaper but also first class
as compared to standard class.

I could understand that possibly there were advance purchase first class
tickets available that I hadn't seen on the Virgin website but not that
you can't buy a standard class direct ticket at all (even though the
train does stop at Watford Junction - presumably you aren't allowed to
get off when you are on a standard class ticket?)

Tim.


--
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and there was light.

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