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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Train seats

62 replies

Monstrous · 28/09/2018 16:46

Bear with me... i’m bored on a packed train....
So twice today I have arrived on a train to find someone sat in my reserved seat announcing that their seat is “over there” for me to sit in and assuming that I don’t mind where I sit.
I don’t in fact really mind ....I’m not that bothered about a window seat....but why would you not sit in the seat you reserved....?
I guess i’m the kind of person that would never sit in someone else’s seat. If I wanted to swap for whatever reason (ie I was with a companion) I would wait until the other person arrived then explain and ask politely to swap.
I’m curious. It seems odd behaviour to take the seat and assume the other person will be fine with it...
(Be gentle... I don’t go on trains often... in fact I don’t get out much at all... and i’m not bothered just curious as to whether this is acceptable social behaviour or whether they are CFs)

OP posts:

ShineOnHarvestMoon · 29/09/2018 08:15

I insist on my reserved seat. Just politely insist.

It's impossible to know why some people do odd things: best just to get your seat & forget about it!

I book specific sets for regular long journeys - I like a window view & a plug for my laptop.

ButchyRestingFace · 29/09/2018 08:19

And one time a man got angry with me and pointlessly gave the old lady his seat while death staring me for the rest of the journey, even though there were other empty ones she could have moved into

Luckily I am utterly dead to that sort of PA shite. This hasn’t happened to me (yet) but seat hoggers will be getting told exactly where to fuck.

CatelynStark · 29/09/2018 08:34

What’s even more annoying is when you’ve booked your tickets with seat reservations via The Trainline and find that the company has double booked your seats both on the outward and return journey! So you ask someone to move and they have a perfectly understandable right to your seat.
Furious is an understatement

2Brieornot2Brie · 29/09/2018 08:51

On a flight from Edinburgh to London I had paid extra to pre book an exit row seat which happened to be an aisle seat. There was a man sitting in my seat. When I asked him to move the woman next to him said they were travelling together and I could take his seat several rows back.

I suggested if they wanted to sit together he should take his assigned seat and offer the person next to him his partner’s exit row seat.
Suddenly It wasn’t so important to sit together.

Randomusername01 · 29/09/2018 09:34

It's cfuckery. I've had this on trains and even once at the theatre. I just stood my ground and ask them to move.

problembottom · 29/09/2018 09:58

I've had this on flights a few times recently. DP and I always get towards the end, booking seats on the front row on the right if available. It's amazing the number of "confused" people who mix up their own seats with ours! I just stand in the aisle and ask the stewardesses to sort it, which they do as they want the plane to get going.

Brambleboo · 29/09/2018 10:39

I don't understand why people sit in seats that are clearly reserved. Selfishness, laziness or thpughtlessness maybe.

But to not move when it's clear the seatholder has arrived is downright rude. To point seatholder in direction of their reserved seats is CF and some!

RachaelGeller · 29/09/2018 12:56

My usual routine would be to offer to find them another seat and say LOOK THIS ONE IS FREE! But I have backed down if they've started protesting about not wanting to move and wittering about their bags or legs.

You’re far too nice nithead! I can’t believe you’d make the effort to find someone a free seat when they’ve stolen yours! I never, ever back down in this situation cos I know I’m right.

MissLingoss · 29/09/2018 14:49

Sometimes, I've put my suitcase in the luggage space behind my reserved seat, or across the aisle. So even if there are unreserved seats further down, I don't want to go and take one and perhaps not find another place for my suitcase.

I felt sorry for a young woman once, who arrived at her reserved seat across the aisle from me, to find an elderly couple there. They insisted they were their seats, and produced their tickets to prove it.

They were indeed in the right seats, but on the wrong train - they were booked on the one an hour later. They couldn't, or wouldn't, understand when the young woman showed them her ticket and tried to explain. She went off in the end. I hope she found herself a seat somewhere else.

Finding the guard is easier said than done in a long and busy train, if you've got luggage and/or small children with you.

JaceLancs · 29/09/2018 15:39

I always reserve a window seat forward facing as if I don’t I will be travel sick
I try and get a table and power socket as nearly always travel for business purposes and have work to do
I will always make someone move politely I just say - you are in my seat show them the ticket and wait for them to move
It’s only failed once when the person complained the train was double booked (same seat number) I involved guard who moved me into first class with a seat same requirements - turned out other person was on the wrong train!

OliviaStabler · 30/09/2018 08:07

It is awful when they announce that reserved seating isn't working.

MissLingoss · 30/09/2018 11:31

It is awful when they announce that reserved seating isn't working.

If I'm getting on a train at its starting point, I always try to be there before they announce the platform and start boarding, so I can be one of the first on and get my seat - or any seat. It's not so easy when boarding a train part way along the route, of course.

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