CONOR POPEoffers some responses from readers to this week's Pricewatch articles
Reservations about belligerent pensioners
Dozens of readers have been in touch this week about Irish Rail’s reservations system in response to our article on Wednesday. Mark said there is “virtually always someone in my seat on the Dublin-Belfast train . . . In every case it has been some belligerent pensioner who claims not to have noticed the umpteen ‘reservation’ signs and stubbornly stands their ground against all reason.”
Will travelled by train from Limerick to Dublin this summer and he used the reservation system to book his seat. When he changed at Limerick Junction, he was presented with a number of carriages on the train “and no obvious way of determining which was the one I had booked on”. There were names on display over the reserved seats, so he started looking for his name.
“I made a judgment call to take the next free seat that was unreserved and sit in it. Although I had gone to the trouble of reserving a seat, and was willing to walk the length of the platform to the assigned carriage, I was not willing to play ‘find my seat’ inside the carriage.”
This class of behaviour does not impress Laura, who says staff on trains cannot override reservations for passengers who don’t turn up or who catch a later train or who, like Will, sit elsewhere. “People vacate their reserved seats and choose to sit in unreserved seats all the time. Irish Rail never frees these seats up again, not for the entire journey.”
She also took us to task for complimenting Irish Rail’s €10 fares. “Surely you meant to write ‘with one-way tickets on all Intercity routes costing just €10 at very particular times and on particular trains and excluding busy GAA weekends’.” She says the fares are great “only if you are a person who doesn’t work five days a week, Monday to Friday during normal office hours. They are pretty unappealing if you are that person.”
Prices for parking a bit steep at Cliffs of Moher
Lorraine Fitz says the price of parking at the Cliffs of Moher is too high. “The cliffs are amazing, but you just can’t help but feel robbed as soon as you turn up. If it covered the extra exhibition inside, it would be justifiable. The centre is great, it’s really cool inside. The fee should be used to maintain it.”
Eoghan O’Mara Walsh from Heritage Island also contacted us in connection with prices at the cliffs. He said it was “worth keeping in mind” that through the Heritage Island website discounts of 17 per cent are available and for €8.45 an adult can get access to the car park, the facilities, and the Atlantic Edge exhibition, while the director of the Cliffs of Moher Experience Katherine Webster also got in touch asking us to clarify that the separate cost for an adult admission to the Atlantic Edge Exhibition is €4.95 for an adult and €2.95 for a child.
Rentals don’t Costa so much with the little guy
A lot of readers got in touch in connection with car-rental costs in Spain. Most say while the prices many companies on the Costas are charging have soared this summer, there is value still to be found by shopping around. Several managed to knock about 40 per cent off the prices being charged by the big boys by going to the websites of lesser-known suppliers.
SHARE YOUR TIPS
Stunned by high prices or bad service? Want to share a bargain? Let us know at www.irishtimes.com/blogs/pricewatch
