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Coach Question


ian_sw
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This has probably already been answered or discussed but couldn’t see it from a quick scan, so apologies if duplicating stuff but ....

This year all my group are aiming for coach tickets, however as a teacher I am unable to get the days off needed for the coach and have to be flexible with work so will have to drive.

So the question is .... If I get a ticket on a coach am I 100% unable to get it/they collect on my behalf if I don’t actually use the coach service?

I’m assuming not, but thought I would check see if anyone has any knowledge or experience around this issue??

Thanks in advance for your help 

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I believe it's generally at the discretion of the driver - I have read/heard of some groups having been given their tickets before and some not. However, the tickets that aren't given out are usually left for collection (I think). Have a look in the questions section of the forum; there will definitely be more information there.

You may be better just trying for the general sale or if you have a good headteacher unpaid leave? 

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10 hours ago, ian_sw said:

This has probably already been answered or discussed but couldn’t see it from a quick scan, so apologies if duplicating stuff but ....

This year all my group are aiming for coach tickets, however as a teacher I am unable to get the days off needed for the coach and have to be flexible with work so will have to drive.

So the question is .... If I get a ticket on a coach am I 100% unable to get it/they collect on my behalf if I don’t actually use the coach service?

I’m assuming not, but thought I would check see if anyone has any knowledge or experience around this issue??

Thanks in advance for your help 

Would be good for someone else to confirm but I think the tickets get handed to the lead booker (the first reg number entered). So make sure you're not that person in your group (this might be at deposit settlement time not necessarily T-day). Chances are driver will hand the batch to your mate and they can hold onto your ticket for you then come and meet you when you arrive. 

Of course has to be said that this does fly in the face of what the coach package thing is all about. If you care about maintaining some environmental karma then consider arriving by train ?

Edited by cerv
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If this becomes common practice I can see them getting stricter on being able to collect your ticket after. It's fine if it is a few people who have last minute complications, but I think planning to buy a coach ticket knowing full well you cant take the coach defeats the purpose of the coach tickets. 

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2 minutes ago, MetaKate said:

If this becomes common practice I can see them getting stricter on being able to collect your ticket after. It's fine if it is a few people who have last minute complications, but I think planning to buy a coach ticket knowing full well you cant take the coach defeats the purpose of the coach tickets. 

absolutely but I suppose its the determining what is an acceptable reason and what is someone doing it to abuse the system ... and the coach tickets are open to some abuse anyway as people travel to whatever city is available to catch them ... so dont quite meet the environmental benefits 

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6 hours ago, MetaKate said:

If this becomes common practice I can see them getting stricter on being able to collect your ticket after. It's fine if it is a few people who have last minute complications, but I think planning to buy a coach ticket knowing full well you cant take the coach defeats the purpose of the coach tickets. 

Yep definitely.

And I think it is important to set expectations - the fact that unclaimed tickets have generally been given to the box office for collection in the past does not in any way guarantee it'll happen in every case going forward. The official line is that you must take the nominated coach - so if/when there's a change to the operational practices, it'll likely be without any notice or communication (as happened for example when they stopped doing secret resales). And as you say if they think it's prevalent, then that makes it more likely they feel the need to make those changes.

Given the way that tickets are handed out on the coaches, even if they don't change anything then there's a risk to that approach. It's not inconceivable that the driver forgets to hand over the tickets at the festival coach station, or mislays it some how, or that during the roll call some chancer realises there's a ticket going spare that they can use to try and get their mate in and so claims it.

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12 hours ago, incident said:

Gven the way that tickets are handed out on the coaches, even if they don't change anything then there's a risk to that approach. It's not inconceivable that the driver forgets to hand over the tickets at the festival coach station, or mislays it some how, or that during the roll call some chancer realises there's a ticket going spare that they can use to try and get their mate in and so claims it.

As a bit of a side note, two of my friends got the See coach from Sheffield this year. They arrived an hour or so late and everyone got off and started making their way to the queue. The coach drove off and it was only then that my friends realised they hadn't been given their tickets....

They ended up trying to convince the box office that this had happened (to a lot of, "yeh sure, mate"....) for over half an hour when the coach driver rang up and told them what had happened. 

So check your tickets, folks!

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6 hours ago, lukethekid said:

There should be a penalty fine in place if you need to pick it up from the box office, could easy just buy a coach ticket and then make your own way there, defeats the object.

At the moment it seems like the number of people who do that is only a few. I presume they have the coach sale before the general sale to try and prevent an abuse of the system- if the coach sale was after the general, all the desperate folk who missed out would probably go for any coach deal they could get, knowing the alternative would be to not end up going. A shame, as I would prefer the coach sale being second.

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20 hours ago, incident said:

Given the way that tickets are handed out on the coaches, even if they don't change anything then there's a risk to that approach. It's not inconceivable that the driver forgets to hand over the tickets at the festival coach station, or mislays it some how, or that during the roll call some chancer realises there's a ticket going spare that they can use to try and get their mate in and so claims it.

When I've got the coach they've checked who you are as you get on, so in your example when it comes to the driver shouting out "Mr Incident" two people would say "Yes" and the driver would thereby know that one of them was a chancer. 
 

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5 hours ago, brettredmayne said:

Really didn't know this happened, if so you are just giving people another crack at GA in reality.

Yeah except the downside is that you don't get into the festival until the coach with your ticket on board has arrived, which could of course be late on Thursday.... No hope of getting in first thing Wednesday morning for that best camping spot!

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On 9/22/2019 at 9:52 AM, MetaKate said:

If this becomes common practice I can see them getting stricter on being able to collect your ticket after. It's fine if it is a few people who have last minute complications, but I think planning to buy a coach ticket knowing full well you cant take the coach defeats the purpose of the coach tickets. 

I agree, and not sure how they can stop people cheating the system, I want to get the coach, so find it a little annoying when people take the piss out of it... I understand the OP's problem, but they're taking someones ticket who genuinely wants to get the coach. Other than what @lukethekidsaid about fining people - what else can they do - and for some people the fine wouldn't mean anything anyway

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1 hour ago, clarkete said:

When I've got the coach they've checked who you are as you get on, so in your example when it comes to the driver shouting out "Mr Incident" two people would say "Yes" and the driver would thereby know that one of them was a chancer.

The scenario I gave was for if a person deliberately missed the coach to rely on box office collection - so they person wouldn't be present to say "Yes", and if the driver isn't being particularly attentive then the chancer has a free run at it.

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I think they did some lightweight due diligence check, or did I imagine that?

TBH in our case it was quite exciting.  Having read all year the plans of those in here I was a touch tense when my travel partner and I hadn't yet got in the uber 30 mins before the Bristol coach was due to go.  Needless to say when we turned up at the usual place a short while later there was not a soul in sight, as they'd moved the whole operation down the road.

By the time we got to the coach all the other passengers were already seated and the driver knew exactly who we were :huh:

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