Seatfrog: Book Train Tickets 4+

First class at a fraction of the price

If like me you travel regularly for work this app is brilliant! I’ve upgraded for a fraction of the usual price several times on my way between jobs - generally when work have bought my ticket and I don’t mind upgrading with my own money. Always worth it for the extra space and services (cup of coffee/snacks etc) and means I arrive in a much better mood! My only slight problem now is that as it gets more popular it’s harder to win the upgrades at auction. There’s the option to outright buy one at a set price though which I’ve done a few times - pricier but less anxiety about whether I’m going to get it! I hope more train companies start to use it too so I could use it on more of my journeys. Would be great if it could be used on other forms of transport too - I take a lot of flights!

Great Stuff!

First of all I think you need to understand what this app is for. This is a way for Virgin and LNER to offload spare capacity in 1st class to people who wouldn’t have bought those seats otherwise.

This is perfect for those who travel occasionally for work but are obliged to buy a standard class ticket because of their company’s travel expenses policies.

There is NO guarantee you will be able to upgrade (I’ve managed it about 50% of the time) and it doesn’t work at the weekend. So if you are paying for your own ticket and can’t bare to travel standard class then buy a 1st advance ticket. This app isn’t for you...

If however you are travelling anyway (probably for work) and are happy to pay a little bit extra (of your own money) for more comfort and a cup of tea etc.. then this is brilliant! If you don’t get an upgrade, well no one has lost anything.

The app itself works well, it sometimes struggles to find your booking through the booking reference number but you can now just put the departure time of the train in and add the ticket manually, which takes a second. Just make sure you put the right train in. The staff on the trains are very familiar with Seatfrog and there is never a problem in that regard.

So, to sum up, a great little app and a great service. Glad I found it!

Developer Response ,

Hi John, thanks for the 5 star review, it's great to know that you've had some success in bidding for upgrades. Don't forget we now offer upgrades on GWR routes and services too!

Excellent first class but booking process awful

I took the opportunity to upgrade, what I thought was the two seats I had purchased. I put bids in for two but only one seat number came through. No- one was able to help at kings cross. I had to go to the train manager and explain what had happened. He was very understanding and said that we could both go to first class and he would sort when he came round for our tickets. It added stress to the journey and the train manager admitted that there had been previous booking problems. First class and service was excellent though. Thank goodness we had a train manager that listened to what I said and resolved the issue.