On-line Booking Madness

[dowlingm]

The train is the workplace - it's one of the few advantages left over the plane. Who's going to want to take a client call (on vibrate, obv) thinking some scrote after a few cans is going to start yelling in his ear? Therefore, First. However for me the main thing about 1st is being able to change the ticket as my plans change and IE seem to be missing that point.

[on the move]

Originally Posted by ACustomer

If there is a service provided at a premium price and I chose to spend my hard-earned money on it, how dare anyone question my "need"! It's my right and privelage, plain and simple.

If you choose to splash out that sum of money on unnecessary excesses on the train, that's fine. But if you choose to put it on a public forum, then it is open to questioning by other posters.

Originally Posted by dowlingm

Who's going to want to take a client call (on vibrate, obv) thinking some scrote after a few cans is going to start yelling in his ear? Therefore, First. However for me the main thing about 1st is being able to change the ticket as my plans change and IE seem to be missing that point.

I've taken plenty of calls on trains in standard class and there's been noone yelling in my ear. I can happily sit in standard and enjoy the journey, and work in it if needs be.

In the current climate with people trying to cut down on spending as much as possible, more people have to give up luxuries like first-class travel. It's all about getting from A to B, in the shortest possible time, to the cheapest fare available. As I said before, it's not going to get you to Cork or Galway, or Sligo any quicker than anyone else, and if needs be, as earlier demonstrated, in the rare event that a ticket has to be changed, it can be changed with the minimum of fuss.

Imo, if people in business are regularly shelling out on first-class travel, when it can be done for up to as much as half price elsewhere on the train, it should be when it's economically viable to do so, and not if the firm and it's employee's future is in doubt, as many are at the moment. To me, it's a very expensive waste of ever shrinking budget resources, be it personal or business.

Next, they'll be looking for sleeper carriages.

[markpb]

Originally Posted by on the move

I've taken plenty of calls on trains in standard class and there's been noone yelling in my ear. I can happily sit in standard and enjoy the journey, and work in it if needs be.

I had two reserved seats back to Dublin on Sunday and ended up abandoning the A carriage (not first class) to get away from five drunken guys who were screaming and shouting at each other. No host, no conversation, not exactly enjoyable. If I had a car, I'd take it instead.

In the current climate with people trying to cut down on spending as much as possible, more people have to give up luxuries like first-class travel. It's all about getting from A to B, in the shortest possible time, to the cheapest fare available.

The other way of thinking about it is that people willing to pay for first class are making Irish Rail more profitable and subsidising the cheaper fares in standard class.

[Thomas Ralph]

Folks, with the moderator hat on I'd like to remind everyone of the scope of this forum; we're here to discuss Iarnród Éireann and related topics, rather than the merits or otherwise of companies spending money on first class train tickets. Let's try not to derail into a shouting match on the latter subject

[MOH]

Originally Posted by on the move

If I want a reserved seat, I don't need first-class.

Originally Posted by train_traveller

[*]Seat is reserved - meaning reserved - unlike the aspirational reservation system operating in standard - so I don't have to go through the embarrassment of asking somebody to get out of the reserved seat which I paid for - the train host sorts that out for me

I haven't booked seats very often, but when I have they've never actually been reserved. Not once. Maybe this is part of the reason - IE are making so much money out of people who book first class to guarantee getting the seat they reserve, so why would they bother providing the service they claim to offer in standard class? [/conspiracy]

[Thomas Ralph]

If you do reserve a seat in standard class and the train host can't find one for you, you can get a refund on that ticket.

[markpb]

Originally Posted by Thomas Ralph

If you do reserve a seat in standard class and the train host can't find one for you, you can get a refund on that ticket.

And you can find the train host...

[Mark Gleeson]

Unlike the ticket checker there is always a train host onboard

In several cases when the seat reservation system didn't work I've been offered a seat in first class, but only after I asked what was the story

It pays to ask

[Colm Moore]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Unlike the ticket checker there is always a train host onboard

If you can find them when they hide in first class / the kitchen - both places where standard class passengers aren't allowed.