My wife, Laura, celebrated her birthday on Sunday. We booked up to go to London a few weeks ago and were really looking forward to our trip. With recent work on the house and a few health issues, we felt the break could not have come at a better time!
Unfortunately Laura was off work ill last week, and on Friday she was feeling quite ill. We thought that maybe we’d change our train time from 8.30am on the Saturday to one at lunchtime.
I called the train operator (National Express East Coast) and they informed me that this would be possible. All we had to pay was a £10 administration fee and the difference in the cost of the ticket. There were still some discount tickets available so I figured it would cost us £20 each to switch train. I logged onto the site at 10pm to buy the new tickets, only to find that the only tickets available were at full price! (meaning we’d now pay £70 each to switch).
As you can imagine, I was not a happy bunny. As it was so late I could not call the help number as they were closed. So I had to wake Laura and tell her we had no choice but to get the original train at 8.30 in the morning.
I did call the train operator in the morning to ask if this change in pricing was normal policy, however the person on the other end of the telephone would not answer my question. In fact, I’d say he was the perfect ‘Sales Prevention Officer’. I just gave up…
Anyway, the good news is that our poor experience of customer service ended there!
We arrived at our hotel at 12.30, the Novotel London Paddington. Laura was still feeling poorly so she went straight to bed. She’d not eaten ANY food for well over a day, but thought she might be able to manage some dry toast. Now, that’s not something you’ll find on most hotel menus, and the Novotel was no exception! But, they stepped up and brought some toast to the room. The staff were excellent and we will definitely stay there again.
We saw Billy Elliott on the evening (after we’d been for pizza, er, except Laura had to make do with dried bread again!).
It was excellent, although a little cramped in the Grand Circle. Being from the North East, it was strange being in a West End theatre listening to (not too bad) Geordie accents.
Well recommended. We booked through London Theatre Direct
On the Sunday, we ‘took a flight’ on the London Eye. It was chucking it down so the view was not the best it could be, but was well worth it anyway.
Here’s a couple of shots from high up and at the theatre
The train journey home was relaxing, apart from one of the staff members telling us that there was a lot of disquiet at his place of work!
Right.
About Ray Prince
