People who don't sit in their own booked seats

[Badbadbunny]

Is it just me or is there an epidemic of this at the moment. Yesterday, went to a football match with family, booked seats a few weeks ago to get a decent view, easy access to toilets etc and for us to sit together. When we arrived, two pairs of people were sat in the middle of our booked seats and wouldn't move, we asked the stewards for help, but they couldn't get these people to move either, so we just ended up sat in someone elses' seats who weren't happy with us, but we just referred them back to the steward who wouldn't help us. Last weekend, at the cinema, we booked seats online beforehand, again reserved seats, but when we got in, again, someone else sat in our seats so we had to sit somewhere else. Midweek, went on a 3 hour train journey to London, booked our seats on the Virgin website weeks ago, again, when we got on, someone else sat in them, again, wouldn't move as the train was full, again, the guard wouldn't move them on, so we ended up split up on odd seats elsewhere. Since when have people become so inconsiderate and rude that they don't sit in their own seats, and won't move when the person with the valid ticket asks them to????

And another train one. I was in the small first class area of a train, only about 10 seats.

Manspreading, acting like he was slumming even being on a public train hooray henry opposite me in a Hackett rugby top, collars turned up, the whole lot. Inspector arrives (unusually on this service) and we all show our tickets. HH starts coughing and spluttering as Inspector points out he has a second class ticket, trying to act like he had no idea etc. Despite the fact we were seconds away from the station, made him get up and stand in the vestibule, saying he'd charge him the full fare from one terminating stop to the other if he didn't move sharpish, and/or caught him again.

Our collective tuts and eye rolling was devastating

The only thing I wonder about that is...I wonder if his mother got a refund? If she didn't, I can see why he'd want to plonk his bum in her comfy seat.

I get why he wanted to try it on, that flight is horrendous enough, let alone in economy. But whether she got £0 or the full lot back, the son was ticketed in economy, and that's the end of it really, unless he had changed his ticket to take his mum's place (and clearly hadn't). From check in, to lounges, to catering in-flight, it's all a BC perk that costs and no airline is going to let someone swap in and out like that.

Certainly where I am train conductors & such won't hesitate to get police involved the SECOND some arse tips into any kind of aggressive or antisocial behaviour.

But unfortunately that just ends up causing more problems for everyone else. I was on an already delayed train recently, waiting to leave a station, when a man started being rude and shouting at railway staff. He was told to get off, or police would be called. But if we'd had to wait for police, the train would have been delayed even further, with knock-on effects throughout the network. He did get off in the end, but we'd missed our signal to go, and had to wait longer.

There are always CFs on trains. I posted here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3407525-CF-on-a-train

Honestly, I think I am pretty much done with human beings!

I'd be tempted to sit on their knee!

On trains I can understand moving to an "available" seat from your booked one but not to someone else's seat.

People doing this is a problem.
So then your booked seat is sitting empty because another one took your fancy.
Ive seen so many "reserved" seats (sometimes whole carriages of them) untaken its no wonder people help themselves.

People sat in our seats have always moved, except for on one occasion where a lady in first class on a train was incredibly rude when me and ex pointed out she was sitting in our prebooked seats. When we've had this in standard people have always moved, and its rare someone sits in your seat to begin with! Not only does money not buy manners but it seems the inverse is true.

I frequently don't sit in my own booked seat. I always book a forward facing seat, particularly important for the pendelino trains, but rarely get given the FF seat that I book.

So I move and sit in a FF seat, leaving my booked seat empty for anyone who wants to take it.

Grrr people please stop doing that its shitty and selfish.

Someone once took my cinema seats and refused to move (feet up and kids already tucking into pic n mix)

I sat elsewhere as to not cause disturbance

Then the cinema worker yelled at ME!!! For being in the wrong seat when they came to deliver a hot dog

In hindsight I should have told them straight away, have learned my lesson now.

On the way back to UK from Iceland, we had booked 2 X 2 seats (window and middle). Got to my row with DD1 and two women were in our seats, they breezily asked 'You don't mind do you? We wanted to look out the window and decided this was a nice seat'.
I must have growled at them and gave them a real death stare as they soon scarpered.
How F dare they!

part of the problem on trains is that the majority of booked seats tend to never be claimed by their rightful occupants. possibly because either the person who booked them wanted to sit elsewhere, or they have a flexible ticket and chose another train, or missed the train. so I have no compunction about sitting in a seat reserved by someone else as the chances are that they won't turn up, and if they do I will obviously surrender the seat to them as they have every right to it. if I didn't do this then I am certain that someone else who hadn't booked it and had no more right to it than me would take it - and maybe wouldn't surrender it if they are an arse. so my occupying the seat as someone ready willing and able to move instantly when asked is possibly a better outcome for the seat booker.

what irritates me are the (fairly rare) occasions when people expect you to be telepathic. this happened the other day, when I was sat at a table working but fully prepared to move if asked. there was a person sitting opposite me talking with a person standing next to her and they both occasionally made snide, nasty comments in their conversation (I don't recall the exact words) but it gradually dawned on me that the standing person was the one who had booked the seat I was in, but had expected me to know this by some magical means that didn't involve any kind of direct communication. of course I moved but really I think they were unreasonable not to say anything to me directly. my powers of telepathy are limited.

