Ok, here are a couple of First Great Western-related moral dilemmas that I'm intrigued to know the answer to. Your views are very much welcome.
Moral Dilemma Number One: It's just before 6pm at Paddington and, as is occasionally the case, the 6pm Paddington-Bristol Temple Mead has been replaced by a considerably smaller Adelante train. (Indeed, this is precisely what happened last night, hence my question.) No seat reservations have been placed on the Adelante's seats, so a man gets on and sits in an apparently vacant seat. The train manager apologises for the smaller train but her announcement makes no reference to the subject of seat reservations. Just before the train is ready to depart and is now standing room-only, a person comes up to the seat where the man is sitting waving a reservation and says "That's my seat, I've reserved it." My question is: is the reservation valid even though a different train has been substituted and no reservations have been marked?
Moral Dilemma Number Two: According to the terms and conditions, First Great Western's latest off-peak upgrade to first class offer for season ticket holders says that the upgrade is valid 'for journeys commencing between 09.30 and 16.30'. Yesterday's 9.25am Chippenham-Paddington arrived late at 9.33am so I duly upgraded myself. However, the train manager said the upgrade was not valid as the service was scheduled to depart at 9.25am, although he did allow me to remain in first class for the duration of the journey. My question is: was my upgrade valid or not?
If you can shed any light on these perplexing puzzles, I would be most grateful.
Wednesday, 2 April 2008
The Moral Maze...First Late Western style
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13 comments:
I'd say that reservations are only valid if they are displayed in the train. I'd also say that First's view that trains SCHEDULED to leave after 0930 are off-peak is fair, given this is a long-distance, infrequent service.
Regarding the 9.30am point, the 9.25am Chippenham-Paddington is already off-peak when it reaches Chippenham at its scheduled time.
Reservation not valid - it's not the same train and the seats are different too.
Upgrade not valid - everything depends on the scheduled departure time irrespective of the actual time of departure, and I assume the upgrade depends on the stations named on your ticket, therefore you cannot claim an upgrade from a station closer to your destination.
Reservation not valid.
Upgrade valid. It departed after 0930. If there was a ticket that was valid after 0930 - technically speaking that ticket was valid as the train departed after 0930 so the upgrade was also valid.
i think its for trains that commence their journey after 0930.
otherwise all your standard class season ticket holders who have these vouchers would have to sit in standard and then all move into 1st after the clock passes 0930,
my interpretation of the conditions is that its for journey commencement trains after 0930, so the 0900 throughout from bristol it would not be valid on but the 0930 bristol to pad it would be valid.
@Anonymous:
Bit dodgy for Penzance services then!!
if all you do is slag of FGW then why bother using the service??? catch a bloody bus or something and grow up
Perhaps, Lucy, because First have a monopoly on the routes that the blogger has to travel and because it's impractical to get a bus over long distances. Fuck off.
As a season ticket holder you may break your journey at any intermediate station, so you may as a minimum upgrade from any intermediate station after 9:30 has passed.
abp....do you really have to use such foul and abusive language?? its not big and it really isnt very clever
If the upgrade voucher is valid for departures scheduled from station X after 0930, then it is NOT valid if the 0925 runs late period.
Also, other stations will have their own times (ie Bath might be 0912, swindon 0948 or somesuch) for the same offpeak train basically, this means you should NEVER get a situation where you can upgrade halfway through a journey based on timings.
Reservations are only valid if they are placed on the train as booked (ie the 0900 from Bristols Reservations are not valid on the 0930 etc), if a smaller train is substituted then reservations STILL stand even if moved to differently numbered coaches/seats.
If the reservation tags are not placed out as a whole (due to late arrival of the set etc) then the reservations are not legally binding and they do not stand (read:every man for himself!) with the possible exception of a wheelchair seat/space reservation.
Once a reservation slip is in place it is a £200 fine for unauthorised removal and £50 for unauthorised occupation of the seat). If the reservation slips have been placed out the TM should have a full listing of all seats reserved and most of these will have the reservees name on them.
I hope this helps!
(ex inspector!!)
Thanks anonymous ex-inspector. on the issue of the upgrade voucher and the 9.25am train, FGW's customer services agreed with you. this is what they say:
"I have checked and although the Saver ticket is valid on the 0925 service from Chippenham to London Paddington the free upgrade does state it is valid for journeys that start at 0930. Therefore I can confirm that they are not valid on this train.
"I'm afraid that I can't agree to any compensation (I wasn't asking for any - EK), as you were still travelling on a peak time service. Although it was late leaving it was still the same service, delayed. I realise that this is not the answer you were hoping for, and perhaps I can explain why this is the situation.
We take a consistent approach to be fair to all passengers. All our ticket prices are based on a train's scheduled departure time rather than its actual departure time. So if you have a cheaper off-peak ticket and your train is delayed into peak time, we do not charge for an upgrade. The train is still the same service, even if it is delayed. In the same way, if you have a peak-time ticket and your train is delayed into off-peak, it's the same service and we do not offer refunds."
All clear?
The wording on the ticket is ambiguous, so once again the guard has to take the flak because someone in FGW cant use proper english. Hey, you got something for free, dont complain about it.
abp, what a nasty piece of work you are, alas one of many who travel on the trains.
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