To not understand why people pay for tickets then not turn up?

[ApignamedJasper]

I travel by train fairly regularly, almost every time I go there are lots of seats with reserved tickets in them. Very often the seats will remain unoccupied.

Some of the journeys indicated on the ticket would have been rather expensive to buy (for example, Penzance to London) and yes they could be sitting somewhere else but if you had gone to the trouble of reserving a seat by a window/table etc why would you not use it? Aibu to wonder why so many people seem to just not turn up?

[sashh]

Some tickets require you to make a reservation even thought you can travel on different trains.

Some people find a better seat.

Some people upgrade to 1st class.

Some people are delayed and miss a connection.

[PurpleSwift]

They've maybe sat elsewhere. Most people I know only go to their reserved seat if the train is busy and they wouldn't otherwise get a seat. Maybe they upgraded. Maybe try missed their train.

[OneDayWhenIGrowUp]

Also sometimes it is bizarrely cheaper to buy a ticket the whole way when you only want to make part of the journey, so they might buy Penzance to London but have got off in Reading

[mysteryfairy]

All my work related tickets are open return but with a reservation on a specific train. If my meetings finish earlier than expected I get an earlier train. Trouble on the underground I may get a much later train. This is standard for everyone travelling for my huge corporate employer.

[ApignamedJasper]

It's just kind of irritating when you are looking for a seat and they are all taken with tickets so you have to sit in one not knowing if you will have to move when they show up for their seat (which I would always do) but 9 1/2 times out of 10 they don't show !

[HarrietVane99]

I'm guilty of that sometimes. I go away with friends. We all live in different places and book our own tickets, so we don't get seats together. If we see unbooked seats together on the train, we move to them and our booked seats remain empty.

If I'm travelling alone, if a seat isn't taken by ten minutes or so after the train has departed, I assume the person isn't coming and take the seat if I don't like the seat I've got.

[dixiechick1975]

Because the NHS hospital cancels you a couple of days before your major operation due to no anaethetist wasting the tickets to travel from Preston to London, ticket for DH to travel home a couple of days later and then a further 2 sets of tickets for DH and DD to visit me during my 3 week inpatient stay. Might aswell have burnt the money.

If they cancel me again in May there will be lots more wasted reserved seats!

[specialsubject]

I am also a bit puzzled by this. I travel off-peak and reserve in the quiet coach. The system always reserves me a seat with no window, so I sit in an 'available' seat elsewhere. There's usually a 'reserved' on the other seat in the pair so I am prepared to move; but no-one ever turns up. Last trip there were two pairs of seats marked 'reserved cyclist' and no-one sat in them. I am on the train for all but the first 10 minutes of its trip.

happens every time!

[Mrsmorton]

Missed connections is generally the reason when I book seats. It's no big deal really is it?

[TapDancingMollusc]

dixiexchick

You could have claimed a refund on those tickets (they do charge an admin fee though but depending on the ticket cost may be worth it to not be totally out of pocket)

www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/72098.aspx

[TapDancingMollusc]

That was dixiechick sorry, my nails are too long and it added an x to your ID. :)

[diddl]

If you sit in another seat, would it be wrong to remove the ticket?

[lucycant]

Sometimes I book a long train journey with reserved seats. The train has lots of empty reserved seats, but the reserved seats are the furthest away to walk. So I just sit in an unreserved free seat. On a long journey, there are often sections of the journey that are very busy. So it may look strange having reserved seats unfilled.

[fredfredgeorgejnr]

Reservations are free, you don't know they've not used the thing they've paid for, just not used the free reservation - ie travelled later / earlier / completely different day etc.

[Viviennemary]

I have once or twice booked a seat and then if it's at the other end of a large train I just sit in an occupied seat or even a seat reserved from another station. I always move if the person who has booked the seat turns up. And then I have to get somebody out of my booked seat. So maybe it's not such a good idea.

[dixiechick1975]

Thanks TapDancingMollusc unfortunately the type we had couldn't be refunded. The trainline who we had bought them through also said only the name on the ticket could travel as we had opted for print at home not collect at station. Have done the next lot collect at station! Hopefully i'll be tap dancing again after my op and it will all be worth it.

[MovingOnUpMovingOnOut]

Tickets and seat reservations are not the same thing. For example, I travel frquently for work and quite often have a ticket that lets me travel on any number of services but my seat reservation can only be booked on one service.

So I can use my ticket on the 2.10, 2.35, 3.10 or 3.35 trains but I might only have my seat booked open the 3.10. If I finish early I get on the 2.10 but my seat reservation is still on the 3.10 and I can't cancel that. I also get to play "guess which reserved seat is actually reserved" on the 2.10 or I can go and find the carriage with no reserved seats.

If you're wondering why I always book a seat it's because I often work on the train and need a table and power socket and if the train is busy I want to make sure I have that and somewhere to sit. If the trains before were very, very overcrowded I might wait for my booked service.

[ajandjjmum]

DS had to have regular hospital appointments in London, so we often caught the train from the Midlands. Cheapest ticket often involves fixed trains, and we've missed many - therefore wasted loads of tickets - because of late appts. Virgin staff rarely showed any sympathy or consideration. I sympathise dixie - and hope it works out for your next time.

[GlitzAndGigglesx]

When I book with a certain train line online the seat is automatically reserved, however that's a single seat for myself meaning my 4yo would have to sit on my lap for 3 hours. Once she hits 5 she gets her own seat so until then I find unreserved seats and sit there

[chrome100]

I never travel in my reserved seat unless the train is really busy. I just get on and sit wherever.

[timelyreminder]

Someone had reserved the seat, but another person was already sitting in it and refused to move. The first person has gone to sit/stand in another carriage, and unbeknown to them, the person who refused to budge from the seat has got off at the next stop, leaving the reserved seat empty.

[sashh]

ajandjjmum

You should be able to claim the cost of at least your son's travel from the NHS.

[CaTsMaMmA]

I think that people on the correct train with a reservation should HAVE to sit in their seat, this WILL happen when I am Queen it's really aggravating to have all the non reserved seats filled and a train of empty "reserved" ones.

AND to facilitate my Queen Laws, the train company will have to pull up their organisational socks and properly identify where you have to stand on the platform for the required carriage, some stations do this with letters so you know, but then they run the bloody train backwards. How hard can it be to add a little something to the announcements??

"bing bong....the next train at platform 1 is the train to Timbuctoo, it is a four coach train, coach A is located at the front/back...bing bong!"

Also, it'd hardly kill the train guard to remove them as they are unoccupied, so as you leave the station and tickets are checked, reservations are also checked and removed if unoccupied. SIMPLES. Seats for everyone!

I also do not really see why, in this day and age of high tech shenanigans, you cannot book yourself in, as you do for air travel, esp for all the tickets with travel options, that will let you travel on many trains but only reserve on the one train which is a nonsense

[maggiethemagpie]

I get my tickets for travel booked through work. they are generally open tickets but they have to book a certain one to make the booking even though I'm not obliged to travel on that train. I think it reserves a seat automatically when they do this.

[MissDemelzaCarne]

If my reserved seat is near someone loud, or annoying I'll move.