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First Class upgrades using Seatfrog

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AY1975

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Apologies if there's already a thread on this (the search facility doesn't seem to be working at the moment) but has anyone had any experiences of bidding for First Class upgrades using the Seatfrog app? If you managed to win an upgrade, what is the cheapest upgrade that you've ever won? Or if you skipped the auction and went for "buy it now", how much did you pay for your upgrade? What type of ticket did you have?

According to the Seatfrog website Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, Grand Central, Great Western, LNER and TransPennine Express currently participate in the scheme. Apparently Grand Central has just joined.

I can't find any reference to Seatfrog on the Avanti, XC or GWR websites, though - maybe those operators deliberately don't want to publicise the facility in case it gets too popular so you can only use it if you're in-the-know?
 
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_toommm_

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Cheapest I’ve had is £8.00 from Aberdeen to Leeds on LNER. This was a few months ago, I got about four alcohol runs, and two or three food runs. Pretty good IMO.
 

westv

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When it comes to LNER seats with seatfrog, is it a matter of like it or lump it or can you select a particular seat?
 

lawried123

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Cheapest I’ve had is £8.00 from Aberdeen to Leeds on LNER. This was a few months ago, I got about four alcohol runs, and two or three food runs. Pretty good IMO.


I got a Seat Frog upgrade last Monday on an early train from Wokingham to Plymouth for £13., confirmed immediately. Didn't need it on the return journey as I had a Pullman meal on the train which gives you a first class seat automatically.

Lawrie
 

XAM2175

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I did see it reach £50 for one upgrade on Leeds to Edinburgh with XC a few months ago... now I know that second on an XC Voyager isn't an overly nice place to be but I wouldn't have said it was that was bad! :p
 

ricoblade

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I was sceptical but have just got Retford>King's Cross for £11:00, albeit on an off-peak service.
 

Argyle 1980

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£13 does seem to be the usual what I pay Plymouth-Paddington, though on the 1115 recently it was £20.
Seatfrog have a automatic allocation too if someone goes in with a bid over a certain amount, then it automatically sells them the seat for that price.
I normally bid £16 opening on GWR and get it for £13. Recently somebody outbid me to £18 so I bid £25 and it automatically sold me the seat for £20 long before the auction closed.

Getting single upgrades with GWR seems quite easy, getting an upgrade for two people together is more difficult. Only ever pulled that off once as you get a message saying no upgrades are available for that amount of seats.
 

Watershed

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Getting single upgrades with GWR seems quite easy, getting an upgrade for two people together is more difficult. Only ever pulled that off once as you get a message saying no upgrades are available for that amount of seats.
Yes, there are normally only one or two Seatfrog seats per train. So I imagine you need to bid very early on to get two seats.
 

ricoblade

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Yes, there are normally only one or two Seatfrog seats per train. So I imagine you need to bid very early on to get two seats.
Good to know as I’m due to go to Glasgow from Donny with a colleague next week and was wondering if it’d work for that.
 

jrh2254

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Never managed to get anything reasonable on either CrossCountry or Avanti!

Roger French wrote an article on his blog about Seatfrog last December. https://busandtrainuser.com/2020/12/10/a-first-class-scam/
I have to agree all rather opaque

Cheapest I’ve had is £8.00 from Aberdeen to Leeds on LNER. This was a few months ago, I got about four alcohol runs, and two or three food runs. Pretty good IMO.
Nice. Would be good if I could ever experience the same!
 
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ricoblade

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I'm now bidding for my return journey (currently winning!). I'm not sure what happens if I or someone else "buys" the upgrade (currently double the bid), does that end the auction and remove the available seats?
 

Jimini

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Never managed to get anything reasonable on either CrossCountry or Avanti!


I have to agree all rather opaque


Nice. Would be good if I could ever experience the same!

I’ve just paid a fiver for an upgrade to 1st from Manchester to Reading on XC. Not too shabby.
 

OrangeJuice

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XC now saying upgrades unavailable on Seatfrog unfortunately for the journeys I want to travel on
 

DeeGee

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So, if I bid for my trip from Newark to Kings Cross next Friday, and I win, am I likely to get fed and watered? Or is that journey too short for that?

Because if I do bid, I'm only really likely to bid what I'd spend in the buffet anyway. It's £21 for Buy it Now, and I'm not sure it's worth that. If I wanted to pay that I'd have booked the 1st Advance.
 

ricoblade

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What happens to your upgrade if you miss your train due to connections being late (nearly happened to me yesterday on another TOC)?
 

Argyle 1980

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GWR once honoured my £13 upgrade Paddington to Saltash that was for the 1704 on the 1804 to Plymouth because my service from Folkestone got terminated at Ashford.
They also honoured and upgrade for the 1800 Paddington-Plymouth on the 1803 Paddington-Plymouth because the 1800 was short formed and severely overcrowded, but this occasion they announced that anyone with tickets beyond Bath Spa was advised to join the 1803 Penzance service and change at Taunton if they required Taunton to Bristol stations.

Not sure how more stricter ticket hungry operators like Avanti would handle it though.
 

JamesT

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GWR once honoured my £13 upgrade Paddington to Saltash that was for the 1704 on the 1804 to Plymouth because my service from Folkestone got terminated at Ashford.
They also honoured and upgrade for the 1800 Paddington-Plymouth on the 1803 Paddington-Plymouth because the 1800 was short formed and severely overcrowded, but this occasion they announced that anyone with tickets beyond Bath Spa was advised to join the 1803 Penzance service and change at Taunton if they required Taunton to Bristol stations.

Not sure how more stricter ticket hungry operators like Avanti would handle it though.

Seatfrog’s help centre has various articles split per operator, https://help.seatfrog.com/hc/en-gb/...t-happens-if-my-trip-is-delayed-or-cancelled- is the one for Avanti. It seems oddly worded, but implies they would try and get you on a following train with your upgrade.
 

Jimini

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XC seem to have fallen by the wayside on Seatfrog this past week or so (at least from Reading to Brum, in both directions).
 

_toommm_

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XC seem to have fallen by the wayside on Seatfrog this past week or so (at least from Reading to Brum, in both directions).
I imagine they’ve turned it off, or at the very least severely limited availability of upgrades, what with the reduced capacity at the moment.
 

les.

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AFAIK there is no functionality to select a seat
I once got an upgrade for £8 from Doncaster to Edinburgh. When you are "pinged" to say you have won it includes your seat number but you cannot select a particular seat yourself as far as I know.
 

AY1975

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I managed to get an upgrade for £11 for King's Cross-Doncaster on New Year's Eve. When I placed a bid the day before, it said starting bid £6, and I placed a maximum bid of £20 but got a message an hour later to say I'd won it for £11.

This morning I travelled from Doncaster to King's Cross and got one for £35, which is just over what I paid for my original ticket (£31.20)! When I checked availability yesterday it said starting bid £25 or I could bypass the auction and "buy it now" for £35 so I did that. The busier the train, the higher the starting price, I would guess.

As well as getting a barcode on the actual Seatfrog app, you also get one emailed to you, so I wonder if it would be permissible to print out the email that you get from Seatfrog and present that with your original ticket instead of showing the barcode on your phone?

The reason that I wondered that, is that if it is allowed, my dad, who is in his 80s and doesn't use the internet or have a smartphone (and he lives in a different part of the country from me) would then be able to use it if he could get someone who uses the internet to buy an upgrade on his behalf and print out the Seatfrog email for him to use.
 

Mike395

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I'm sure that'll be fine - the QR code is an Aztec code which can be read like any other e-ticket as far as I'm aware.
 
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