First Class Train Travel
Awesome.
In traveling up to Newcastle to start my new job I managed to wangle a first-class train ticket. It was half the price of a standard class ticket. Go figure. Anyway, what a superb way to travel! I have been using long distance train travel for ~12 years now and this was my best experience. Not getting the tickets*, but the whole journey. I was called Sir, had a bigger seat, much more space between me and any other passengers, no-one brushing past me, plenty of space for my expansive luggage, free coffee (lots), free food and a free paper. Superb.
* - Getting the tickets was hard work. I think they felt they'd messed up giving me a cheap ticket. They were meant to post them to me, but come this Tuesday nothing had arrived. I rang them up (Virgin trains) and they said the tickets were returned as they could not reach destination. Now, I know the address they had by looking at the confirmation details of the ticket purchase - there was nothing wrong. Anyway, they said they'd have to send them to the station and I'd have to turn up '15 mins' early to get them. Note this was only done because I rang them up; they hadn't contacted me (the ticket was non-refundable, non-transferable and I think they just wanted me to waste my money on nothing). Anyway, we arrived at the station over an hour early today (traffic wasn't as bad as we'd thought it would be) and the tickets weren't there. I persuaded the guy to ring Virgin up, after he told me to - I was traveling in 50 mins! He had more cache; they confirmed I'd bought the ticket and said they'd fax the details (you need a fax confirmation before being allowed to issue the ticket). They got the fax number wrong. Three times. Anyway, with 10 mins to go I finally got my ticket. I do not know how people are expected to use public transport more often when it is so poorly ran.
Godfather.
In traveling up to Newcastle to start my new job I managed to wangle a first-class train ticket. It was half the price of a standard class ticket. Go figure. Anyway, what a superb way to travel! I have been using long distance train travel for ~12 years now and this was my best experience. Not getting the tickets*, but the whole journey. I was called Sir, had a bigger seat, much more space between me and any other passengers, no-one brushing past me, plenty of space for my expansive luggage, free coffee (lots), free food and a free paper. Superb.
* - Getting the tickets was hard work. I think they felt they'd messed up giving me a cheap ticket. They were meant to post them to me, but come this Tuesday nothing had arrived. I rang them up (Virgin trains) and they said the tickets were returned as they could not reach destination. Now, I know the address they had by looking at the confirmation details of the ticket purchase - there was nothing wrong. Anyway, they said they'd have to send them to the station and I'd have to turn up '15 mins' early to get them. Note this was only done because I rang them up; they hadn't contacted me (the ticket was non-refundable, non-transferable and I think they just wanted me to waste my money on nothing). Anyway, we arrived at the station over an hour early today (traffic wasn't as bad as we'd thought it would be) and the tickets weren't there. I persuaded the guy to ring Virgin up, after he told me to - I was traveling in 50 mins! He had more cache; they confirmed I'd bought the ticket and said they'd fax the details (you need a fax confirmation before being allowed to issue the ticket). They got the fax number wrong. Three times. Anyway, with 10 mins to go I finally got my ticket. I do not know how people are expected to use public transport more often when it is so poorly ran.
Godfather.
