SailRail booking issues - not allowing Avanti unless ticket from Crewe or further west

[danm14]

Several days ago, i encountered an obscure issue when helping a family member book a SailRail ticket to return home to Ireland for Christmas.

I found that I was unable to get any booking engine to issue an itinerary with a SailRail Advance or SailRail Standby from points south of Crewe that involved travel on any Avanti West Coast service for any part of the journey for travel this morning, or any other day this week.

However, if the SailRail ticket itself (as opposed to the journey) was from Crewe or further west, itineraries involving the 10:45 Avanti Crewe-Holyhead (09:02 ex Euston) were readily generated.

Trainsplit offered a split-ticket itinerary on the 09:02 London-Holyhead service involving an Off-Peak Single from London to Crewe and a SailRail Advance from Crewe to Dublin. It would not return a through SailRail Advance or SailRail Standby ticket for the same itinerary.

The only itinerary I could get from any booking engine on a through ticket was the 07:46 London Northwestern service connecting into TfW services from Crewe to Holyhead. Obviously I know that it's perfectly legitimate to book this itinerary as a SailRail Standby ticket and then travel on the 09:02 Avanti London-Holyhead - but how many people would just give up?

Is Avanti somehow attempting to restrict the sale of SailRail tickets for their trains? Or is this perhaps some side effect of the fake mandatory reservation policy? Or just an obscure booking engine issue?

 

[edgar13]

I am able to generate a through SailRail Standby Single itinerary on the 09:02 London-Holyhead using trainsplit, but on a later date.
However I am struggling to find regular advance singles just for London-Crewe over the next few days.
It might just be that the trains are all so busy that advances have sold out?

 

[danm14]

Yes, the issue appeared to only affect travel this week.

I wouldn't have thought the availability of Advance tickets had anything to do with getting an itinerary on a train with a SailRail Standby ticket - as far as I was aware the only requirements were (a) availability of a seat on the train, due to the fake mandatory reservation nonsense and (b) availability of a "seat" on the relevant ferry.

I don't think it was an issue of seat availability on the train. I thought it might have been a thing that there were no seats available through from London-Holyhead (i.e. all seats free from London-Crewe were taken from Crewe onwards and vice versa), but I could book a regular non-split single ticket London-Holyhead on the same train without issue so that would seem to rule that out.

 

[Mainline421]

Easiest solution is to visit a ticket office, they can issue them without reservations.

 

[Alex365Dash]

Easiest solution is to visit a ticket office, they can issue them without reservations.

I'd hope it wouldn't be issued without a ferry reservation!

 

[Mainline421]

I'd hope it wouldn't be issued without a ferry reservation!

It can be, they are never asked for anyway so it isn't a problem. Although they should have one yes, and when I bought one a couple of days ago the clerk made sure to issue one which took a couple of minutes.

 

[MrJeeves]

they are never asked for anyway so it isn't a problem

They were asked for both ways during my return trip.

 

[Wallsendmag]

It can be, they are never asked for anyway so it isn't a problem. Although they should have one yes, and when I bought one a couple of days ago the clerk made sure to issue one which took a couple of minutes.

I’m sure reservations really are compulsory this time

 

[Mainline421]

They were asked for both ways during my return trip.

I'm on the 14:45 sailing from Holyhead right now, and they didn't ask for the reservation coupon when handed a Sail Rail Standby ticket at check-in.