Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think if you've booked a seat you get a seat?

180 replies

monroeagogo · 26/02/2022 17:13

Went to the cinema today. Standard Vue. Get there in plenty of time and someone's in our seats.

Politely did the 'oops you're in our seats' chat after furiously checking I was right beforehand. Lots of huffing and puffing from them and rolling eyes and they moved to, admittedly, worse seats further down.

But WTAF.

Surely if you've book a seat in the cinema, on a plane or train, then that's your seat.

Confused
OP posts:
AlexaShutUp · 26/02/2022 17:14

Yanbu

Timeforabiscuit · 26/02/2022 17:15

Ha! Nope, they were being chancing cheeky fuckers, I would pay them no mind.

JackieCollinshasnoauthority · 26/02/2022 17:16

This is why I hate going to the cinema with my mum because she insists it doesn't matter where you sit. I'm sure she's a low key anarchist.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 26/02/2022 17:18

Had it on planes and trains. There is a reason when travelling alone with my two children I book seats... I want to sit with them.

Gizacluethen · 26/02/2022 17:19

YANBU like you said, they moved to worse seats, why should you have had those worse seats when you'd booked the good ones?

Pisces89 · 26/02/2022 17:21

YANBU at all OP. Why didn't they get out your seats if you had confirmation?

Pisces89 · 26/02/2022 17:21

Also I hate this about the cinemas now

WeDontShutUpAboutBruno · 26/02/2022 17:24

I was witness to an argument about this once.

I was at a concert and there were 2 couples sitting directly behind me.

4 women came up and demanded their seats, the couples refused to move because they were certain they were right. There was an argument of maybe 5 minutes where one of the 4 women had started getting really annoyed and was calling the women in the couples all sorts of awful names, when one of the men intervened the 4 women started screaming that he was being threatening to 4 vulnerable old ladies on their own (they were between 50 and 60 so not old) and finally security came over.

They checked all the tickets, and all 8 of them had the right seats, the 4 women should have been there the night before though 🤣🤣 I've never seen such smug faces as the 2 couples waving them off.

I saw the same artist quite a few times and his concerts never failed to provide anything between a shouty argument and a full on fistfight every time.

Back to your AIBU you aren't, but lots of people wouldn't have spoken up at all and that's why these people do it.

thewhatsit · 26/02/2022 17:25

I would have quietly found an usher I think Blush to avoid confrontation but also because I’d want MY seat.

Marmite27 · 26/02/2022 17:32

We had this today too.

We’d booked four seats before the aisle and they had the two next to us and they were sat in our middle two seats with their two and our two others empty on both sides.

There was much huffing and puffing when I asked them to move. I’m sure they wouldn’t have been impressed with two children at one side and a third at the other and would have complained about that too.

SlipperyLizard · 26/02/2022 17:32

Yanbu.

We went to see Derren Brown once & someone was in our seats. All very polite (they were older, we’re not knobheads) got the ushers over and they were there the day before they were meant to be. Felt sorry for them but relieved we weren’t the ones in the wrong!

Not sure what the point of checking tickets on the door is if you don’t actually check them.

I’d definitely make someone move out of my cinema seats - in fact I have done, and have a memory that they then moved to other seats that someone then came & kicked them out of! Some people are just idiots.

Cheeseandlobster · 26/02/2022 17:32

People chance it all the time at Vue. I saw a huge chain reaction one time where the people in the seats refused to move so the people who were supposed to be there sat elsewhere and refused to move when the correct people turned up etc. Vue ended up stopping the film, putting the lights on and insisted people sat in their correct seats or the film would not be going back on. It was bedlam and most people moved.

Cakecakecheese · 26/02/2022 17:37

I was on a train recently and asked the guy in my seat to move, he did so but did point out that there were plenty of seats about, yes there are so you can sit in one of them and I'll sit in the seat I booked, thanks!

GreenFingersWouldBeHandy · 26/02/2022 17:39

YANBU. Good for you for asking them to move. CFs!

