Who should pay for these tickets?

If your point is the first two should have paid straight away then I agree but they didn't and then you have the tickets to someone else without checking with anyone who would pay so the first two are no longer required to pay.

If you'd chase up and got the payment before passing the tickets on then it would be a different story and you wouldn't have been wrong.

And have you communicated this at any point or been expecting everyone concerned to be mind readers?

One of the original "buyers" said she was short of cash and asked could you find someone to replace her. The two who went seem to be under the impression they don't have anything to pay. You need to be much clearer with your communication I'd say.

If you offered up the tickets for free then you’re stuck with the bill. You had no right to do that.

This. You say you're not a ticket resale service which is true as you don't appear to have made any sales. You're a ticket gifting service at this point.

What seems strange is that neither of the attendees offered to pay for their tickets, is it normal in your friendship group that you're happy to go to stuff without paying?

If I was Sarah or Philippa, I’d have expected to pay if I’d dropped out and no one else wanted my ticket. However, if I was then told that someone else wanted my ticket, I’d expect them to pay. Why wouldn’t they? They went to the event. Why would they expect it to be free?

OP if this was a holiday, costing hundreds of £££, would you expect Sarah/Philippa to give Cheryl/Jessica a free holiday?

That said, if you led Cheryl and Jessica to believe that the tickets were free, then that was your mistake. You’ll probably have to take the hit yourself.

Did the 2 that went only go because they assumed the tickets were free?

Okay, just RTFT and I have thoughts! As you’re hungover, bored and this is more of a curiosity thread, I’ll share!

I voted YABU and fundamentally still stand by this as I’d assume I’m paying for anything I attended so I think Cheryl and Jessica should pay. However, I’m probably a bit like you, OP, and I’d also rather something be used, so I do kiiiinda get where you’re coming from.

All that said, I think you were the organiser (or at least the ticket organiser) and I think yo should have pushed for payment more quickly after purchase. As S&P hadn’t paid yet, it’s not awful of them to assume you’d get payment from new attendees. Similarly, you offered the tickets up without asking for dosh from C&J, so forgave them. So, in conclusion to my Ted talk about miscommunication 101, I think S/P/C/J could all legitimately assume they were off the hook.

I don’t think your logic is wrong, but you just need to be clearer, earlier, and spell it out, in writing, especially to people who are tight. Because now they can say “well, I would’ve still come if I knew I had to pay!” even if that is bollocks.

I’m hungover too.

And they haven’t paid, since February. I should’ve already had the money. I wasn’t holding the tickets with them deciding whether to come. They’d agreed to pay.

Yeah, they agreed to pay. But that was negated when you gave them the impression that C & J were taking over that obligation.

I think they should have paid you instantly in February - but you were clearly happy enough that they didn’t.

I think this all stems from you being cross that they were flaky.

If these were 2 people that you actually liked, with a good reason (sisters whose mother had been taken very ill for example) then you’d have realised it was your error and not really cared.

I think that’s why you’re not being rational that the poor communication is your fault. If you’d just posted, “AIBU to think S & P are flaky twats?” the 90% vote would have been in your favour 😉

YABU you need to be much clearer with your communication. Yes, S &P should have definitely paid you originally but most people imagine that if you find someone to take your place, they will pay for the ticket. If this is not the case, it should have been made clear to S&P that the people attending were not willing to pay for the ticket and they would still be expected to pay. The only benefit of C&J going was to stop you wasting your ticket.

You’re not, and the responses here have shown you that.

I don't see how you've come to that conclusion when they never paid in the first place, though.

As it is, you paid for three tickets.
J & C attended the event with you and didn't reimburse you for the tickets they used.
The fact that P & S originally agreed to go is neither here nor there really.

YABU

It’s probably because you’re still adamantly protesting that you’re in the right despite most people telling you otherwise.

The ambiguity is in the phrase "Can xxxx have your spare ticket?". That could be interpreted by the original ticketholders as "Just checking that you haven't changed your mind and intend coming after all, before I sell it to xxxxxx".

So while the original ticketholders are bad friends for not paying you as soon as you bought the tickets, and are bad friends for being so flaky, their behaviour in not offering to pay you now is NOT indicative of being bad friends, as they most likely assume you have been paid by the two who went to the event.

At least you know not to buy tickets for the first 2 ever again , it could have been worse and been a lot of money .

I think that's what's caused the issue, though.

It looks like you bought three tickets then P & S changed their minds, leaving you with the tickets to sell to other people. If you hadn't managed to get J & C to go, they'd probably have paid up, but as it is, the tickets went to other people so they think they're off the hook.

Cheryl and Jessica

Mind blowing that you think it’s okay to promise to pay for a ticket then decide you don’t have to because you’ve changed your mind.

But WHY are you assuming that they’re not paying because they’ve changed their minds, when a lot of people here think they’re not paying because they think you arranged for C & J to pay?

I think you know that you’ve caused this, because you haven’t actually asked them to pay.

Otherwise the thread would be, “I just asked S & P to pay up and they’re saying that C & J should pay. AIBU to think it was obvious I gave the tickets to C & J for free?”

You’re painting S & P as flaky non-payers, but I think they’re just flaky.

Mind blowing that you think it’s okay to promise to pay for a ticket then decide you don’t have to because you’ve changed your mind.

But S+P don't think that. The reason they don't think they should pay is because other people went instead of them, and they believed C+J were paying you for the tickets.