To think you can't reserve tube seats?!

[Lou573]

Packed tube this morning, I was holding on to the vertical rail at the end of a row of seats. As the seated person on the end got up to leave the tube and I waited to let them past, a woman reached behind me to place her bag on the newly vacated seat, thereby ensuring that no one would sit on it until she could make her way round to take it. As a London resident for over a decade I'm not sure I've seen such entitled tube behaviour before, but AIBU to think that you can't do this?!

I think on the tube it's Everyman for themselves.

I would have sat on the bag.
YANBU

Haha, no I don't think that's on really. I probably wouldn't have made a big thing of it (unless I had a particular reason to feel I was more in need of a seat then most), just laughed.

How cheeky! I kind of admire the audacity! Wow!

She's nuts, people get so cranky she is lucky her bag didn't fly through the carriage. Most people would just gently remove it and put in on the floor.

i've only been to london as a tourist and it definitely seemed to be 'let the best man win' so to speak. i think you've just learned a new trick to use!

(oh, and yes i think it's cheeky, but also quite inventive)

Yeah, just sit down like you haven't noticed the bag is even there. I would love to witness that!

This is so utterly wrong.

Was she foreign? I've seen this on some Eastern European trams and tubes.

Oh I wished after I had just sat there, but I was actually going to offer the seat to another lady first, so didn't move quickly enough after being taken aback, so just sort of glared instead, although I think she was purposely avoiding eye contact. She looked like an office worker and got off at Canary Wharf with everyone else, so assume so wasn't a tourist. I do quite admire her brass neck, but I like to think we could still maintain a minimum of civility on public transport rather than every man for himself!

Wow, never seen this before in many years of tube travelling in the capital. I wouldn't have wanted a confrontation that early in the morning so would have just smirked at her instead of sitting on the bag or giving it to her.

I've commuted every day for 10 years and never seen that! Definitely unreasonable and I guess now we just have to block handbags if they come past us!

I'm pregnant at the moment so you can imagine my tales of woe.

Nothing is worse than central-pole-leaners who take up the whole pole so nobody can hold onto it. One particularly sweaty-backed man once did this WHILST I WAS HOLDING ON. As in he leant ON MY HAND with his HORRIBLE SWEATY BACK. I don't think I'll ever get over it...

I have never seen that! And I'd be in the air-on-the-bag camp
Or probably pick it up, hand it back and say 'nice try'

kimmy I'm also pregnant and we are moving in a few weeks so I'm swapping my current and very civil 5-stops-on-the-Victoria-line for northern line HELL
DH starts work stupidly early so will miss the worst of it but I'm already feeling sick at the thought of negotiating the morning rush with a big bump

pudding
One word - knuckles!
Hook your hand around the pole with a knuckle-y grip so it digs into their back if they lean back
They soon move..!

Nothing is worse than central-pole-leaners who take up the whole pole so nobody can hold onto it.

This gives me the utter rage.

The Tube is one of those no rules "you gotta do what you gotta do" type environments for me. A bit like the Next sale!

YANBU. What a chancer

sparechange

Elbows. Put your elbows to protect your baby. It worked wonderfully with all of mine. Good luck, I don't even know how you even join the Northern Line at rush hours, it's always beyond crowded.

Tube seating is a dog eat dog environment.
Thanks for the tip.

Yep we've seen this.
I was already sat down but my dh was standing. A lady did this when the space nearest to him became available so my dh just pushed the bag on the floor and sat down. She told him to move as she had saved the seat with her bag. He asked if she was pregnant or had a hidden disability, she said no to both, so he told her to stop being so childish as it says nowhere that you can reserve seats on the tube.

I'd have sat on her bag.

DH was stunned when I was heavily pregnant with ds1 and we travelled through London to visit my parents to see me pushed out of the way by a besuited man rushing to get to an empty seat on the tube before I did. It's the tube, many people think using it requires tosser behaviour.

Haha i thought I'd seen it all on the tube but this takes the biscuit! I think I would have been really confused by what she was doing and assumed she was giving her bag to someone. So cheeky.