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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think when I have pre-booked my train ticket, I should get MY seat.

62 replies

pantspantspants · 31/03/2011 21:51

Traveling back home today on a well know packed train, I pre-booked my ticket with a reserved seat as A) I have been away for 2 days for work and need to rest before returning to the mad house B) needed to finish up work loose ends so I didn't have to do it at home when I wanted to be with family/sleep C) I'm 15 weeks pregnant and have had a few complications recently and didn't want to risk being bumped into on the train. D) I wanted a seat!

Got on the train, found my seat, to see a young couple in the pre-booked bit, one being my seat. The rest of the train was already standing room only, even with 5ish minutes to go. The woman was in my seat being very coupley, him rubbing her belly, kissing etc. I went over explained I had booked that seat and asked them to let me have my seat, he said sorry but he had just found out his wife was pregnant and she needed that seat "in her condition." I explained that I had booked my seat as I was also pregnant so needed the seat too. After alot of back and forth and pregnant top trumps, I asked for him to move, her to move into his seat and for me to sit in my seat. He refused as he needed to be with his pregnant wife, others on the carriage ignored the whole seat situation and I was left to find an another seat. Didn't find one so spent the whole time stood up, squashed and annoyed I didn't get my seat that I have paid for.

AIBU to think if he was a man he would of given up his seat so his pregnant wife and I could sit and he wasn't thinking of being with his pregnant wife but just plain lazy in not wanting to stand, and her pregnancy was just an excuse.

OP posts:
DaphneHeartsFred · 31/03/2011 21:54

I would have stamped on his foot. Or pulled the emergency cord. Or screamed and shouted.

YA most definitely NBU.

You can't even have wine. Do you have any chocolate?

TastesLikePanda · 31/03/2011 21:55

I always thought that if you had booked a seat, that it was an offence for anyone else to sit in it? Could you have got a conductor to make him move. So no, YANBU but nothing to do with him 'being a man' and letting you sit down but everything to do with the fact that your seat was pre-booked.

bulby · 31/03/2011 21:55

They were both arses.

nailak · 31/03/2011 21:55

yanbu he shudda stood

TastesLikePanda · 31/03/2011 21:56

You should have sat on his lap or thrown up on his shoes...

squeakytoy · 31/03/2011 21:56

I would have found the guard and asked him or her to get them moved.

Presumably there was one of those ticket things stuck in the top of the seat that showed it had been reserved.

talkingnonsense · 31/03/2011 21:56

Yes, I would have gone to find the guard. Definitely write and complain.

ladyintheradiator · 31/03/2011 21:56

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

benelf · 31/03/2011 21:57

YANBU but I would have found a conductor to hoof him out.

onepieceoflollipop · 31/03/2011 21:57

What a horrible man. Is it any comfort to think that they are both probably very unhappy people to be so desperate to "get one over on you" in that situation?

Beamur · 31/03/2011 21:57

I would have got the guard too and got them evicted. Arses.

onepieceoflollipop · 31/03/2011 21:58

I may have been tempted to come over "faint" and ask one of the other passengers to seek help and then I would have slumped on the floor.

amberleaf · 31/03/2011 21:58

I have been in this situation and have insisted on people moving.

but then im a bit mouthy when i need to be and good at making a scene!

belledechocchipcookie · 31/03/2011 21:58

There's a fine for people who sit in reserved seats, you should have found the guard.

onepieceoflollipop · 31/03/2011 21:59

It's tricky though amber if they are equally mouthy and still refuse. I am sure the op didn't want to risk the situation getting violent although obviously she is in the right.

said · 31/03/2011 22:00

He'd just found out his wife was pregnant? Sounds like a story they trot out every time they take up a booked seat. Easy to say find a guard but where when the train is filled up with standing people?

Original poster
pantspantspants · 31/03/2011 22:01

miss wine, going to have to chalk it up as one owed when I'm not pregnant. conductor wasn't around and after I had walked away I was too busy being annoyed to ask him to get involved.

OP posts:
tigerbear · 31/03/2011 22:02

What a cock that man was! I'm 34 weeks pg too, and probably would have cried if that had happened to me. You poor thing.

Beamur · 31/03/2011 22:07

I had an incident (not pregnant at the time) where my seat had been occupied by a couple who clearly though by looking well settled in and slightly hostile I'd give up and go. But I dug my heels in and pointed out they were in my seat and just stood there until they finally moved - with much huffing and puffing.

manticlimactic · 31/03/2011 22:07

I'd have said to the woman 'And THIS is who you are having a child with? Lets hope this man, and I use that in the loosest sense of the word, isn't taking up YOUR reserved PAID FOR seat in a few weeks and refuses to stand. What a gent, what.a.catch. ! Grin

nijinsky · 31/03/2011 22:07

That really is terribly rude. Even if you hadn't pre-booked a seat, if you had asked him, he should have given it up out of manners. The fact that you had booked the seat makes his behaviour appalling. How awful to be him, and how awful to be his wife/partner/child.

llbeanj · 31/03/2011 22:10

you should ask the guard to kick them out, that's his job - i am told some of them are quite nice and may avoid a confrontation by putting you in first

BonzoDooDah · 31/03/2011 22:10

What manticlimatic said

What an arse!

SugarPasteFrog · 31/03/2011 22:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

VivaLeBeaver · 31/03/2011 22:13

I'd have sat on her knee. I seriously would have done and refused to move. I would have been spitting mad and plonked myself on her and taken my feet off the ground so she felt the full force of my weight.