CF sitting in our reserved seats

[Allthegoodusernamesareused]

We made them move, obviously, but now I'm getting death stares off one of them while they stand in the gangway of the rammed train. Apparently, they didn't think seat reservations were a "thing"

Awkward, long journey ahead!

@FitAt50 I agree, but even when we reserved on LNER, about two weeks ahead, there were relatively few pairs left, let alone with tables. There is a coach for those without reservations but it fills up quickly. If you miss your train or it gets cancelled you can be left without a reserved seat. You do get no shows but this was a busy intercity service with few stops.

On the contrary, this is fucking brilliant! Say EXACTLY this @Allthegoodusernamesareused “So glad I used my initiative and pre reserved seats, so easy to do, and means you don’t end up bitter and angry standing in the gangway."

YANBU OP, they WERE CFs, and you had every right to get them to shift.

At least they moved, it seems like they usually never move.

I had tickets for a carriage that didn’t even exist last Thursday, considered jumping on the train before but I thought I’d wait and go with the reserved seats… carriage J - sadly only carriages A-D turned up for work… 1hr 10 stood like a sardine with my grumpy tired kids on the floor by the loos. Didn’t get a seat the whole journey. Did have some interesting chats with other passengers.

Life is tough, it is even tougher when you're stupid!

They were stupid not to reserve their seats.

On a journey once with a couple of changes, our last leg was about 4 hours and we'd booked seats and in addition had specifically booked a table area as there were 4 of us and we wanted to eat lunch. Got on and train was crammed, all 4 seats taken up (as you would expect) and whilst the two individual passengers got up without a fuss when we showed that the seats were booked by us. A couple mumped and moaned and complained that as they'd booked last minute they hadn't been able to book seats. I said that was a shame, but we'd booked months before and would like to sit in our seats. They claimed they needed them as they were older (they were no older than we were) etc etc. eventually they got up and said they were going to complain to the guard, I said that's fine.

They stood and glared and continued to moan but when the guard came through a few minutes later they didn't say a word.

They got off about 20 minutes later.

Now if they had actually just said that they were only going to be on for another 20 minutes and asked politely to stay put , i wouldn't have been bothered and would have been okay to let them stay.

I don't know what goes through peoples' heads sometimes

It being possible or not possible to reserve seats is more to do with your travel arrangements than the service. When I travel by train for work, I have no idea which service I will be travelling back on. I have to book an open return, so can’t reserve.

That said, I don’t sit in reserved seats and refuse to move! But it’s not like a plane situation where someone hasn’t paid to reserve a seat and then wants others to move. There might be genuine reasons a seat hasn’t been reserved.

Was sitting next to my friend in our reserved seats from London to Sheffield. A woman walked past a couple of times and then told me I was in her seat and I had to move. I explained that I wasn’t, showed her my ticket etc. She got quite loud and angry and I was pleased to see the train guard, he asked to see mt ticket and confirmed I was in the right seat. Transpired that her ticket was for Carriage B and we were in Carriage A, off she went with no apology.

When we got off at Sheffield she quite forcefully barged by me as we were walking up the platform and said ‘Stupid Bitch’. She was still angry with me even though she was wrong 😂😂

This made me laugh. Going to remember to use this if in same situation!

@Allthegoodusernamesareused This is their embarrassment not yours. Zip yourself up (donna eden energy - imagine zipping yourself up from root to crown - pelvic bone to top of your head and take a deep breath telling your self that you in the right and you will not be made to feel uncomfortable.

I believe you, @Christmasiscominghohoho

What is a “CF’?

CF = "cheeky fucker"

Booking a seat isn't always possible

It clearly was for this journey though as OP managed to do it.

But it clearly was on this particular train, though.

Not defending the people who sat in OP seat but it isn't always possible to book a seat. Only a certain amount of seats on a train are pre bookable. On busy services you often can't book a seat unless you have done it weeks in advance.

You can reserve seats up to 5 minutes before you board train with LNER and Virgin.

Virgin don't exist. LNER have X amount of bookable seats, once they are gone they are gone. The display shows green available, red not available and orange 'may be reserved later' which means you can book a seat but the on board display does not change, so you wouldn't know if someone booked a seat en route.

Long time ago but found someone in my reserved seat in Coach F. It was the Cornwall-London train so at least a 5-hour journey. I politely asked them to move and they said they'd reserved that seat. The conductor happened to be passing and asked to see their reservation. He looked at it and Very politely said that the bit where it says F means Forward and that bit where it says E means the coach you're supposed to be in. They moved. I sat down - so relieved it hadn't been me who'd made that mistake.

I remember my poor daughter's embarrassment about this with my late husband's elderly aunt and uncle. Got to the seat, two people in it. My daughter very politely said her aunt and uncle had booked them, and they refused to move. My daughter checked the tickets - wrong carriage! She was so embarrassed, they had to move right down the train to 'their' booked seats, she nearly got stuck on the train.

Worse when people with noisy toddlers who can’t keep their voice down and constantly ask questions and for snacks have booked to sit in the quiet carriage…

LOL!

They didn’t realise it was a thing now they do lesson learned to them , good for you making them move .

It's more often than not coach B. Not 100% of the time but if you can't find out beforehand, that's the one to aim for. If two units are coupled together, there's sometimes a second one in coach F.

It's more often than not coach B. Not 100% of the time but if you can't find out beforehand, that's the one to aim for. If two units are coupled together, there's sometimes a second one in coach F.

It depends on the company and the train type and varies vastly across the network.

It’s totally fine to sit in reserved seats until the stop where the person who has reserved them gets on. I travel by train frequently for work and I can’t believe how rude some people are when asking people to move out of their seats. It’s possible to ask them to move politely!

Ahh 😌

I was boarding a train recently when the man in front of me evicted a young woman from his reserved seat in the first row in the carriage. She and her friend just stood in the aisle like a pair of lemons, so a queue built up at the door as none of the other people getting on and trying to get to their seats could get past.

I was once on a train where a young woman was arguing that one of an elderly couple was in her reserved seat. They insisted they were their seats and showed their tickets to prove it - they were in the right seats, but on the wrong train - they were an hour earlier than the train they should have been on. They wouldn't have it that they were wrong, though, and the young woman went off in the end, I suppose to find an empty seat elsewhere.

Why?? They moved as requested.