travelling in 1st class to avoid the riffraff.

I have to say that other forum members experiences of standard class rail travel seem to be far more interesting than my own. Either I've led a dull life, or perhaps I'm one of the "riff raff".

jkbarnes wrote: ↑Mon Nov 04, 2024 9:08 pm Hi all,

As I’ve mentioned before, my wife and I are planning a big retirement trip next summer. It’s going to be seven days crossing the Atlantic on the Queen Mary then seven days in Edinburgh. As a general rule, we’re trying to go “all in” with the trip and not cut corners, so to speak. However, that doesn’t mean I want to throw money around for the sake of throwing it around. We’re not afraid to spend, we just want to spend it wisely.

To that end, preliminary research suggests the train trip from Southhampton to Edinburgh is about 3 times the cost for 1st class than it is for standard. For an eight hour trip across the UK, do you think 1st class delivers enough bang for the buck? How would 1st class differ from standard?

Thanks everyone!

Morning, Drew.

In my experience, the networks differ here. I used to go 1st class with Virgin on their excellent pendalino trains. It was a mixed bag, frankly. Watch out if you are travelling of a weekend. Virgin had an ugly habit of reducing their standard 1st class service with the excuse that it was a ‘Sunday service only’ which was a bit galling on a Friday evening to be honest.

It looks like you will have the option though of travelling with LNER on that route however. I travelled from Leeds to Southampton (return) in their first class carriages in October (for a short cruise on Cunard’s ‘Queen Anne’) and was pleasantly surprised by the standard of service and what was on offer. Be mindful that on this route up through Newcastle, the standard class can have something of a ‘rowdy party atmosphere’ with stag and hen parties heading up to either Leeds, Newcastle or Edinburgh and partying all of the way.

Hope this is of some use.
Cheers, Phil.

jkbarnes wrote: ↑Mon Nov 04, 2024 9:08 pm Hi all,

As I’ve mentioned before, my wife and I are planning a big retirement trip next summer. It’s going to be seven days crossing the Atlantic on the Queen Mary then seven days in Edinburgh. As a general rule, we’re trying to go “all in” with the trip and not cut corners, so to speak. However, that doesn’t mean I want to throw money around for the sake of throwing it around. We’re not afraid to spend, we just want to spend it wisely.

To that end, preliminary research suggests the train trip from Southhampton to Edinburgh is about 3 times the cost for 1st class than it is for standard. For an eight hour trip across the UK, do you think 1st class delivers enough bang for the buck? How would 1st class differ from standard?

Thanks everyone!

Don't involve the agent for the train journey, cross that bit out. Try the "Trainline" app to make a booking, it couldn't be easier and maybe "Seatfrog", but I haven't used that myself. My partner used to travel to London regularly and she booked in advance to get 1st class at a discounted rate, which made the 4+ hour journey a lot more bearable.

I don't know if the app is available in the US, location detection might prevent it working, but it should once you land. The app does all the finding of routes and prices, all you need to do, is to decide on a suitable time to travel.