Train seat reservations

[littlebilliie]

That if you booked a seat it’s yours?

That's outrageous! They wanted a window? lol!

Depends tbh. I’ve booked a seat before and then staff have asked me to give it up as it was a disabled seat. Apparently that makes it priority for those in need and you can be made to stand.

Would have been fine with it if it wasn’t in First and they sat me there. Hey ho, I got my money back.

It's all part of the decline of society sadly....but some of the people who contribute to this problem are on this website, let alone on this thread maybe.

For certain people, if they get it in their head that another person has an "advantage" in life that gives them more, they will start to wind themselves up into a frenzy to find out how they can nip in and "take" it without being seen as a CF.

It's why we can never have a debate about P&C spaces. It's why people "stand their ground" when taking seats on trains that they didn't book.

Yep 🤣🤣. I wondered if they were joking to start with! “We want a window. We told the airline we wanted a window. We prefer these seats” 🤣

There was a thread the other day on which someone mentioned that a man was sat in their premium economy seat and refused to move and cabin crew did nothing.

Oh no i have an avanti booked next month hopefully it won't be a sprint to my seat! Ill send my Dd they are fitter than me 😀

I was on an avanti train last week and they double booked our seats. We got there first thankfully. The other people had to go and look for another seat. No idea if they found one. They were very nice about it thankfully. But we all definitely had identical tickets.

Thank you for the heads up will keep it in mind and be there first!

I always kick people out of my reserved seat and they always have an attitude.

Other people’s lack of organisation is not my problem (and I don’t care if they are disabled, pregnant, old or have kids. I kick them out of my reserved seat.)

What?! I would refuse to sit and force the cabin crew to do something about it.

I have never heard of cabin crew doing nothing.

@Pistachiocakeborrow a dog? What a totally bizarre suggestion.

I've only ever had one occasion when someone refused to move. I'd booked 4 table seats for me and my 3 children for quite a long train journey and a group of 4 adults was in them when we boarded. I wouldn't have been that bothered if there had been other seats but the train was packed so I asked them to move. They insisted that they had booked the seats though refused to show me their reservations even though I showed them mine. In the end we took the only seats left in the carriage, right behind them. I had my elder son on my knee and my daughter had the youngest on her knee. It was a fairly tight squeeze and it's possible my boys might have kicked the back of their seats occasionally but they were actually remarkably well behaved considering the situation. But the grumpy woman in front decided to fetch the train manager to get us moved. That was a mistake. He looked at everyone's tickets and discovered that they had indeed booked those seats on that service...for the day before! And as the tickets were only valid on the specific date they were in fact not only in my seats but didn't have valid tickets for the train. He made them move and charged them all full price for new tickets. I felt fairly smug.

But if they just absolutely refuse to move what would you do? You can’t physically drag a pregnant woman out of a seat so if they just carried on sitting there I honestly don’t understand how you actually kick them out.

I can hardly believe anyone would openly challenge someone for trying sit in their own reserved seats?

Cabin crew always act, they have to avoid conflict so won't let anything escalate.

I am quite an imposing person and can absolutely switch on my “do not fuck with me - I will fight you” childhood underclass persona when necessary so I don’t think anybody has dared not to move. But my experience is even that I don’t need to switch on as most people don’t argue if somebody has a reserved seat and they don’t.

I genuinely don’t know what I would do if somebody refused. On a plane it’s easy. On train? Maybe contact the train manager?

(I also disagree that you cannot physically drag somebody out of your seat…..)

But that PP claimed they did not which shocked me.

I'm in my 70swith arthritic hips. I use trains to visit my kids, one is a 5 hour journey. I need to know I can sit down for the journey or I wouldn't risk travelling. I did once ask a young man to move his bag off a priority seat when my train was cancelled so I had no reservation. He refused and I said I had no idea of why he needed a priority seat but was absolutely sure I needed it more than his bag. He moved his bag.

What about my 80 year mother who has a 3.5 hour train journey to us should she just stand for that time? Or sit on the floor. Knowing she has a seat is what makes her able to travel.

Obviously no one needs to use a bag like that. I've asked people to move them too. A bag can't have reserved a seat!

But if someone is travelling and needs a seat, they could A avoid peak packed commuter times and B have to pay the same price as the rest of us if a seat is needed.

Not travelling at 5.30pm would be a good start.
Also often you get on and they're cancelled. You can never guarantee them.

Oh that is wonderful. I once went to a sporting event with my kids. There had been a mix up and they'd sold the seats twice. We were there first so when they arrived they kicked off and young staff member trying to sort it was getting flustered so I said ok have the seats. Staff member said she'd get us seats. Instead of sitting half way back we ended up sitting with players familied. My kids got taken on to do warm up with players and given team shirts at the end. Id love to have seen their faces.

Indeed. Most surprising.

The problem is that you can never absolutely guarantee someone will have a seat surely? If your train is cancelled, or the train before or after yours is cancelled, they’ll often then suspend all seat reservations for everyone on trains either side. So it becomes a free for all. You might not even know that’s happened until you go to get on. Now I’m sure a train guard would do his best to find a seat for elderly or disabled people. But the guarantee of “their seat” is still not a thing when that happens.

That was hardly the other people purely being dicks though was it? They booked seats, just like you did, to find they were taken. Why didn’t the staff member say straight away to them that he’d find them seats? Why did he wait until you decided to give yours up to find more seats?