AIBU to want a refund on my non-refundable Eurostar ticket?

[Nameexchange]

I booked 2 eurostar tickets for my DDs. Non refundable, non-exchangeable. Fair enough.

On the day, only DD2 could travel. Fine, I did not expect a refund. I did however expect her to be able to spread out over 2 seats with her stuff and to be able to even sleep a bit down to the south of France. After all, I had paid nearly £100 for that second seat, as well as nearly £100 for the first one.

But at the start of the journey, the passenger service agent asked DD2 to move her stuff off seat 2 and to let someone else sit in the (reserved for us) seat. DD2 protested that she had paid for the seat and had the reservation, but the PSA insisted and DD2 had no choice.

In these circs, should I get payment from Eurostar for use of MY seat which they clearly resold? I don't see why they should get to use the seat I have paid for when I, through the person of DD2, still have use for the seat I have paid for.

I quite understand someone else wanted/needed to travel and actually don't mind them reselling the seat but I do think Eurostar should pay me for using it. AIBU? I can't tell...

You have bought cheaper non-refundable, non-transferable tickets for both DDs. You have bought a right for your DDs to travel on Eurostar - you have not bought the actual seat. Once DD1 has elected not to check in by the latest check in time, she is deemed to be a no-show. Her seat is then released for other passengers who are trying to travel. You have accepted these terms when you made the booking. This is how transport companies work, and how they are able to offer the cheaper tickets. Your DD2 did not have a right to use the second seat.

Just to clarify - you bought a right to travel, not a seat, and accepted that if you did not show, you would not be able to get your money back, nor would you be allowed to allow anyone else to travel on DD1's ticket in her place.

Wonder aloud...

Is it OK and acceptable to book several tickets (let's say 4 of them to get a table of 4) just to be able to have that space for yourself (ie you are on your own and want all the table for you).
You have paid for it, why would it be an issue?

I know it is lighthearted but its hardly the same. The Eurostar werent expecting your dd to share her seat.

back does it mean that dd1 should have been checking in even though she wasn't there the same way that MsGee MIL had (even she wasn't alive anymore)??

I was there at check in, which was by way of machine situated right by the entry gate. I just put in the one booking reference and credit card, and two tickets (?boarding passes) printed out. Then DD2 went through an automatic ticket reader - perhaps we should have posted the other tickets through it too?

Eurostar incidentally have now also told me that "[they] did not resell the ticket as [they] are not allowed to". I am lost on that one - are they telling me that the person in the seat had not paid?

I am going to write this off to experience and next time will know to check in any non-travellers, if I can. I will tell DD2 to do this on the way home.

Oh, yes, I think if you had checked in the second boarding pass (through the automatic gates) then the seat wouldn't have been available in the system for reallocation.

They may not have resold the seat - if someone with a flexible ticket arrived wanting to travel on that train rather than a later one, no additional money would have changed hands.

But if you waved the QR code at the automatic gates so they opened and then no one went through, it might well have triggered a staff member to come and check.

For the deceased MIL then the staff member made a decision (possibly based on partly compassion and partly capacity on the train) that the seat could be left free. It wouldn't have been automatic.

YABU. That is exactly the point of non-refundable and non-transferable tickets. You take the risk that you won't use them and won't get any money back, and they give you a cheaper ticket.

I'm a bit confused about the checking in extra passengers thing. What if there was an evacuation or incident of some kind and they had people checked in who weren't there? Or do they know that those people aren't really aboard? (General question, not directed at you OP)

Also why does DD2 need the extra seat? It could be sold to someone who needs to travel at the last minute for whatever reason.

Yabu. Why does your daughter need two seats. That's unfair and abit mean.

I wouldn't tell her to check in to be honest, for health and safety reasons they will probably really not like that, and she is on the train on her own to deal with it if they come around and check and there is no passenger there.

She might be lucky and get the two seats or she might not, but I think your in dodgy ground checking in someone who isn't on the train.

I think that if they are able to resell the ticket you should get a refund. If they aren't allowed to resell the ticket then they should not give a non paying passenger the seat you paid for without giving you a refund.

The tickets are cheaper because they will have costed everything including people not travelling and being able to resell those seats on, it's for this reason they can offer all passengers cheaper terms for non refundable tickets.

Not sure where they stand in changing the name? But i dint agree they should give the seats away.

If Eurostar and airlines didn't do this all tickets would be much more expensive as there would be no difference between a refundable and non refundable ticket. Are most people happy to pay more? Probably not!

It is sometines suggested on Mumsnet plane threads that passengers so fat they overflow onto their neighbour's seat should have to buy two seats. If someone did this, what would happen when they checked in? Only one human so would the plane company feel entitled to re-sell the extra seat? If so it would rather negate the point of buying the second one.

Airlines have special arrangements for this Tricky. All tickets have to be named at time of purchase and any oddities dealt with properly. There would be arrangements to allow the same person to check in for two seats and once checked seat can't be resold.

I was going to say what about people who need 2 seats because they spill over. I don't think you are being unreasonable op.

I don't think Eurostar can possibly oversell their trains in the way that planes do, because your seat is allocated when you book, how would they choose who to double-book?!?

I think it is likely that as pp said someone with a flexible ticket turned up and was able to travel at the last minute as your dd's seat wasn't taken or someone had missed their own eurostar due to a late connecting train and civ regulations meant they were put on the next available service. I would have expected that to happen to us in the summer when our train got into paris an hour later than it should have - they were boarding when we got through security and it would have been touch and go if we'd been much later.

Our out-bound train had two passengers who were seated by a eurostar staff member who was looking around for empty seats, incidentally. Although those two passengers did not appear to be together...

Interesting, bonborez; I don't think YABU, OP.

Ok, Eurostar has given me more information. Apparently there are a few fold down seats and people can buy tickets for those. Then, at lift-off, so to speak, if there are any vacant fixed seats, those passengers get moved onto them. I suppose this is how they get around the "not allowed to resell the tickets" rule but still ensure a full train and maximum efficiency.

I want to know how to get tickets for the fold down seats now as I bet those tickets are cheap. Has anybody ever bought one?

I have decided IA prob BU on wanting compensation for them taking advantage of my extra seat, or at least that it is not worth the fight as life is too short. Thanks for all the advice

Also, DD is coming back business class so should have plenty of room anyway for all her stuff.