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

[monroeagogo]

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.

Yup, had a stand up row when a couple of women were in our plane seats because one of them wanted a window seat. Staff tried to get us to give in as a crutch was involved somehow. We had a large party so in total we’d paid a fortune for those seats. Refused to move from the aisle until we got them, which eventually we did.

@Zoom101

Also, slightly off topic and probably deserves a thread of its own but people putting their crap all over a seat next to them, whether on public transport, cafe or wherever and then refusing to move it if you want to sit down as there are no other seats available.

I travelled by train on Friday. Some arrogant student had spread his crap over all four seats around a table. You're damn right I made him move his holdall (and if he hadn't would have done so myself).

I do put my (small) bag next to me when it's free, but the moment that the train starts to fill, I move it elsewhere so that people don't even need to ask. It's common courtesy.

As a guard, I threaten to charge a Child fare for any bags occupying a seat if the train is busy.

We no longer go to the local Vue cinema because there would be someone in our seat every single time. I'd have to brace myself for the discussion each time. Some times they'd move, sometimes they'd argue. Just dont need it. So we go to the Everyman instead where there is never a problem.

I've had people sit in my aisle seat on planes who have moved to their middle seat when I've pointed out their mistake. I suppose its worth a try.

Slightly different but I, when pregnant, and DH had an incident on a plane. We had the aisle and middle seat. A woman was in the window seat whilst her friend was in the opposite aisle seat. We asked if they'd like to swap seats so they could sit together but they said they were fine. Half way through the flight my DH went to the loo and their DHs (who were sat much further back) came up to have a go at me for not moving - neither woman said I'd offered to do just that. Mildmannered DH comes back from the loo to a tearful pregnant wife and had a very firm word with the 'gentlemen'. And all because they didnt book seats together.

What if the train filled up and then she was sat in someone else's seat?

At the cinema it doesn’t matter if there are ‘plenty of other seats’ you don’t know which ones are reserved for people who haven’t arrived yet so the whole thing can create total chaos

@DdraigGoch it’s people’s sense of entitlement that really gets my goat! Unless you have paid for an extra seat, you don’t get to commandeer it for your personal belongings!

This happened to me and children. They were so embarrassed that I asked people to move.
But as I explained to the children, the cinema was fully booked so everyone needed to be in the right seats.

The people in our seats grumbled that they couldn't see in their booked seats and reluctantly moved.

The people who had sat in their seats also needed to move and three sets of people all standing up moving into their correct seats.

If you've booked them sit in your seat.

You can choose your own seat number unless it is the last of a particular fee band to be sold. You have an option to change seat as part of the booking process.

This is not available on most train routes - certainly not on Great Western and Transpennine and Cross Country. LNER only afaik.

And LNER once told me that booking a seat doesn't stop someone else sitting in that seat. But they will refund the price of your ticket if they can't find you another seat.

@AutumnDays21

You can choose your own seat number unless it is the last of a particular fee band to be sold. You have an option to change seat as part of the booking process.

This is not available on most train routes - certainly not on Great Western and Transpennine and Cross Country. LNER only afaik.

And LNER once told me that booking a seat doesn't stop someone else sitting in that seat. But they will refund the price of your ticket if they can't find you another seat.

It’s not available on Avanti either

I’ve never been able to pick a seat on the train. At most you can go back and search again so it allocates again in the hope of getting better seats.

I've chosen seats on Avanti. It automatically allocated a seat but you can go in and change it.

Sorry, should say that was in first class. Just realised it might be different.

Was on Eurostar from Paris to London about 5 years ago. An American family got into a fight with the leader of a school group because the American family said they could sit wherever they damn well pleased. School group leader said he needed the seats so that all his charges were sat near each other and he was less likely to lose any if them. American Woman to,d all her folks to stay where they were. So school group leader fetched the guard/customer service person and the American family were turfed out. The absolute arrogance!

I'll add a nice story - we booked a flight with our then toddler. It was a budget airline and we couldn't book ds a seat, kids his age had to sit on parents' laps. We booked our seats so we'd have a window and middle seat (standard 3 seats, aisle, 3 seats formation). Board the plane and it turns out every alternate row doesn't have a window, just a grey expanse of wall. This was not clear on the diagram when we'd booked and we were pretty annoyed but what can you do. A couple in front of us turned round and offered to swap so ds could see out the window which was lovely of them (and we bought them a drink and a chocolate each when the tea trolley came down to say thanks). By a stroke of luck, the aisle seat hadn't been booked on their row so we actually ended up with an extra seat for ds anyway. It was lovely of them!

@SpikeySmooth

Was on Eurostar from Paris to London about 5 years ago. An American family got into a fight with the leader of a school group because the American family said they could sit wherever they damn well pleased. School group leader said he needed the seats so that all his charges were sat near each other and he was less likely to lose any if them. American Woman to,d all her folks to stay where they were. So school group leader fetched the guard/customer service person and the American family were turfed out. The absolute arrogance!

God knows why the American family even did that - Eurostar (like TGV/ICE services) is compulsory reservation, they'd have had seats booked somewhere in the train.

