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?

DS is a student - on his train back before Christmas a family were sitting in his reserved seat. He didn't move them, and ended up standing for a short while. However, what goes around, comes around, and the kindly guard put him and another lad in 1st class. The family who were in his seats noted this, and unilaterally moved themselves to 1st class as well. Kindly guard (with inner steel) ejected them, despite their protestations that he was favouring my DS and the other chap. They weren't very polite apparently.

On his next trip through the 1st class carriage, the guard commented to my DS that "rudeness gets you nowhere"....

I don't understand the allure of table seats. Four strangers facing each other for hours on end, their knees touching, and barely enough space for a folded newspaper in front of them.

I like an airline seat, me. So much more private and relaxing, and with a fold down tray for your sandwich etc (using newspaper tablecloth, natch).

Of course if you have kids then that's different. But I've seen retired county types sit awkwardly trying to avoid eye or knee contact with their tablemates, when there are umpteen other seats they could relax in.

Yanbu,

Its very bad behaviour and anybody who steals someone else's seat is officially a wanker tosspot

Morris
Table seats sometimes have power sockets, airline style seats do not.

When you are on a 2+ hour journey, and want/need to use laptop etc they are very useful.

It doesn't matter if they huff and puff. I will sit in seats if they are reserved later on but realise that I will need to move.

On east coast there's power sockets at all seats including airline types.

I had this at the Paralympics in the stadium!! This man was sat in our seats that I'd paid a small fortune for (cat A, yay!) and was refusing to move, even after I showed him my tickets. He insisted it was "free seating". I had to get an official to turf him out. Turns out that the seats the other side of the aisle were "free seating" for special people (famous people, relatives etc I can only assume) and I guess he was a special person of some kind. Explains the attitude anyway, thinking he couldn't possibly be in the wrong as he was so "important". He kept glaring at us for quite some time, which really bothered 5 year old DD.

Depends which train company you use. East Coast and GrandCentral have sockets on both table and airline style. You can request power socket seats in their booking process. Grand Central has free wifi, east coast doesn't. (except in 1st class)

The seat planner, where you can pick your actual seat, only seems to work on the pc or laptop and doesn't come up on the iPad or my phone.

we always book seats 2-3 months in advance and if someone is sat there... we ask them to move.

i remember once travelling back from scotland (very long journey) and people were sat in our seats and refused to move. it was a busy train so we had to stand as they were absolutely horrible to us. i was quite ill and had a really bad back too and needed the seat. over 3hours i had to suffer.

i havent taken crap from anyone since

I always buy an advance ticket which is only valid with a reserved seat. Recently the guards have been checking that I am sat in the correct reserved seat. So although if a carriage used to be empty I'd just choose another seat, now I will ensure the person moves.

The last time I reserved seats they forgot to put the reservation on the seat and the man got slightly arsey and I said he could see my ticket if he really wanted too. He went and sat opposite with someone he knew but scowled for ages. I did loudly ask the guard as to why they hadn't put the reservation up...

Do they still have the little cards then on some trains as the ones I got on have a digtital display above the seats you cant fiddle with (I dont think)

They still have the little cards on the Arriva trains in my area.

I will sit in a reserved seat if there aren't any others free as often there are many reserved seats which go unclaimed. However I am always ready to leap out with a smile and an apology of the rightful owner comes along!

Had this in the cinema a few months ago, I was told I was being U and just to sit somewhere else. Um, no, YOU sit somewhere else.

I like the ones who think that they've booked the whole table.
I sat down in an unreserved seat at a table, opposite someone who had reserved theirs. she asked me quite sharply 'Did you reserve that' i said 'No it says unreserved'. She got up and quite obviously complained about me sitting there, and was obviously told she did not own the place.

If she'd been nice i would have probably got up and left her with the table to herself.

Problem is if you don't turf em out and get your seat then sit in an empty one then it could be also reserved and then you end up turfed out yourself!

I always book a forward facing window seat, and always get a rear facing one - usually by the bit where the window is blanked out! I don't understand why the reservation system offers you the forward/rear facing option when it can't possibly know which way a seat will be facing on your particular journey. I use the Virgin Pendalino trains so rear facing makes me feel sick as hell!

YAVDNBU!!!!!!!

I had a woman refuse to move out of the seat reserved for me when I was severely underweight, on crutches, & carrying a big rucksack. She refused to move because there were "other seats further down the carriage". Oh and apparently she "thought the seat was free" because it was empty when she boarded. Er yes, it would be. Because it was, as it said on it in big clear letters, reserved from Edinburgh to Kings Cross so I'd not be sitting in it from anywhere further north than that! Because she was settled & comfortable she wouldn't give it up.

As I would have fallen over & been very badly hurt if I'd stood there arguing after the train started, I had to struggle down the carriage (with the bonus of a couple of people getting huffy when I asked them to move their things out of the aisle so I could get past) to an empty&unreserved seat.

I think it's fine to sit in a reserved seat if it's clear the person for whom it is reserved isn't going to be using it; if you're ready to give it up the very instant it's rightful owner (as it were) bops up to claim it; or if your leg of the journey is outside the reserved section. I think you should also be extra-careful to leave it spotless (although that should always be the case) as there's a chance of someone else ending up sitting there & they shouldn't have to do their journey accompanied by your rubbish. I once ended up on a train where people not only made a massive fuss about moving their luggage from the wheelchair space so it could be occupied by my wheelchair (er, with me in it, I wasn't demanding they let it have the space all for itself) but they'd filled the area with their rubbish. That was a really quite revolting journey all in all, frankly. Blegh.

here are you all traveling that they still have the tickets?

