Saving seats when a venue is full.

[user1485342611]

I went with a friend to an outdoor play last night. There were several rows of chairs, and then some uncomfortable benches with no back. It was all organised on a 'first come, first served' basis.

We arrived a good twenty minutes before the play and there were lots of empty seats scattered around. But every time we approached them someone would say 'oh no, they're saved', or there would be jackets and cardigans thrown across them.

Eventually my friend just said, politely, "I'm sorry but there's no other free seats" and we just sat down on two empty ones. We then had to put up with dirty stares, which were repeated during the interval along with loud comments to their friends "well we tried to save you seats, but as you can see..." followed by eye rolling in our direction.

WWBU?

It's when they stake out an entire row, two people and then items strewn across the rest of the row. Nah. I don't ask, either, I'm not taking their items, just moving them.

But I wonder how a lot of these posters would feel if they’d left their seats to go to the toilet, your partner informed everyone that ‘someone is sitting there’ but a stranger decided to plonk themselves down anyway?

Whilst seat saving is annoying, I can’t get too worked up about 1 or 2 seats being saved.

WonderLime, that happened to me, and I was furious. We ended up leaving as it was supposed to be a date night and we could no longer sit together.

Just to clarify, there was no question of us taking a seat from someone who had just gone to the loo. Several people said 'oh there's someone sitting there' and that was fine.
But lots of people said 'oh no, we're keeping those seats' or 'Our friends will be here shortly' and things like that. The seats we took were ones we'd been informed were 'reserved for some friends who are on their way'.

One person saving one or even two seats for their partner and/or child/friend- fine
One person saving seats for a crowd when there aren't enough good seats - not fine.

I'd have done the same as you.

I arrived early for a show in Ealing a few months ago, and the theatre reserved the whole front row for latecomers. I sat there anyway. There were raised eyebrows, but no-one said anything.

I was at a Green Day concert at Wembley Stadium a few years ago, my kids were much younger then so I'd opted for the general admission seating which was basically the lower tier but also included pitch standing. We'd queued early and got seating as close to the stage as possible so we had no problem but there was a woman in front of us who was saving three seats and time after time we heard people ask if they could sit there and she refused. No one sat there at all until three older teenagers joined her from the pitch during the last song, she'd obviously been saving them for her kids just in case they wanted a sit down.

It's people saving places in queues for friends coming later at concerts which annoys me too.

I agree with the consensus here, one seat in a group yes, two upwards, definitely not.

PeapodBurgundy your case is outrageous, because your husband was there and had just gone to the loo. In this case, if I was your hub, I'd have walked out to reception and explained that we'd both arrived on time along with our baby and when I went to the loo someone took my space. I'd ensure that management reclaimed my seat for me, because this was clearly very rude and they didn't believe you although you were telling the truth.

I am definitely in the ‘no seat saving’ camp. I am not standing up so a coat can have a seat! I have been known to move things at times, the stares don’t bother me.

And what if someone was saving seats for a disabled person who can't get there until the last minute?

A disabled person should get a seat obviously but I think, as for anyone else, if they want to sit with particular people, they should get there early enough to claim the seats. Is there any disability that means a person would have to arrive at the last minute? If so then allowances should be made

Ds is autistic so I only get to places with him last minute if I want there to be any chance of seeing the start!

ANd for some people sitting for too long can be a problem so arriving last minute would help them

Snork He wanted to evict the woman from the seat himself, and usually would have done, but DS was only little, and I got a fairly nasty bout of PND after having him. I was very prone to panic attacks for the first 6 months or so, and I could already feel my hands tingling from simply saying that it was my partners seat who had nipped to the loo. I was completely unable to cope with any kind of confrontation.

I'm evergreat with confrontation, but if this happened now, my feet would have been under her arse if she'd gone to sit there

*never great