NRS upgrade and impact on reservations

National Reservation Service Upgrade
From 00:01 hrs on Saturday 29 May 2010 until 11:00 on Sunday 30 May 2010, upgrade work will be carried out on the National Reservations Service (NRS). This period has been chosen as, whilst it is a busy period for travelling, it is one of the quietest times of the year for booking tickets.
NRS is the central reservations system managed by ATOC on behalf of Britain's train companies. Each year NRS processes 1.5 billion booking enquiries from station ticket offices, ticket sales websites, call centres and travel agents. These searches result in over 60 million reservations every year made on National Rail train services in Great Britain. It also supports the sale of over half a million great value Advance fares every week.
The upgrade will double the capacity of NRS, allowing it to support further increases in the already fast growing number of Advance tickets sold every week as well as the anticipated further growth in seat reservations. It will also support new forms of customer-friendly ticketing such as print-at-home tickets.
During the upgrade it will not be possible to view the availability of, or to sell, Advance tickets because they require mandatory reservations; neither will it be possible for customers to make reservations for other types of ticket. Off-Peak and Anytime fares without seat reservations will continue to be available from all usual retail channels. Timetable information will not be affected.
Please can you ensure all team members and any self-booking clients are aware of this short period where Advance tickets, and seat reservations will not be available.

Volcano News

Updated Policy for customers affected by disruption to UK Air Services
The CAA have announced that some Scottish airports will be closed for part of today, 5th May. A number of customers will be seeking to cancel rail tickets to/from airports or alter their rail travel plans.

Virgin Trains Policy for today 5th May, is that if any bona fide airline customers with pre-booked rail tickets dated for travel today, present themselves where they can prove they were due to fly or have just flown in to the country, then:

· Customers who are travelling on pre-booked Advance or walk-up tickets and arrive at the airport to find their flight cancelled will be allowed to return home using their return tickets immediately, with no further charge being made to do this.

and

· Customers whose inward flight is delayed, causing them to miss booked services, will be allowed to use their Virgin Trains Advance tickets, or walk-up tickets that have expired, on any Virgin train today or tomorrow, 5th/6th May, along the same route in order to complete their journey.

These easements only apply to airline passengers. In both the above cases, customers will need to provide evidence that they are bona-fide airline customers, showing either:· Airline ticket or ticket stub· Flight confirmation e-mail print out
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Refunds – normal refund conditions remain in place and hence customers who have chosen to purchase Advance tickets will not be entitled to refunds.