Holiday reserved seat stories...

[Sheepsheepeverywhere]

Have managed to rebook train tickets this week despite strikes! Even got to reserve seats! My lovely travel companion had assigned me to shove out any squatters we may find in our seats!
Anyone got an cf stories or tips to share?

The same as @BirminghamNewStreet- Avanti West Coast seem to be spectacularly bad at double and triple booking seat reservations so if you’re not on there first your reservation means nothing!

A few years ago now I had a long train journey and had prebooked window seat with a table so I could fully relax.

A few stops in this lady with a dog in a cat carrier comes in and just goes “hello” to me. I say hello back and she starts ranting him in her seat. I know I’m not so I tell her I’m in XX seat which is the one I booked. She starts shouting she always has the window seat therefore I’m wrong. I tell her again the window seat is XX and that’s what is on my ticket.

Eventually she realises she did book the aisle seat, and proceeded to try and talk to me for the rest of the journey about how she ALWAYS books the window and has no idea what happened and it was so awful. She also took up the whole table with the dog in the cat carrier and other stuff so it was anything but comfortable.

It was the journey from hell, but made a change from commuters who are usually the ones who steal your reserved seat and refuse to move

I'm a novice train traveller that's all! Dfriend is a terrible car passenger so agreed to go by train! Have also been watching a thread about places to see at our destination.. Def no journalist! Just worried she thinks I can evict unwanted bums from our seats!

I’ve had a woman question why I would want to sit in my window seat reservation. She had the aisle booked. DH though I shouldn’t have insisted but I prefer the window.

2 weeks ago someone insisted he was right but he was booked on a train around the same time with a different company.

The worst I witnessed was a man refusing to move over so a boy could sit it his reserved seat. The boy got upset, the DM explained he’s autistic and has to sit opposite her. Man still refused to move. He eventually did when the boy was on the verge of a meltdown and the whole carriage was glaring at him.

Another one was the person who suddenly couldn’t understand English when I asked them more than once to move.

The funniest was a drunk man asleep across the aisles. People couldn’t get past him. He eventually woke up way past his stop.

The only time I had someone get grumpy being moved was a train back home from York. I’d only days before had a boot off my broken ankle so it felt really wobbly and scary to walk on it still. There was some issue with the train (I can’t remember what) but the voice said reservations were still in operation and people should sit in assigned seats. So I asked the woman in my seat to move, to which she said well, someone is in my seat. Not my problem. So huffed and puffed so I said, ok fine you stay there. But when this train pulls off or breaks sharply and I go over on my ankle I’m going to fall on you and your tiny and I’m a fat cunt so I know which one of us will end up worse off. She moved 😂

I was in first class on the train a few months ago. I was on crutches and in a leg brace. I was assigned a table seat. A couple of stops before the end of my journey a group of four got on and tried to insist I was in their seat. I think they'd booked the other four on the table. They got the guard... I don't think they'd noticed my brace at first as they looked like utter twats when the guard came along and let them know I was in my seat.

Myself and my disabled friend went from north England to Cornwall years ago.
We were maybe 16 or 17 .
My friend coulfnt self transfer or move her legs or arms at all
Anyway reserved a wheelchair space.
When we got on someone was sat in a wheelchair in the booked space.
She refused to move.we sat in the doorway blocking everyone.... For maybe 4 hours of the journey.
The wheelchair person stood up . Folded up her wheelchair and marched off at her stop carrying the wheelchair under her arm
There's no way 30 years later I'd allow that to happen .

I remember this happening years ago, it was a 6 hour journey to Cornwall. Some people seemed to know and some didn't. I knew. The train was heaving, there was people sitting in the aisles, by the toilet. No way was it safe!

Love this

Nothing to do with reserved seats but ... I was on a crowded train from Edinburgh to Dundee - about one and a half hour journey - with a one yr old in a buggy and a 4 yr old. Standing room only. I see a middle-aged woman with her bag on the seat beside her and ask if I can sit there. She says no, its her husbands seat and he has just gone to buffet car, will be back. I say, well I'll just sit there until he gets back if that's ok. She moved the bag, I sat with 2 children on my lap. "Husband" still hadn't appeared when I got off in Dundee ....

I booked a seat on a train but despite requesting no table it gave me a table. (I hate being surrounded by annoying people so try and make it less likely by booking 2 seaters only). I got on and sat down. Two women get on and I realise they're kind of faffing around and making huffing noises and thumping bags down but they don't say anything to me even when I looked up at them. They sit opposite me. About an hour into the journey one of the women says well I can't eat my food now as SHE'S in my seat and I feel sick going backwards. I said excuse me are you talking about me? She said yes that's my seat and got her ticket out and shoved it at me. I said hang on and got my ticket out. Mine says the same as hers. We've both got the same row and seat number. And looking above the seats I realise both window seats have the same row/number which I point out. She said yes but I requested foward seating. I said that's fine but there's nothing to state forward/backwards on the ticket and i hadn't even noticed both seats had the same numbers so I just sat down in the first one I saw. So neither of us are wrong and I'll happily swap as I don't care about going backwards and if she'd have asked earlier I would have moved. She said well there's no point now is there! (There was still 2 hours of the journey to go). She spent the rest of the journey telling her friend how ill she felt. I offered one more time to swap and she just rolled her eyes at me. So I put my headphones on and ignored her. Sometimes the train operators don't help matters by not labeling tickets/seats well. I think she just wanted an argument though. I don't know why she didn't just ask me in the first place. Even if it wasn't just a seat number issue i would have happily moved.

Had this Manchester to London once.
Guy refused to move out of my window seat so I just sat on the table took some nail varnish out of my bag and put my phone on loud speaker and decided to call everyone I knew in alphabetical order.
He lasted 5 minutes

I’ve been known to physically sit in the laps of people who won’t get out of my seat. Usually does the trick.

When I was 17 and more of an arsehole than I am now I sat in reserved seats on a very busy train with my friend. When the seat‘s rightful passenger arrived, we pretended not to speak English.

Don’t rely on the spoken word.

Don’t rely on the spoken word to get them
out of your seats

Last time I tried to move someone out of my reserved seat it turned out we both had a reservation- train company had fucked up and quite a number of us had duplicate reservations

Oh, also there was the time I’d reserved a seat on a train from Crewe to Edinburgh. Was really looking forward to enjoying the scenery. Imagine my joy when I found my seat…

I took a train recently that was cancelled. The next train was, therefore, absolutely heaving. All seats taken, I was standing halfway down a carriage, with people standing uncomfortably close on both sides of me. We were crammed in like sardines. Announcement came through that all seat reservations were no longer applicable- if you could find a seat, sit on it and that was that. I was just glad that a) I'm not claustrophobic and b) I'd actually managed to get on, given I'd seen quite a few people unable to even board as there was no space.

Not travel related but yrs ago I went to see Stevie Nicks in Birmingham. 3rd row, centre stage and the support act (Richard Marx) had finished. Along comes a superfan dressed like Stevie, shawl, velvet etc and sits down in the row in front. A few mins later a young couple came along, into the second row and checked the seat numbers. Superfan was in one of their seats. The lady of the couple didn't want to make a fuss but the man asked her politely to move. Superfan wouldnt/couldn't because Stevie herself had insisted this fan sat there. I should have had popcorn. Anyway after some discussion security arrived and led Superfan away presumably back to her designated seat.