To think that if a train seat has a ticket saying "reserved" on it...

[CalamityKate]

.... that's a huge clue that someone's reserved it?

Two trips to London in the past 2 days and for 3 of the four journeys we booked seats.

On all 3 occasions, someone was sitting in the seats.

And you know, I wouldn't mind so much but on all 3 occasions the people in the seats rolled their eyes, tutted, huffed and puffed and made a great show of having to move seats in a way that made it clear that WE were being incredibly unreasonable to expect to sit in the seats WE had paid for!

One woman in particular was very put out and spent the remainder of the journey casting dirty looks our way. Her and her companion had clearly been in the seats for a while, since the table was covered with litter. There were plenty of unreserved seats nearby.

Honestly, I started to wonder if there's some sort of etiquette I don't know about. Like "If you don't manage to sit in your seat before someone else then tough shit" or something?

Jamie me neither. I still have issues with no is a complete sentence with the mother.

I've been on plenty of trains where huge numbers of reserved seats are not claimed. So people sit in them. I have never seen any huffing if asked to move though.

Stars

I have started a thread in Chat about me being assertive a few days ago.

< proud>

Whats worse is when you've reserved seats and the system has double booked them or the reservation system isn't working at all when you board the train.

Cassarick I am not being selfish. I wait until the train has pulled out of the station. If no one is sat in it I will. However I will move with a smile and an apology if asked. To be selfish would be to refuse to move and huff and puff at you when you ask.
It is a shame you feel that way if someone is sat in your seat, but that doesn't make me selfish.

Agree. Lots and lots of reserved seats never get sat in, so I will often sit in one - however I don't get comfortable/unpack
Bags until its clear the person isn't coming to claim it, and would always move when asked to do so. In fact I tend to sit there for the first few minutes poised to ask anyone looking round the carriage if I'm in their seat :)

So I would say reasonable to sit in an unreserved seat, totally unreasonable to make a fuss if the rightful owner shows up!

A reserved seat even. It would be eminently reasonable to sit in an unreserved seat!!

Yes i agree with that.

It's like peoplemwho have to be asked to move their bags so you can sit down next to them on a ccrowded bus and tut about it, vs the ones ( like me) who notice the bus getting busy and move their bags .

Cassarick I think you are being a bit unreasonable, and rude, to suggest that as a polite and courteous person who is willing to move immediately when asked, that I am being selfish.

I think you are being rather rude and if you treat people on the train the way you have just treated me it is not surprising that they are rude back.

All you need to do is politely explain that I am in your seat. I will apologise, smile, and move. It's really not that difficult.

Oh this is one of my biggest bugbears.

I reserved a seat, got in the train and found someone sat in my seat. I asked her to move. She replied that her son always booked the same seat for her and it was hers. I showed her my ticket. She asked me where she should move, I said I wasn't bothered but as long as it was out of my seat. Cue her realising that a different seat had been booked for her.

Another time, people in our seats (table). I was stood there with two young children at the time and these people would not move, they dismissed me and continued to read their papers. Eventually, one of the women looked at their tickets - bloody wrong carriage altogether. They left all their rubbish and didn't even apologise. TWATS.

No wonder I get nervy boarding a train.

Even when a seat has multiple bookings, tbh its not complicated, it says reserved Kings x - Peterborough and Doncaster- Newcastle, you can work out its free from Pb to Doncaster. I like a reserved seat especially because it means if you get up to the loo or buffet or whatever, you don't have to risk leaving stuff on your seat to reserve it. Tricky one with the children under 5 - if you've paid for the extra seats then absolutely fine but you might feel a bit under pressure if the train got crowded to put one on your lap, or I would anyway

I must admit I have sat in a seat with reserved tickets on them. I've only ever done it though when the train was full with no other seats available. I always intended moving right away as soon the person who had reserved the seat turns up. I would never argue about it or make the person feel guilty, if anything I am the one who feels sheepish.
I am going on the train next month to go on a hen do and I fully intend to reserve my seat (long journey).

I would still sit in someone elses seat if there wasn't another available until the person who has reserved the seat turns up. Nothing wrong with that. It's the eyerolling, huffing and puffing that's the problem.

Oh yes this is a bugbear of mine. I go by train to and from london with two kids under five. As i have a family railcard i book seats for the childtren and myself at a table seat. Numerous times people say 'cant they just sit on your knee' ermm not when i have PAID for their seats and ds4 and dd are both big for their age and dd wouldnt sit happily on my knee for two hours anyway.

Have had some comments from commuters as well that i have dared go on a busy train with children, how unreasonable of me to need to.use a train at that time if the day..

"The person sitting in her seat quickley moved and was made to say sorry to her by the ticket man"

Fantastic! I'd have loved to have seen that. Well done to your DD.

I've seen people who missed their train, get on the next train and expect people to move out of the seats with the numbers on they had booked on the previous train. Stupid.

There was a reservation failure on the train the last time but we were lucky as the journey started from our station, so we took the seats we had booked anyway.

I hate people who get shirty when they are definitely in the wrong.

We always reserve seats when we go to visit family (two hours away by train). Despite stating preference, i.e. table seat, we are often reserved elsewhere. We usually end up sitting in unreserved seats, but always go to our reserved seats and take the tickets out so other people can sit there. Very rude if you have reserved a seat to then pick another seat but leave your original seat 'reserved' with ticket in.

OP, YANBU. Some people are just silly and rude. I have found that if they are reluctant to move out of your reserved seat, they always will if you invade their personal space (i.e. stand leaning on the seat) and refuse to back down.

If you book online, you can specify both the carriage and the seat. It shows you the seating plan and what is available.

Cassarick On some of the trains I get 90% of the seats are reserved and half those reservations won't get taken up[1]. My options are to stand or take a reserved seat and hope. I do however always smile, say sorry and move as fast as I can. Your issue is surely with rude people not those who are short on choices because of our overcrowded rail network.

[1] Due to passengers having a flexible ticket and getting an earlier/later train usually. Not a random claim, used to work somewhere where I had to handle this data. Reservations are free and often necessary if you book in advance even when not wanted. Also note that the people without reservations are, due to how ticket buying works, the people who have paid the most.

Happena all the tome. the only tome I bookws 1ar class, I had to tuef a pompous git out of myseat. And he'd scoffwd all my complimwntary bisxuits

Gah, massove typo fail. Neq phone

Complexnumber she was texting me mad while waiting.( she a mumsnetter in training dont doesn't know it yet shes thinks she all gangsta) < rolls eyes>

I had to reserve a seat when travelling to Nottingham last year (because i did the advance ticket i had to book it)
I had DD with me, but I couldn't see how to book a seat for her, so I had to hope that the train wouldn't be too crowded.

on the way home, a couple of random commuters had taken my seat, (it was at a table so I'd have more room), but had sat diagonally to each other, and spread themselves out all over the table.
I told them they had my seat, and my seat was the window seat, but we compromised by me agreeing to sit on the aisle seat.
they were in those seats for most of the journey, and when I had to feed DD, it was not fun.

I think it's fair game if the seat is unoccupied after the train has left the station labelled on the reserve ticket.

Cally you really need to practise with that phone!