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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think seats aren’t reserved on a train if they don’t put tickets out?

121 replies

alligatortoss · 24/03/2018 21:19

Or are they still reserved regardless of tickets?

Some woman just asked me to move despite there being 8 rows of identical seats free behind me.

OP posts:
ViceAdmiralAmilynHoldo · 24/03/2018 21:20

Just move if there is space, and mention it to the guard when s/he comes past.

HarryDresdensLeatherDuster · 24/03/2018 21:22

No reserved ticket on the seat, it's not reserved!!!

UnimaginativeUsername · 24/03/2018 21:22

People often pull the tickets out to pretend there was no reservation. If someone’s ticket said it was their reserved seat, I’d move.

MagentaRocks · 24/03/2018 21:23

Sometime due to staff shortage they don’t have time to put out the tickets when people have already got their seat reservations.

DairyisClosed · 24/03/2018 21:24

They are still reserved.

Original poster
alligatortoss · 24/03/2018 21:24

People often pull the tickets out to pretend there was no reservation. If someone’s ticket said it was their reserved seat, I’d move.

There’s no tickets at all on any seats.

OP posts:
Floopbloop · 24/03/2018 21:25

Of course they are reserved if the person has a ticket saying so! For all you know the 8 identical rows could be reserved too for stations along the line!

LadyLaSnack · 24/03/2018 21:27

On Virgin trains, when the electronic system fails meaning that no seats are marked as reserved, the people with the tickets for the reserved seats seem to have priority over those seats.

Seems fair (the system fails a lot).

ArntNise · 24/03/2018 21:27

If there is no ticket on the seat, then the seat is not reserved. You could be moving throughout your journey using @ViceAdmiralAmilynHoldo 's logic!

Ubercornsdiscoball · 24/03/2018 21:28

Not all trains put tickets out now so they? They are still reserved

Original poster
alligatortoss · 24/03/2018 21:29

Not all trains put tickets out now so they? They are still reserved

This one does. Because they had them on my earlier train,

OP posts:
MaisyPops · 24/03/2018 21:30

If I have a ticket with my seat number on it then that is my reserved seat whether someone already sat in it likes it or not.

THEY can move into any of the other seats (and hope that later they don't become reserved).

Attitudes like OP reminds me why I generally don't use trains. There's always someone who thinks 'excuse me this is my reserved seat' doesn't apply to them. Idiots.

allthatmalarkey · 24/03/2018 21:30

If she's got a ticket with a seat reservation on it, what's she supposed to think? You get the chance to book that when you buy your ticket, it seems reasonable to think that's the seat you're getting. Seems a bit silly asking you to move, but equally if the other seats were reserved without tickets on and a load of people turn up at the next stop she could have ended up being asked to move whilst you're in her seat. I think YAB a bit U, sorry, but I'd like to know what the legal answer is - perhaps there's some disclaimer that seat reservations don't count if they can't get round to putting the tickets in the seats.

Joleney · 24/03/2018 21:30

If she can show you she has the tickets, you should move.

Otherwise, she may get asked to move later on in the journey if people who have reserved those seats get on.

Original poster
alligatortoss · 24/03/2018 21:32

I didn’t ask to see her ticket. I just said ok and moved to the seat behind me.

No one pays extra for reserved seats on this train btw.

OP posts:
MrsJoshDun · 24/03/2018 21:34

Last time I was on an east coast mainline and they had t put any of the tickets out they said over the tannoy that reservations didn’t count as it wasn’t fair on people who sat in a reserved seat not knowing it was reserved. So it was first come first served.

I kind of saw the point because if people got to an empty carriage and unknowingly sat in the only two reserved seats and then the carriage filled up it kind of wouldn’t seem fair if they then lost their seats. But suppose it’s also not fair that the person who has a reservation loses their seat.

Addy2 · 24/03/2018 21:36

I disagree. When we get the announcement that, 'due to a technical fault, there are no seat reservations on this train' I take them at their word.

Addy2 · 24/03/2018 21:36

Sorry, cross post.

Ikanon · 24/03/2018 21:38

I kicked someone out of my seat today that I had a reservation for but it wasn't showing on the electronic screen.

I offered to show him my reservation but he said he believed me and moved. On the other leg I moved another woman who said she didn't even notice the electronic screen with my reserved from X on. YABU. Unless there's a system failure announced reservations are reservations. You don't sit in whatever seat is free at a theatre. You sit in your booked seat number.

UnimaginativeUsername · 24/03/2018 21:38

Not putting the ticket reservations out is really crappy customer service. There is nothing worse than getting on a packed train to discover that the train company have decided your seat reservation no longer counts. You can end up standing for hours, seething because you’d booked a nice table seat and can’t sit in it.

19lottie82 · 24/03/2018 21:39

If someone has a ticket with a seat number on it, then they have reserved that seat. It doesn’t matter if there is a ticket on the seat or not.

MrsJoshDun · 24/03/2018 21:40

Well the train company says otherwise.

ErrolTheDragon · 24/03/2018 21:41

Of course it's reserved if someone has a ticket with that seat on it - exactly like on planes. The labels on the seat are surely just to help people who haven't got a reservation to choose an unreserved seat.

GreyGardens88 · 24/03/2018 21:45

If the tickets haven't been put out the policy is that there are NO reservations. Otherwise who would know what seats have been reserved and haven't. It would be like musical chairs.

GreyGardens88 · 24/03/2018 21:45

It's utterly different scenario on planes, as the seats are automatically assigned anyway