Splitsavers always taking my reserved seat!!

[Chatandtea]

Is it just me but seems majority of time I get on a train, a person with a split saver ticket has taken my seat not realising that their ticket has only reserved a seat for 1 leg of their journey. Frustrated that people don’t check their reservations more thoroughly but also that the trains companies/sellers are allowing this confusion to roll on and on. Often spoils journey trying to sort the issue out

Please provide the link to the research. I would be interested to see sample size / how they eliminated bias (in some surveys only people who have an issue will respond) etc.

Also, I note you say this includes ‘people who would rather find another seat’. If I’m on a nearly empty train and have a reservation, I would probably take another seat rather than put the person in mine to the hassle of moving - there’s no point being disruptive ‘on principle’. It appears you disagree which is your right.

I was on a train once where a woman insisted on doing this. Multiple empty seats but she had to have ‘her seat’. Frankly it was a bit pathetic.

Yes I have felt sorry for them as must be embarrassing to say yes this is my seat and then find out in the wrong and always makes me feel incredibly awkward creating that situation, almost like should just stand rather than making a fuss

No because that’s disruptive and actually inconveniences people. Just like insisting on ‘my seat’ when there are multiple other seats on the train which I wouldn’t do either.

People in your reserved seat has been a thing as long as I've used long distance trains; nigh on 50 years. Peak trains out of (mostly) Kings Cross had multiple seats with a Reservation Tag on them but nobody in it by the time we passed through London's suburbs. People on business reserved seats on 2 or 3 trains, others, me amongst them sometimes, missed the damn thing.

I presume the indicator over the seat shows where it's reserved from and too? It certainly did when I used to get trains from Milton Keynes. Same as where people but their handbag or briefcase on a seat on a busy commuter train. You just need to ask, in an assertive but not aggressive style, to shift their bag, or in the OP's case, themselves!

One of the issues with taking a different empty seat though, is that it may say "available" when you sit down, but on the app you can reserve a seat 5 mins before the train is due, so you may find your free seat gets reserved and then you need to move and find yourself bouncing around. That's why I do insist on my own booked seat even if there are seemingly plenty of free ones.

Why should she not be able to sit in the seat she had arranged? It’s not being pathetic, she’s gone to the effort of booking that seat, multiple reasons why she might have wanted that specific seat. Why was someone else sitting there if plenty of other empty seats?

search LNER - are you sitting comfortably, new research

The 74% relates to your original question which relates to the issue of split fares and people not realising the seat isn’t theirs and therefore arguing about it. I agree you are not unreasonable to think there needs to be a better system in place.

You have then decided to argue that anyone who ever sits in a reserved seat is ‘selfish’ and ‘rude’ even if they are prepared to move the second you say it’s your seat.

No one has voted on that because that wasn’t your question! Trying to say 74% of people agree with you on a completely new question that they may not even know has been raised unless they’ve read the thread in full is simply untrue.

Well pop up a poll why don’t you? We can agree to disagree on what we both consider rude behaviour, just glad I don’t have to mix with people like you too often

Agreed - socialising with people who promptly descend to personal insults when caught out telling porkies isn’t on my wish list either1

As said earlier, if I got on at the next stop for some reason I would accept someone might have assumed the seat was unclaimed and wouldn’t think of them as rude. Just unacceptable to jump in the seat before its even left the original station

I'd expect anyone with a split saver ticket to be aware that their seat was only reserved until a certain stop, then be ready with their things just before the station so that if the next passenger gets on they're ready to move quickly.

If nobody shows up then then they can stay there.

I understand, OP. I think the posters telling you to be an 'adult' or whatever other terms they use to minimise this, are either not train travellers themselves or the type of cheeky timewaster that would behave like this.

That 'be an adult' door swings both ways. Split savers have the responsibility to check their own bookings and not to take advantage of seats they aren't entitled to. They want it cheap? Fine - have cheap seats but those have conditions so be an adult and comply. You have the ticket for that journey for that seat, you shouldn't need to say a damn thing.

All these posters who 'despair' sound extremely wet.

I assume your quite happy that 56% of people would willow away and stand/ not sit in their chosen reserved seat and another good proportion feel very awkward about the whole thing because you’d jumped in it. Call it a personal insult to say I’m thankful that wouldn’t be considered acceptable behaviour in my circle

😂

If you have a circle to ask then why ask us?

You could say that about any thread here. Having other people to ask doesn't mean that you can't go onto a chatboard and ask. I constantly remind myself of this when I look at the mostly, utter drivel posted, begging for responses.

Thank you, it would be so nice to think I could just get on a train and sit in my reserved seat with no fuss. I thought it was just the split saver confusion issue but seems from this thread there is a minority of selfish people that would do it anyway despite how awkward they make anyone else feel

It's considered rude to post in AIBU and then refuse to consider different opinions, instead insisting YANBU.

Doesn't mean that anybody has to agree with the different opinions, EmeraldFox and I'm not sure that's considered particularly rude on AIBU which is the 'home of the bunfight'.

I don't think OP is being unreasonable. I also don't agree that she has to 'use her words' or any other vacuous demand that other posters insist on. OP paid for her seat, split-saver passenger didn't pay beyond that leg of the journey. Not rocket science, split-saver should get up and move.

I booked a journey recently and saved a fortune with 3 splits so 3 seat changes. All the reserved seating was in 2 packed carriages so I moved further down the train where the carriages were unreserved and empty so had a table seat for the whole journey and didn't have to move.

OP your age is showing 😂

Consider, not agree. If you have already made up your mind then why ask what others think, which is what AIBU is for?

I don't think many people would disagree that a person should get up and move when another person lets them know they have a reservation for that seat. It's vacating the seat before anyone turns up, or getting up as soon as anyone else comes along (who may or may not have a reservation) that is where the disagreement lies.

There haven't been very many differing views to be fair. It's either agreeing with the OP's predicament or rudely telling her to suck it up, be an adult, etc. All of which require input from the OP which a) she doesn't want to give and b) she really shouldn't have to.

This isn't a new phenomenon. So many posts and messages about people not booking/taking other seats (planes and trains) and the person with the ticket being expect to move them or summon a member of staff to do it.

The onus is and always has been that if a seat is reserved and you didn't reserve it, you're not entitled to it and should get out of it without needing to be told.

I don't travel by train much but I can imagine it must be pretty heart-sinking when you get onto a busy train, get to your reserved seat, and find somebody sitting in it who doesn't immediately get up. I would hate that. I could ask them to move but, why would I have to do that when I have the reservation/ticket?

Sometimes, you just want to sit in your reserved seat, without preamble or fuss and I suspect that OP posted in search of solidarity. Just on the wrong board.

And if you are a split-saver and you know that your ticket has 'run out' for the seat you're in, go and find a non-reserved seat. Why can't they do that?

It’s really bad customer experience design to intentionally create situations where passengers are likely to find someone else in their reserved seat and to have to ask them to move.

Train companies could entirely avoid this by pricing sensibly so that it’s not actually possible to save money by split ticketing. It’s absurd that it can cost you more to just book a ticket from one destination to another. You should never be able to book London to York and York to edinburgh on exactly the same train for less than just London to edinburgh on one ticket.