We had a CF couple on our plane recently. Every seat was taken and a family of four (two adults, child, toddler) wanted three seats together but hadn’t prebooked so had been allocated two seats in one row and one seat in the row behind. Lots of complaining from the adults about nobody being prepared to move so that their family could sit next to each other, how appallingly selfish it was because how on earth could Dad cope with the older child alone while Mum had the toddler on her lap etc etc. Stewards were sympathetic but firm in the face of abuse.....sorry, you didn’t prebook your seats and everyone else did.

By contrast, same flight - two adults and one baby, their flight the night before had been cancelled so they’d been bumped onto our flight but not seated together. Polite and friendly - other passengers managed to shuffle round to get them together.

part of the problem on trains is that the majority of booked seats tend to never be claimed by their rightful occupants. possibly because either the person who booked them wanted to sit elsewhere,

Having spent hundreds of hours standing with heavy bags not sitting in empty reserved seats I'll take one now with no qualms.
If you have a booked seat just ffing sit in it.!!!!
Train companies need to charge for reservations except in the case of disability. It's a mess.

If you have a booked seat on a train then the company HAS to find you a seat.

The best thing to do if the train is busy is head to first class and tell them you will move if they give you your booked seat. You are usually left alone.

No they don't, sashh.

I can see how it happens on trains. Sometimes they're too busy for people to be able to physically get to their booked seats, sometimes bookings all get cancelled but people still try to move others from the seats they have on their tickets, sometimes 1st gets declassified etc.

I never book a seat because I'm 1-2 stops out of London and always have a cheap day return ticket bought at the station for any off peak train. The late night trains are really busy and the platform number doesn't get displayed till a few minutes before departure time causing hundreds of people to literally run through the station in a tidal wave when it goes up on the board. I do ask which the unreserved carriages are and try to head for those but, if it's a real rush and crush, I'll just sit where I can. I look out for someone who looks like it might be their seat and get ready to move but it doesn't often happen. I think the key thing is to be prepared to move. But I do get that some people will lose out on their seat by being too shy to ask. I probably wouldn't dare ask myself to be honest. Which means I really shouldn't sit down. But then if I don't the next person will so I think seat bookers are probably going to need to be prepared to ask whatever.

I think GWR in particular need to give you the option to make changes to a pre booking online without charging you to do it.

I had a return to Bristol recently and was in my prebooked seat on the way up there, but coming back our plans had changed (I knew this from very early on) and I needed to get a later train.

My prebooked seat for the return could have been given up but they wanted to charge a £10 admin fee, even with weeks of notice.

Surely if you do it early enough online before they allocate the seats they shouldn't need to charge.

I have no compunction about sitting in a seat reserved by someone else as the chances are that they won't turn up, and if they do I will obviously surrender the seat to them as they have every right to it.

I boarded a busy train part way through its journey a while back. Someone was in my seat. She moved, but in the time it took me to speak to her, and for her to gather her stuff and move, I was blocking the aisle so no-one else could get to their seats. Then she blocked the aisle while she looked for another seat. She probably pissed off a dozen or more people by the time she finally sat down.

Some seats are only reserved for part of a journey. If you must occupy a reserved seat, at least wait until the train has left the station from which the reservation begins.

I get why he wanted to try it on, that flight is horrendous enough, let alone in economy. But whether she got £0 or the full lot back, the son was ticketed in economy, and that's the end of it really, unless he had changed his ticket to take his mum's place (and clearly hadn't). From check in, to lounges, to catering in-flight, it's all a BC perk that costs and no airline is going to let someone swap in and out like that

I didn't realise you weren't allowed to swap seats. I heard a story on the radio last night about a man in first class who swapped seats with a woman travelling alone in economy with a very ill, disabled baby (travelling to US for experimental treatment or something). It was a lovely story but maybe it was just made up for Christmas!

There was no seat though.

The mum had cancelled her booking. So that seat was now free for someone else to buy/upgrade into.

The son did not have a business class ticket or an upgrade.

(I guess the dad could have swapped the son his seat and moved back into economy but that didn't happen either)

manicinsomniac

It’s a true story, though was a regular trip for them, on an internal US flight (which prob makes a difference re seat swapping)

I saw the original on FB but didn’t see that he’s now been identified - he sounds like a very very nice man

www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/man-reveals-gave-up-first-13712535

Ah ok, thanks.

Glad it's a real story - it gave me the warm fuzzies

I don't travel by train that often, but it seems to me part of the trouble is caused by not having enough carriages in the first place. Travelling from Cheltenham to Leeds and back, both ways people were sitting in our reserved seats (they moved), but there were people standing all over the place. This is a popular service, but the train was only 4 carriages long. Similarly, peak times into and out of Paddington, the sheer amount of people sitting on the floors in the loo/door area makes walking around difficult. Train companies charge a premium price, but don't seem prepared to offer enough rolling stock to accommodate all their customers.