Elderly couple on train

[brummiesue]

Initial thoughts were what utter twats they were especially after hearing that the woman in question is heavily pregnant. I then however saw the unpixelated photo and the poor woman who wouldn't move looks poorly. AIBU to have a little sympathy for them now??
Link below hopefully
mol.im/a/7602911

I’ve been on trains where seat reservations were suspended. I understand that’s what happened here?

I have too, that's not what happened here though, the reservations were still valid and seats labelled,this couple ignored the labels.

I'm just bloody impressed they managed to get a member of staff to intervene to be honest - after I was horribly verbally abused by another passenger (I'd dared to sit in the window side seat when she'd stood up to offer to let me sit in it on a packed train, didn't occupy any space other than my own seat and she just verbally abused me with me boxed in unable to move for the entire trip) and no one was seen, platform staff didn't give a shit and the rail company didn't even reply to anything about it.

This is about as interesting as watching paint dry, is this really all the DM can find to fill their website?

Well, if that’s the whole story then they were arseholes. But she shouldn’t have put their picture on SM and their age is irrelevant.

Why not? When people are behaving like this, what entitles then not to have that behaviour exposed?

I agree that their age should be irrelevant, but am not sure it is. People react differently to older people.

No sympathy for them, totally entitled pompous twats. If the woman is ill, she could have said so. She didn't. They just said they didn't care about the tickets and they weren't moving.

Dontgobacktorockville Good, maybe they won't behave like such selfish arses in future!

It was @LochJessMonster I think not OP @BIWitch.

I see your stance but really I feel there was no ageism at play, I dislike rude old people too just as much as I dislike rude young people. I really feel for me it was descriptive, however, for you you don’t. Both fine viewpoints but really neither of us know the intention of that comment so probably best to stick to our own thoughts!

The reason not to expose them Seaweed, is that the response to these things often goes way beyond what is required. Social media intensifies everything - this couple will be identified and it wouldn't surprise me if they got verbal abuse. Yeah what they did us wrong, but it's hardly crime of the century, plus none of us know all the details of the situation.

@brummiesue

YANBU. I think the couple were out of order, and they should have been made to move. People don't deserve more respect or special treatment just because they are 'seniors.' Respect is EARNED, and you don't just get to demand it because you're over 60! And it's not AGEIST to call people OLD; it's just part of their description FFS!

Howeverrrrrrrrr..This woman lost all my sympathy by taking their photo, (and plastering it all over the place, and blabbing what happened all over the internet/social media.) It's pathetic, childish, and attention-seeking at best; nasty, vindictive, and BULLYING behaviour at worst.

Some people on the internet are horrible, and could potentially make this couple's life a misery. No-one else needed to know about this. NO-ONE.

Me personally, I would have asked them to move, and told the conductor if they said no, and happily have taken the seats the conductor found me. On the way out, I would have said 'I hope someone does the same to YOU' to the couple!

And that would have been it.

Shaming the couple by plastering their faces online is disgusting behaviour, and makes the woman look like a nasty vindictive spiteful cow to be honest.

And the kids 'sad faces' for the purposes of trying to get pity is fucking pathetic. That woman (the mother of the children) should be ashamed of herself.

Must have been a slow news day.
When did “rude person sitting in my reserved seat refusing to move” become newsworthy?
It’s really entertainment to distract us from the real news.

I think it was completely unnecessary to take it any further, especially considering it was resolved by the train company.

I disagree. Assuming the account in the Mail is broadly accurate (never certain) then I think this woman did exactly the right thing in publicly humiliating them.

People who behave like CFs only do so because they get away with it.

Absolutely no sympathy. A pregnant woman travelling with 3 children booked seats. The couple in HER seats refused to move, stating her tickets "didn't matter." She didn't go to the papers, it was picked off twitter by the Mail, Sun, Mirror and others. She says on Twitter that she wanted to call them out for being dicks - I'm paraphrasing that bit. There was no cancellation of reservations, or the conductor wouldn't have moved her and CC wouldn't have apologised. I hope they feel ashamed - however old they are. They could have reserved their tickets - they didn't. They could have apologised, they could have moved - instead they declared they didn't give a fuck.

The woman wasn’t heavily pregnant at all, that’s rubbish, and her kids look quite comfortable sharing the seats so what’s the big deal?

She booked four seats, @pearldiver19. Three children were squashed into seats for two, and presumably the mother had to stand. Why should she forego her booked seats for a couple who couldn't be bothered to reserve seats for themselves?

It’s disgusting vilifying those two old people, who probably would have struggled to get up on a moving train.

What's your evidence for that? If they were that disabled, they should either have booked seats or asked a railway employee to help them find unreserved seats.

It’s called manners and consideration for others. Something which is sadly lacking in this generation of entitled brats.

What precisely is good-mannered about taking seats that someone else has booked and refusing to move? Why is it "entitled" to want to use something you've booked and paid for?

I'd love to know how often you give up booked seats to elderly people, pearldiver.

I think they look old, @PomPomtheGreat. The woman looks a lot older than me and I'm 64.

I also have a knee problem that makes it impossible for me to stand for more than a few minutes on a moving train, which is why I don't travel by train any more. It's not possible to reserve seats on local trains, allegedly.

That woman (the mother) has a blue tick on her twitter account.

Why?

Who is she? Verified people are usually famous people aren't they?

Who IS this woman?

twitter.com/Manda_like_wine

I’ve seen an unpixellated photo and I think they look fairly old. I’d expect my kids of the age of those children to stand up and offer them their seats regardless of whether or not they’re booked if there were no other spare seats. And if I was without kids I’d stand myself and offer them a seat.

However there’s no excuse for people being entitled rude twats and if they did say what the mother says they did then I’m not surprised she was annoyed.

Oh I wondered about the blue tick as well.

Someone will recognise these elderly twats. And I hope they're suitably embarrassed.

Just looked at the couples faces properly (on the woman's twitter.) They are at LEAST mid 70s.

Still not entitled to steal peoples reserved seats though.

Although, as I said, the way this woman has publicly shamed this couple is disgusting.

Having seen the original picture the woman appears to have a bad smell under her nose. Entitled twats.

Unless the reservations were suspended they should have moved from the reserved seats. They were rude. They do look over 70 . It makes no difference, they were rude and should have moved. They would probably have found it just as difficult to stand as someone 6 months pregnant but that is beside the point as the seats were booked. I think putting it on social media and encouraging the children to "face them down "was a bit much. No one should hog someone else's resrved seats but it can be hard to know from outside appearances who would struggle to stand.Rudeness all round here.

Sorry, I seem to have pasted a wrong quote, please ignore me

She’s a writer.