@Bellex

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

I'm totally with the OP on this one. And also as it applies to planes.

There was one time, though, when I did suggest to someone that perhaps they might want to move from a seat that they were completely entitled to.

I was travelling with my younger daughter, who was about eighteen months. We'd been given separate seats - so, she was in A3 and I was in D5 or something. I said to the lady in A2, "I'm really sorry, but would you swap seats with me, so I can be next to the kid?"

She said she wouldn't, as she had specifically booked A2 for the legroom.

I said, "Totally get it. I'm 6'4, and I would have booked it too, if it had been available. So, absolutely fine. Here's her bottle. She'll need that in a couple of hours. Her sleeping patterns are all messed up, so she'll probably be awake halfway across the Atlantic, but she's very keen on The Hungry Caterpillar and Mog, both of which are in the bag. Wake me up if she throws up - she does that sometimes on planes. And thank you so much... I could really do with some kip."

Unfortunately this brilliant scheme didn't work, as the bloke in D4 saw what the issue was and offered to swap with my daughter. Interfering busybody.

Tbf it's only an issue on planes because of airline companies' hawkish policies. I am old enough to remember when seats didn't cost extra and there were none of these problems.

I have a bit of sympathy on planes... airlines say families don't need to book as they will becsat with their children... its the airlines wanting to get money from adults and then fulfill their safety obligation. They also don't make it clear that together means across an aisle or behind or in front.
(I always used to book seats when travelling one with the children as I didn't want the stress!)

@DinnoWoman

Tbf it's only an issue on planes because of airline companies' hawkish policies. I am old enough to remember when seats didn't cost extra and there were none of these problems.

My brother and I were separated from my parents on a flight when we were 9&10, 25 years ago. It was sorted on the plane but even in the olden days the last few groups checked in could be separated)

I would much prefer the old system with seat allocation on planes. Seats allocated in order, no picking and choosing, on a first come first served basis. So first in the queue gets wear 1A next person 1B and so on.

I find this odd. I book seats on trains just incase they’re busy. But if they’re not busy then I sit anywhere. Yes, he shouldn’t have sat there, but what difference would it have made if you had sat somewhere else?

It can make a lot of difference ... the train may not be busy from the start, but people will continue getting on on subsequent stops, thus filling up the train. Someone may well eventually get on and demand you remove yourself from their booked seat.

Just sit in your booked seat!

Arsewangry
Was I being an arsehole on the train once, six months pregnant - very busy service back from Euston to bham new st. I'd booked a seat and paid a lot for the privilege but due to rail carnage the reservations were cancelled - I asked a guy to move from the seat I had booked because I was cold, wet, tired and in need of a seat. It all kicked off. I just wanted the seat I had paid for

Yes, a giant arse.
Reservations had been cancelled so you had no more right to the seat that anybody else, who probably had their reservations cancelled too. Pregnancy doesn't give you privilege over reservations!
Geezo - what an attitude

It can make a lot of difference ... the train may not be busy from the start, but people will continue getting on on subsequent stops, thus filling up the train. Someone may well eventually get on and demand you remove yourself from their booked seat.

Just sit in your booked seat!

Exactly - booking seats is an easy process - just sit down in your booked seat and let others have theirs. Don't book, take your chances.
When I get on a train I hope it goes on time and no sod is sitting on my booked seat - if they are I'll politely ask them to move.

As a guard, I threaten to charge a Child fare for any bags occupying a seat if the train is busy

Thank you - I wish all guards would do that!

@WalkingOnTheCracks we had that happen on a Westjet flight once too. We had paid for seats together, but our actual flight had been cancelled and we’d been rebooked into separate seats on a later flight. I have no issue with being separated from DH, but DS had just turned 2 and was allocated in the seat behind me, which apparently counts as an adjacent seat for the purposes of aerospace regulations, but obviously doesn’t from the perspective of a two year old who can’t see his mum or dad. Somebody did eventually swap, but it was clear the whole plane thought we were CFs.

@RedRageRestful

We once had a man and young son come up to us , while watching a film in the cinema , and say quite politely, that we were in his seats, he looked at his tickets and our seat numbers, we didn’t actually see his tickets. The film wasn’t full and there was plenty of space.

I checked our tickets and seat numbers, they were correct, and there was four of us, the kids happily munching and sipping on their drinks

I did say to him, that the film had already been on for over an hour at the time, and that he had come in over half way through.

Anyway he went away, and came back again, with a member of staff this time, who looked at our tickets, disrupting us again, and he explained to the man, that he was in the wrong and too early, his film started at least another hour, after the one we were watching now.

You think he would have realised when he entered the dark cinema, and I told him, we had been watching the film for at least an hour already.

Plonker.

We once went to the opening day of a new Harry Potter film, we were sitting at the end of a row, the cinema was pretty full. Just before the programme started a woman breezed in like the Pied Piper, half a dozen or so children trailing behind her and she started to telling people to move seats so she could sit with all these children and some fools complied but they couldn't all got on one row. She then started at us, across the aisle, we should move into the free seats further along the row, surely we realised how important it was that her party sat close to her! She was furious when we refused and pointed out that if it was so important she should have got there earlier!