The last few times I've been on a train the reserved is displayed on a screen above the seat.

East coast mainline still has the tickets. Virgin have the display screens. Don't know about elsewhere.

About 10 years ago I was travelling from Newcastle to Winchester (direct, about 7 hours travel). I always reserved as getting seats was a right beggar, train was always busy.

I had a middle aged trout on my seat refusing to move as she had "a 3 hour journey ahead of her". I was polite, she was rude (very) and basically told me to get knotted, she wasn't budging. So I went and found the train guard. He couldn't get her to move either.

Bless the guard though - he went and found me another seat... In first class (I had booked standard). The look on the woman's face when I went back to thank her for getting me a seat in 1st class. Priceless!

YANBU!! This seems to happen to me every time I reserve seats on a train
Worst was the following
The seat had been reserved twice so say from Edinburgh to Peterborough, then from York to London IYSWIM, the second part of reserved journey (mine) was pushed down into the chair, so not visible and when I got on a woman was sat there (fair enough). I explained I'd prebooked the seat, she gave me a snooty look, then glanced at back of chair as if to say no I hadn't. I pulled the ticket slightly up out of the chair to show the second reservation underneath and the following exchance ensued:
She: sigh, eye rolling Well I never saw that.
Me: (hugely apologetic) Sorry I know it was hidden, but I have reserved this seat. Sorry.
She: Well I've already moved twice for other people.
Me: Sorry, that's not my fault, I did prebook this seat.
NB: at this point a queue was building up behind me, everyone tutting, me hugely flustered as everyone tried to push past my MAHOOSIVE rucksack and THREE people told me to just sit somewhere else. Would have done if train not packed. And I had reserved a seat.
She: Well I need to finish sending this email
Me : Silence (thinking WTF!)
Then guy next to her (didn't realise they were even together): It's okay honey I'll move you sit here
She: eyes tearing up, bottom lip quivering But I don't want to be apart from you.
Him: I'll only be down there I'll keep coming back to see you.
She: I want to sit with you though.
Me: wanting to die
Then random man opposite: Oh I'll move, you have this seat. I would never split up a couple glares at me
She: Oh nooo, thank you so much, but I would never expect people to move from a seat they were already sat in..X (her OH) you move but I'll swap with you every 15 mins.

So he moved, but came to check up on her every 15 mins, swapped over twice then as train got even busier he just stood next to table and held hands with her (across me!) I slunk lower in chair to avoid the death ray stares of the whole table.

DH was once travelling with a colleague on a packed train down to London. The colleague informed DH that they had seats reserved in coach F and when they got on he went to the seats only to find a couple of elderly ladies sat in them. The colleague informed the ladies that they were in his seat and they, very upset, insisted that they had reserved these seats. DH at this point had a quick glance at his ticket and realised that the F stood for "facing" not coach F and they were in fact in the wrong place. He tried to tell his colleague but he was now in full righteous indignation stage and wouldn't listen so DH slunk away and found the correct seats. Apparently his chastened colleague arrived about 10 minutes later having finally been told the error of his ways by the conductor

How ridiculous! It's the attitude of well I sat here first, never mind that you reserved the seat weeks, months ago.

Either plan and book in advance or take your chances. I realise some journeys are necessarily last minute but that's how it works. Because we know our schedule and are able to book in advance, plus have a family and friends railcard, I often pay less than £10 for our journey from Yorkshire to London, for two of us. I have seen a man get on the train, with no ticket, grudginly pay £120 for the same journey we are doing, then have the guard inspect our tickets and say "You've got a bargain haven't you?"

Cue me sinking down in my seat while the man glares at me.

At peak time I will sit in a reserved seat if it it almost ready to depart from the station. If someone even looks like they have reserved the seat, I will get up straight away.

I have recently booked seat but when I picked the tickets up from the automated machine, there were * ** symbols where the carriage and seat numbers should be. . I'll try the counter next time.

I am loving the fact tat I'm not the only one who is astounded at the rudeness of people who sit in a Reserved seat. I do a very long (6 hour) commute at least twice a week, and always pre-book. I also pre-book Quiet Coach, powerpoint & table because the only way I can make te commute work is if I use those 12 hours to work.

It's not quite as bad as the use of phones & loud talking in the Quiet Coach though because usually it's pretty cut & dried about who has "right of way" on a reserved seat.

But what's the consensus on those times when the automatic seat reservation displays are not working (the 2 TOCs I have to use both have digital above the seat displays). Sometimes the conductor says that people should sit in their booked seat. Other times it's a free for all.

What do you think/do? I tend to try to insist on my reserved seat, but sometimes I get met with complete refusal.

Or and this happens with deadening regularity with Virgin on the London-Birmingham route I also have to take a train is cancelled so you get two loads of passengers on one train.

I had a booked seat on a busy peak time train (only way to get an affordable ticket is to book and Advanced ticket). The train before was cancelled so there was a party of business people around the table where my seat was. I had a lot of work to get through for the meeting I was going to (doling out Gov't money so important to get through the last minute docs) but the woman in my seat absolutely refused to move, and her colleague loudly called me obnoxious for asking her to move.

I was actually just a bit gobsmacked at both of them & retreated. I found a seat, but couldn't be sure if I'd be turfed out of that one, so told the woman that if someone moved me, I'd have to move her. That was the second time her colleague (brash man) called me obnoxious. What would you have done?