“The processes of the luxury train are not under control”: The family travels with a seat on the Golden Pass Express despite the reservation!

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Blick reader Markus R.* (42) thought his trip with his children shortly before the end of the year would be more comfortable. On Christmas morning, she reserved three seats for herself and her children in the prestige class of the Golden Pass Express (GPX). “I wanted to make the family happy. My son is a big train fan.” But the booking was a farce and the trip ended unpleasantly.

The family actually wanted to go from Spiez BE to Montreux VD by GPX on December 30th. Markus R.* reserved three places in the prestige class on his smartphone. But the seat reservation of the luxury train did not work on the mobile phone. Places were assigned automatically. Her nine-year-old son would have to sit alone in another car. “Then I canceled the order again,” R. says. After some back and forth he gets back 177 francs for the planned train journey.

Spontaneous second booking

On the morning of December 30, R. spontaneously makes a second attempt: this time he makes a reservation for 1st class on the computer. He bought a daily ticket for himself, and both children have child tickets. Had to pay 20 francs per person just for seat reservation at GPX. But the website causes problems: R. tries this three times in total. Never receives a confirmation via email. However, 80 francs are deducted from the credit card. Luckily he wrote down his seat number. But now the luck is over.

In Spiez, the family boards the train, still expectant. But someone is already sitting in reserved seats: No, they haven’t made a reservation. R. does not want to release the places because he cannot show a reservation. Because the train is packed.

R. talked to the train conductor for about 30 minutes. It refuses to do anything without email confirmation. Desperate, the father then calls customer service. The reservation was confirmed to him: An error occurred, so he did not receive the email. But the places are reserved for him and his two children.

Despite customer service approval, the train conductor refuses to reserve a seat for him. «I asked him where we should go by train. “He said we could go out too,” says the father of the family. The family does this when they come to Boltigen BE.

From there we return to Spiez under stress. Her 15-year-old daughter was supposed to catch a flight that evening to Geneva, the main destination of the trip. At least he gets to the plane on time.

“Seat preselection is not ideal”

GPX was surprised by Blick’s request. They don’t want to know anything about R.’s reservation. In response to Blick’s question, a spokesperson said: “The vast majority of reservations are processed without errors.”

Regarding R.’s unsuccessful first attempt to book by mobile phone, it says: “We are aware that seat pre-selection is not ideal and have already taken measures to change this.” The website will inform customers that they can change their seat selection. However, since the plan may be too large, you need to scroll horizontally on your smartphone.

But for R. the situation is clear: “I will not take the Goldenpass Express anymore. “They don’t keep their processes under control.” The risk that he and his family will have to bear is too great for him. Luckily, the unpleasant booking hassle did not dampen his son’s enthusiasm for trains.

*Editor’s name known

Source :Blick