Sun, 30th August Cardiff 17°
Nation.Cymru wordmark
Advertisement

News

First Class upgrades on selected TfW services now available on Seatfrog

By Emily Price
TfW first class

Transport for Wales (TfW) passengers will able to experience First Class for less on selected services thanks to a new partnership with Seatfrog.

The app enables customers to buy or bid for First Class upgrades, meaning they could secure the best in comfort, hospitality and customer service at a fraction of the normal cost.

It’s now available on journeys between Cardiff and Holyhead and Cardiff and Manchester.

[mid-content-banner]

Festive season

Johnathan Jones, Head of Network Growth at TfW, said: "We’re delighted to be working with Seatfrog to offer our customers the chance to experience First Class travel at a great price."

If you’re already travelling this festive season on applicable routes, but you’ve already secured your Standard ticket, you can upgrade to First Class on the day on-board via the Train Manager, or book ahead by purchasing your First Class upgrades for less on Seatfrog.

[taboola-banner]

Comfort

Iain Griffin, CEO of Seatfrog, said: "We’re thrilled to be partnering with Transport for Wales to offer passengers an affordable way to upgrade to First Class. Our shared commitment to delivering exceptional journeys means that more travellers will now have the opportunity to experience the comfort and quality of the best seats on the train."

After downloading the app and signing up to a Seatfrog account, passengers can enter their booking reference code or use the Seatfrog train search feature, and the app will show what upgrades are available for the journey.

To participate in an auction, passengers can select the number of seats required and place a bid.

[lower-mid-content-banner]

Instant

It is free to take part in the auctions and passengers will only pay if they win.

To instantly upgrade without the risk of being pipped to the post in an auction, passengers can use the Seatfrog app with the instant upgrade option.

The app will send an upgrade barcode straight to customers phones.

Passengers must bring both the original ticket barcode and the First Class upgrade barcode for travel.

For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.

Get more trusted Welsh news

Choose Nation.Cymru as a preferred source in Google News to see more of our journalism.

Choose Nation.Cymru as a preferred source in Google News

6 comments

Bob McIntyre

Unfortunately, as many have learnt, first class is an all too transient entity on TfW, with two or three coach second class units being substituted at short notice for the five coach trains on almost a daily basis. Indeed you may find yourself hunting vainly for first class and the restaurant car on a solo Class 153 unit as you rattle north to Manchester.

Reply
Rob Pountney

'First class' should be abolished... We are always being told we can't afford (even exceedingly basic) stuff, the public transport system is woefully underfunded and has chronic undercapacity issues, yet still we seem prepared to spend extra to provide a 'luxury' service which by definition cuts capacity quite radically, even if it paid for itself (which I doubt very much) we don't have the capacity to waste space on the system for this kind of special treatment... Spend the money on making trains & stations accessible instead, something that should have been done & dusted decades ago...

Reply
Bob

What's wrong with a choice? Why shouldn't leisure travellers visiting Wales have the option of more comfort and a nice meal served as the beautiful Welsh countryside flashes by? More capacity is as simple as adding extra carriages. There's no need to cancel a visitor attraction. This idea that public transport must be unpleasant and reserved for life's losers is the result of decades of work by the oil industry selling us the virtues of the car.

Reply
Mab Meirion

It will still take seven hours to travel one hundred fifty miles...and be killed !

Reply
Peter Cuthbert

It seems like a brilliant idea to me. However, I notice that the article did not mention the Shrewsbury Aberystwyth service. After all, most of us who live in Cymru are not interested in travelling to Manchester. We would, however, like a much better rail service throughout the Country and to have bookable seats and even first class would be nice.

Reply
Bob

It's reliably available between Cardiff and Holyhead if you take the first southbound or 5pm northbound from as little as £43 with a railcard.

Reply

Leave a reply

Replying to Rob Pountney Cancel

'First class' should be abolished... We are always being told we can't afford (even exceedingly basic) stuff, the public transport system is woefully underfunded and has chronic undercapacity issues, yet still we seem prepared to spend extr...

Comments are reviewed before they appear.