Bellex · 26/02/2022 17:41

The worst one is on planes!

When you pay extra to sit together and in a certain aisle and then someone with kids gets on last and expects the whole plane to move so they can all sit together.

Last time I went on holiday I’d pay extra to sit with my boyfriend. A couple got on the plane last minute with their baby. She was next to us and he was at the back of the plane and he expected me to move to his seat and kicked up a whole fuss when I politely refused. The person at the back also wouldn’t swap as they were the last people on the plane and created a nightmare situation for the overhead cabins. A guy in the row behind offered to swap so they’d at least be near each other but they refused

chickentikkawhatswrong · 26/02/2022 17:46

I hate this... not people who have genuinely made a mistake and turned up a day earlier but those who know full well it is not their seat and then do the whole ‘well there’s plenty of other places to sit’ shrug when you turn up Angry

Kaykay247 · 26/02/2022 17:50

I used to travel on Virgin trains a lot and the evening one was always full. Always booked a seat. An older lady got on once and the young guy in her seat refused to move and the guard refused to make him. She was a bit unsteady on her feet so I had to give her mine and stand most of thexway from Birmingham to Watford.

girlmom21 · 26/02/2022 17:51

YANBU but I booked tickets for Showcase a few weeks ago, selected seats etc. When I went to the showing last week I realised the confirmation email with the QR code for the usher to scan didn't actually detail a specific seat.
Luckily it was a baby cinema screening so me and baby were the only people there Grin

JingsMahBucket · 26/02/2022 17:56

@Kaykay247

I used to travel on Virgin trains a lot and the evening one was always full. Always booked a seat. An older lady got on once and the young guy in her seat refused to move and the guard refused to make him. She was a bit unsteady on her feet so I had to give her mine and stand most of thexway from Birmingham to Watford.
What an utterly useless “guard”.
Lampyshady · 26/02/2022 18:03

@Cakecakecheese

I was on a train recently and asked the guy in my seat to move, he did so but did point out that there were plenty of seats about, yes there are so you can sit in one of them and I'll sit in the seat I booked, thanks!
I understand wanting to sit in your booked seat in cinemas where some seats are better than others, and you can’t tell whether the remaining seats have been booked or are available but I don’t understand why anyone would bother to disturb someone on a train and make them move seats when there are lots of clearly marked available seats in the carriage. Why not just sit in one of the available ones-does it really make a difference on a train if you are in seat 34 or 32 for example? If you booked a table seat and there are no other available tables then fair enough ask them to move but otherwise what’s the point?
RobotValkyrie · 26/02/2022 18:06

YANBU

However, I will usually happily swap my booked seat with someone else if it's more convenient for them and it's all the same to me... as long as they ask politely

RobotValkyrie · 26/02/2022 18:10

Why not just sit in one of the available ones-does it really make a difference on a train if you are in seat 34 or 32 for example? If you booked a table seat and there are no other available tables then fair enough ask them to move but otherwise what’s the point?

That can be a risky move if someone else has booked one of the other seats. I'd recommend only ever swapping your booked seat with another person's booked seat, not a random seat which may or may not be booked by someone else. Also all these available seats may soon be taken after a particularly busy stop.

DinnoWoman · 26/02/2022 18:11

Speaking for myself only, I ask people on trains to move if it's one of those (like virgin) where you have to take the kids and go peering at the tiny wee screens above each seat to see if it's booked or not and if it is, if to/from a station we're yet to get to, or if it's for one after we get off, then find another three that match this exactly. It's just easier to sit on a seat you've booked and that you know for sure is yours.

Hugasauras · 26/02/2022 18:16

I book train seats in particular places on purpose. Also most seats in booked carriages are only free between certain stops so I'm not playing musical chairs because someone didn't book or can't be arsed finding their own seat.

KindlyKanga · 26/02/2022 18:27

If a plane crashes its best if you are in your ticketed seat it makes it easier to identify you.