re: Sydney trip

[daproc@bigfoot.com]

Peter Berrett wrote:

<SNIP>
the realisation dawned on me - the only sleepers are twins. This means
that I would have to share with a stranger!
<ANOTHER SNIP>
You never know what sort of a person your might get.
<FURTHER SNIP>
I wasn't in a particular hurry and would have been
happy to pay an extra premium for a single cabin <EVEN MORE SNIPPING>
but the patronage was lost because the
privacy I was seeking was not available.

===========================

And what is wrong with sharing with a stranger? In my experience, the type of
people who are prepared to pay for sleeping berths are not the type of people
to create a ruckus, etc., and if they DO prove to be smelly, etc., do what I
did - complain to the conductor (they were told to shower or be removed from
the sleeping car - they were removed from the sleeping car, although he was
then inflicted on a heap of unfortunates in the sitting car!)

There are a number of ways you can get the whole twinette compartment for
yourself - one perfectly legal, one legal, but morally dubious, the third
legally dubious.

1. Pay the adult fare for two people, and have sole occupancy.

2. Pay the fare for yourself, and your "four-year old son/daughter" this
would be a childs fare. Oops, your "son/daughter" has the flu and cannot
travel, result: sole occupancy - they rarely sell sleeping berths en-route,
and you would have a justifiable claim for them not to do so (I have two
tickets here - are on-board staff going to argue with THAT?)

3. Book by telephone for two people ON THE SAME BOOKING - different names
though. Go into the station and pay for your own ticket, telling them that
the other ticket will be collected later. With the way the TRAINS computer is
configured, that booking will now be showing as a ticketed booking, and will
not cancel OR be subject to any followup (this is a major flaw). Result -
sole occupancy, although subject to reselling en-route. (Not recommended)

The option has always existed to have sole occupancy of a twinette - you have
just always had to pay for it, thats all.

Hope this helps,

David "The Doctor" Proctor

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