Just bought split train tickets for two 4 hour journeys next week

[AintNobodyHereButUsChickens]

Am I really going to have to switch seats at every station we stop at? 😂 The green lines are my changes and the pink one is the end of my trip there/beginning of my trip home.

It depends, I think. It's possible that someone will have a reservation for the seat at the next station, in which case you will have to move. If nobody claims the seat, you may be OK, but I think the guard could ask you to move in any case. That's why split tickets are cheaper.

ETA blimey - that's a lot of moving round OP - I don't envy you!

on a recent long distance train trip when we had split tickets the train guard recommended we just grab seats in the unreserved carriage so we didn’t have to move

Well officially yes but the reality is unless someone gets on and says that’s my reserved seat noone actually does.

if it does happen then you will have to tell whoever is in your seat to shift

Which site did you use to work out the split ticket options?

To add this is what we’re going to do for our next booking as the split tickets have seated us separately for the longest part of the journey. (4ish hours)

it means our reserved seats won’t be taken but it’s likely someone else will take them.

Fuck!! I've never had that with split tickets. What a pain!

I used traintickets.com

Anyway I solved the issue by getting myself a £14 first class upgrade on Seatfrog 🤣

As a single journey or multiple smaller ones?
Check the rules as you may have upgraded ticket that you dont have,

Dont know about cross country but I have heard conductor challenging this on LNER

From Sheffield to Taunton, I’m hoping to get another one for the way home too. I don’t fancy being squished up in standard for 3+ hours but I can’t afford to pay full price for first class.

Oh crap I didn’t think of that!

I don’t think that will work, you would have to upgrade all of the separate tickets I think.

I once did split tickets and got the same reserved seats the whole journey. Mpving would be a right pain

I've never had a problem with a seat frog upgrade on a split ticket though admittedly this has always been one or two splits only.

I mean you do have a ticket for every part of the journey, so I'm not sure how they can challenge it? It's not like you've done seatfrog for Doncaster-Sheffield

Ah seatfrog actually covers this in the FAQ

https://help.seatfrog.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360001117015-Can-I-upgrade-if-I-have-booked-a-split-ticket

Ooh thanks for that!

I actually just phoned Cross Country to ask and she reassured me my Seatfrog will still be valid as I’m staying on the same train the whole way from Sheffield. Phew!