{"id":40808,"date":"2017-01-16T14:00:17","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T07:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/virgin-season-ticket-means-i-can-reserve-a-seat-so-why-am-i-forced-to-stand\/"},"modified":"2017-01-16T14:13:30","modified_gmt":"2017-01-16T07:13:30","slug":"virgin-season-ticket-means-i-can-reserve-a-seat-so-why-am-i-forced-to-stand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/virgin-season-ticket-means-i-can-reserve-a-seat-so-why-am-i-forced-to-stand\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgin season ticket means I can reserve a seat, so why am I forced to stand?"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nI pay almost \u00a38,000 a year and don\u2019t understand how a train operator can be so incompetentI hold an annual rail season ticket from Spalding to London (via Peterborough) with Virgin Trains East Coast. Last year this cost \u00a37,816, excluding underground travel. In theory, season ticket holders can reserve seats up to 12 weeks in advance, for which they fill in a spreadsheet and send to Virgin. However, this department appears to be only available via email. It is supposed to respond to requests within seven days, but sometimes I\u2019ve had to chase it for up to a month. When someone responds, they simply say the train I reserved was full and to take a different one, which is not convenient. For the last month my reservation was marked as from Newark rather than Peterborough \u2013 two stops before I get on. This has meant that almost every day I end up standing. Continue reading…
\n
\nSource : theguardian.com
\nRead more…Virgin season ticket means I can reserve a seat, so why am I forced to stand?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I pay almost \u00a38,000 a year and don\u2019t understand how a train operator can be...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-property-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75ss1-aCc","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9812,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/railroaded-by-virgin-trains-into-buying-another-ticket-then-refused-a-refund\/","url_meta":{"origin":40808,"position":0},"title":"Railroaded by Virgin Trains into buying another ticket \u2026 then refused a refund","date":"April 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r I could provide proof of payment with my bank card, but it wasn\u2019t acceptedIn January I renewed my senior railcard in person at Wolverhampton station. At the same time I asked the booking clerk for information about travel on Virgin Trains to Newark Castle two days later. He printed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10924,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/our-struggle-to-get-a-train-ticket-refund-is-virgin-on-the-ridiculous\/","url_meta":{"origin":40808,"position":1},"title":"Our struggle to get a train ticket refund is Virgin on the ridiculous","date":"April 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r No matter how I try, I can\u2019t get the money that\u2019s due after sending my delay repay formIn the wake of your story about problems with Virgin Trains, I am also experiencing dreadful service. Following a delayed train in December I was due a full refund for \u00a3179.20. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39595,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/virgin-gets-back-on-track-with-rail-ticket-refunds\/","url_meta":{"origin":40808,"position":2},"title":"Virgin gets back on track with rail ticket refunds","date":"January 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Train company changes policy after pressure from readers and passenger group over refunding commuters if they find their lost railcardA few weeks ago we covered the case of GC of London who had forgotten his disabled person\u2019s railcard while on a Virgin West Coast train between Manchester Piccadilly and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1098,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/i-booked-first-class-for-a-third-class-virgin-trains-experience\/","url_meta":{"origin":40808,"position":3},"title":"I booked first class for a third class Virgin trains experience","date":"January 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r It cost me \u00a3129 for a Virgin East Coast trip to Newcastle upon Tyne but the train was late, seat reservations were removed and there was no food or drinkI booked a first-class ticket and seat \u2013 for \u00a3129 \u2013 to travel in early January between Newcastle upon Tyne\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52708,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/virgin-trains-refused-to-refund-293-after-i-forgot-my-railcard\/","url_meta":{"origin":40808,"position":4},"title":"Virgin Trains refused to refund \u00a3293 after I forgot my railcard","date":"April 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Train operator says I must send in the new tickets I had to buy on the train, but the barrier retained them when we returned homeIn January my wife and I and three daughters travelled to Euston from Chester for a weekend in London. We bought tickets in December\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34166,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/i-lost-my-railcard-and-was-forced-to-pay-200-more-for-ticket\/","url_meta":{"origin":40808,"position":5},"title":"I lost my railcard and was forced to pay \u00a3200 more for ticket","date":"November 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r I found it at the end of the journey but Virgin won\u2019t refund meWe travelled off peak from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston in September, using two advance first-class tickets which cost \u00a335.65 each with my disabled person\u2019s railcard. But when the ticket inspector checked, I couldn\u2019t find my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40808"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40808\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}