How to bid for last-minute train upgrades to First Class on Avanti, LNER, GWR and CrossCountry

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• Joe says:

  12 Jun12 June 07:03

  I first used this a while ago on East coast where it wasn’t so great.

  Since VT West coast has come on board I’ve used it 3 times, all during the week when the usual first class upgrade is a minimum of £50. Always been good value for money. 2 occasions off peak paying just £10 and one end of the peak paying £11.

  Perfect when you know the train is going to be busy and need to work or just want that extra service, especially when they are offering full drinks or breakfast services.

  I can’t really see the point of faffing about it at weekends when the normal price of upgrade is just £20 and full service isn’t offered.

  Another point to note VT will currently only allow you to upgrade a ticket that is currently a fixed advance.

  One thing I haven’t ever seen covered (by anyone) is VT traveller club, where you qualify for free first class weekend pre booked travel when you travel first class a minimum of 8 returns (or 16 singles) in 3 months. Could be a nice shout to make people aware.

  Great coverage as always Rob

  • PaulC says:

    12 Jun12 June 07:37

    I currently have Traveller Reward, runs out in October. Recently had issues booking trains for events with hotels I’ve booked months in advance hoping to get free travel to that I cant get trains for. A quick phone call and email and they have offered complimentary tickets. They seem to pick and choose when there is availability when big events are on, e.g. Edinburgh Tattoo – No free trains on Sunday heading South!

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    12 Jun12 June 08:16

    VT Traveller is a decent scheme but covering it at this time is a bit pointless. Unless the legal appeal by Stagecoach (major shareholder in VT) succeeds Virgin will no longer run the west coast franchise in the not so distant future. There’s no guarantee a new operator would keep it going.

  • Smid says:

    12 Jun12 June 09:46

    I thought traveller had been covered ages ago but it has been so degraded that it is not worth mentioning it anymore.

    Back is 2011 it was wonderful. Monday and Friday peak trains every week.

    They then limited it to remove proper peak time ones. Fair enough. I adapted and it was fine. Glasgow weekends were a great perk.

    Then they cut it properly down to remove all peak times. I still adapted. I was on something like second or third offpeak on a Monday (they never got the peak times right, so it meant 10:30 from birmingham). Scotland still working.

    Then they properly killed it. Did it just after a new year I’d qualified for. They removed friday and monday and not eveb that they kept the overnight stay requirement. So it was basically for one night stay starting on a saturday. Even at that it was so degraded they just didn’t bother putting dome weekends on it. Nobody cared. It was dead then.

    When it first started I would travel first class a whole lot more to qualify and also when paying for it because i like virgin trains so much.

    So why bother covering it anymore? I always got the impression the whole VT service has been degrading down for end of franchise recently anyway. Gone are cheap first tickets anywhere near peak weeks in advance. I traveller mostly standard class this year for the first time in 8 years…

• rotundo says:

  12 Jun12 June 07:47

  I’m intrigued by the restriction that only advance tickets can be upgraded on Virgin Trains – last week I booked standard class off peak tickets on the VT site a few hours before departure and it offered to redirect me to Seatfrog to bid for an upgrade. Could be an IT mess-up I suppose, but I don’t see the rationale for restricting to advance tickets, it’s the exact opposite of the BA policy for UUA!

  • PaulC says:

    12 Jun12 June 07:51

    I’m guessing because an Advance ticket is they only ticket that you have to travel on a certain train and time otherwise you could win an upgrade and try using it on a train that is fully booked in 1st class.

    • PaulC says:

      12 Jun12 June 07:54

      First class requires a seat reservation although there is an unreserved coach on Pendo’s and seats on Voyagers.

    • rotundo says:

      12 Jun12 June 07:59

      Agreed, although in theory the upgrade process could ask you to pick a train and convert the standard off-peak/anytime into a more restrictive first class advance one… This restriction is unfortunate, I really like the flexibility offered by train travel at little extra cost – unlike those bloody airlines 🙂

• Mr(s) Entitled says:

  12 Jun12 June 07:54

  Very timely, I have a return Virgin train ticket booked for today. The app shows one bid for the outbound and no bids for the return.

  I’ll give it a whirl.

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:

    12 Jun12 June 21:06

    Data points: Out bid on the outbound which went for £15 which is more than I value the food at so was happy to pass. Return went unclaimed at £10 on the 9pm Euston-Manchester which I passed on because I had eaten and simply dont value the soft product on my 90min journey.

    I am however impressed by the app, ease of use, and potential benefit around meal times. Thanks HfP.

• Richard says:

  12 Jun12 June 08:38

  NB the restriction that only Advance fares can be upgraded applies also to LNER. I think this is a rail industry systems thing: if you do get an Seat Frog upgrade, the seat reservation won’t necessarily be shown on the train indicators themselves and the system relies on you showing your phone and the ticket to the conductor, ie. your ‘ticket’ for systems purposes is still a standard one. Doesn’t make much sense, but the rail IT infrastructure is beyond byzantine.

  • Ken says:

    14 Jun14 June 16:49

    You can now upgrade any ticket in the app. You just need to choose a specific train.

• Pb says:

  12 Jun12 June 08:45

  There is probably little point in them getting FIrst GW into the scheme , the differntial between first and second , apart possibly from overcrowding , is virtually non existent on the new rolling stock .

  • Kipto says:

    12 Jun12 June 11:03

    Totally agree

• Andy says:

  12 Jun12 June 20:25

  Brilliant tip – used it today for the first time. £11 upgrade from Euston. Kick myself for missing the article in 2017 – I could have spent the last 2 years commuting in first class.

  Thank you Rhys and Rob!

• Sean Bhalach says:

  14 Jun14 June 18:59

  Does this cover London-Glasgow on Virgin trains too?

  • Andy S says:

    15 Jun15 June 09:20

    Yes, all Virgin Train routes except London to Holyhead. I expect this is due to the Voygers having limited first class seats.

• Andrew S says:

  15 Jun15 June 09:34

  I always book advance tickets on long distance train trips. I used seatfrog to upgrade a £24 London to Mancheter ticket on a weekday departure. I bidded £16 (to make the total cost £40), however I got the upgrade for £10.

  I would pay £10 alone for the better seats and additional space in first class.

  At the weekends Virgin as increased the weekend upgrade fee to £25 between London and Manchester / Liverpool / Preston. Therefore In will be using seatfrog on weekend journeys.

  I’m more than happy to pay £20 upgrade on weekdays and £15 on weekends between London and the North West.

  I usually use Chiltern Railways between London and Marylebone. The Chiltern Railways Silver MK3 carriages are is the best standard class on the UK rail network.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.