to think Seat Frog has ruined First Class Rail travel

Haha, imagine the proles being in first class. Quelle horreur!

No it doesn’t. Seatfrog isn’t new. How odd.

I must say I preferred it when the way to get a cheap first class ticket was to buy it well in advance! Those were great days.

I don’t like the fact that seat frog had you necessarily waiting til the last minute to see if you’ve managed to upgrade.

But otherwise I disagree with you.

I like to buy first class because of anxiety but I can’t actually afford the full fare.

I use seat frog a fair amount and have never encountered a family in first class. In fact I’ve never seen an opportunity in the app to get more than one seat, they’re usually quite limited per journey.

Seat frog has been around for years so definitely nothing to do with the last few months... Probably much more likely to do with it being summer and less business travel so they may have reduced their prices.

You remind me of the person who when we'd booked and paid for first class tickets with my DS (as we regularly do as it generally means if bookings are removed due to cancellations, a common occurrence, if we have first class tickets we're still generally guaranteed a seat as they aren't fully booked, we are willing to pay for that peace of mind) who when we sat in our seats lent over to 'warn' us that we might want to go to another carriage as that one wasn't really 'for children'.

We checked with the guard multiple times, and he confirmed we were in our allocated, paid for seats and didn't need to move. It was still an intensely uncomfortable journey as she glared at us regularly. Kids are a fact of life, first class isn't that expensive, you might need to get over it.

Seat Frog is only available on a limited number of trains, the maximum number of tickets they ever sell per train is nine (typically lower, assuming any are even available) and those seats won’t be together. Therefore, if you are seeing families together on First Class it’s because they have paid to be there.

Seat Frog has to ensure that anyone with an open first class ticket gets to have a seat so they could never sell out the carriage anyway and some trains have 40 or so first class seats.

Lots of people pay for first class for a number of reasons. You can’t just assume they are poor and only travelling in the carriage because of a cheap seat upgrade. YABU.

I have been using seatfrog for years - it isn’t a new phenomenon.

i mainly use it when travelling solo for work - it doesn’t make as much sense when travelling as a family, as no guarantee you get seats together. Pretty sure your reasoning is off, though agree that not using headphones is antisocial.

It’s completely unacceptable to listen to iPods and phones without headphones. The train manager is useless if they allow it.

Every time i go on seatfrog its barely any cheaper than just booking first class!

You are probably better booking the quiet carriage or travelling during school hours to avoid kids.

Yabu - if they want to they can trave 1st class too... wtaf

I think children on iPads without earphones is absolutely awful behaviour. Actually any noise from anyone. My children are both AuDHD (6 and 9) and we have taught them respectful train behaviour. You wouldn’t hear a peek from us!!
Ask staff to intervene next time.
You have gotten too accustomed to having the carriage almost to yourself - you’ve been spoilt. But it isn’t your train, it’s public transport- you are coming across as a little snobby

This is a super weird way of viewing things. I pay extra for first class when travelling with my young baby because you actually get a seat instead of trying to balance in the aisle and I have space to manoeuvre and have a more comfortable journey. It's definitely not cheap.

Oh god, we had one of those all the way from Edinburgh to London.

Give me toddlers any day. At least they’re not old enough to know better.

This just reads like an advert for seatfrog...

The days of 1st being only business travellers lurking behind the Financial Times are long gone.

Dont believe all the nonsense about all families being broke, plenty aren't and are more than capable of buying seats in 1st, discounted or otherwise, for a variety of reasons. Those families are no different from any others in allowing their kids to use iPads etc at top volume.

Your chances of getting the train manager (!) to do anything are slim, as is parents parenting, so all you can do is get an early/late train if you can, or a good pair of headphones for yourself.

On the trains I use, first class is usually full of teenage boys drinking, scrolling, eating fast food and putting their feet on the seats.

It's not just families.

Work put me in first class once so I could have a hot meal on the way, rather than eat late when I arrived at the hotel. They booked me one of the single seats on it's own. I was looking forward to some peace and quiet and chilling out with a book.

On the table opposite was a very important man, who made very loud, very important phone calls all the way there. He was doing my head in!

Why will you make sure to take your noisy toddler with you

Why what. Why are there less people using it than you think?

Or why will I take my toddler with me?

first one - my job to know the answer
second one - she likes trains and it reminded me that first class is for everyone

It was just an idea/advice for OP.
There are usually many seats available too, in the quiet carriage on the train line where I travel, but I understand that that might not be case everywhere.

I would really like it if the whole train was calmer and more quiet, but many people like to socialize on the train, or talk on the phone. Sometimes when I am in company of a friend or when I know I'm expecting a call, I will sit elsewhere on the train.

As if anyone pays attention to that rule.

Ooo thanks I’d never heard of Seat Frog. I’ll check it out 😁