Table and Four Seats to Yourself

[Mutant Lemming]

Aploogies if this has been dealt with before. If you hold 4 Advance Purchase tickets for a table and travel alone are you entitled to keep the table and four seats to yourself as you have paid for them and they are reserved for you?

 

[Goatboy]

Aploogies if this has been dealt with before. If you hold 4 Advance Purchase tickets for a table and travel alone are you entitled to keep the table and four seats to yourself as you have paid for them and they are reserved for you?

This is surely academic as absolutely nobody is going to listen to you when they try to sit there and you ask them not to.

 

[Lrd]

That sounds incredibly rude. I'm guessing you would never do this but would you be willing to let people stand whilst you enjoy four seats to yourself.

 

[bb21]

Do you want the short answer or the long answer?

 

[cuccir]

Where applicable, you must travel in the Class and reserved seat(s) shown on the ticket(s).

Do you think you can simultaneously travel in four seats?

 

[martinsh]

Do you think you can simultaneously travel in four seats?

Maybe he's rather large ? After all he is a Mutant !!

 

[Mutant Lemming]

It is just one of those theoretical questions which arose when a group of four of us were booked on a particular train. The one who had the tickets made it but the rest of us were delayed and missed the train. He mentioned that at least he had the table reserved to himself. It just had me wondering if someone did want to reserve the table, say to do some work, or make dinner, or change nappies or whatever - and had paid for all four seats would that entitle them to keep the table to themsleves ?

 

[Goatboy]

Make dinner or change nappies in the middle of a busy coach?

What?

 

[dvboy]

Definitely not if they decide to change nappies on it.

Basically anyone who did make 4 bookings just to reserve a table, and argues it with anyone who wants to take one of those seats will only come across as a ****, pure and simple, and perhaps should have considered first class instead.

 

[Mutant Lemming]

Definitely not if they decide to change nappies on it.

Basically anyone who did make 4 bookings just to reserve a table, and argues it with anyone who wants to take one of those seats will only come across as a ****, pure and simple, and perhaps should have considered first class instead.

The thing is if the seats are shown as reserved then most people are going to look for a seat elsewhere and it is something that could just as equally be done in first class as in standard.

Incidentally - it isn't something I am advocating but just wondered what the official take is.
People have bought extra seats on planes so as not to have anyone next to them.

 

[yorksrob]

Quite, but if someone walks along and finds that the other four seats are reserved and unoccupied (a little while in to the journey from the start of the reservations) I'd say they'd be within rights to occupy them (although I'd probably ask if they were occupied).

 

[Cherry_Picker]

People have bought extra seats on planes so as not to have anyone next to them.

But planes are different to trains. They are so different to trains that comparing the two is completely stupid.
When a plane takes off the airline knows exactly how many tickets have been sold, you can't board a plane without a ticket and you aren't allowed to stand during the flight. It's a completely closed system.

A TOC has no way of knowing whether 20 or 200 people will be waiting at the next station for their train.

 

[dcsprior]

I believe there's been discussion of doing this on the Caledonian Sleeper - where the cost of an individual cabin can be significantly more than double the cost of a shared one

I think that, although that is closer to the aeroplane scenario due to the sleeper being reservations-only, there was not consensus that it was either allowed or morally right.

 

[asylumxl]

I think if anyone booked 4 seats to themselves to avoid others sitting with them, they'd probably have some kind of personality disorder and need to develop some social skills.

 

[Bungle73]

and had paid for all four seats would that entitle them to keep the table to themsleves ?

Ah, but they haven't paid for four seats, they've paid for being transported from A to B.

 

[HLW]

I think if anyone booked 4 seats to themselves to avoid others sitting with them, they'd probably have some kind of personality disorder and need to develop some social skills.

Everyone will choose to sit at an empty table or pair of airline seats if there is one available. Everyday I also see people choosing an empty pair of cramped airline seats over tables occupied by one person - it is very normal not to want to sit with strangers.

If you can afford four seats in standard, you'd probably be better off just getting a first class ticket - you could probably sit alone then?

 

[Eagle]

Ah, but they haven't paid for four seats, they've paid for being transported from A to B.

Specifically, they've paid to be transported from A to B four times.

Four times on the same train in this case though, the tickets being Advances...

 

[johnnychips]

.. Everyday I also see people choosing an empty pair of cramped airline seats over tables occupied by one person - it is very normal not to want to sit with strangers.

Well, if you're alone, airline seats are loads better: at tables you do anything you can to avoid knocking/rubbing legs or knees with strangers opposite you, so you have to tuck your knees under seat or sit up straight. However cramped airline seats are, at least you can attempt to stretch legs.

On the other hand, if you know the person opposite you, it doesn't matter.

I'm quite short, so cramped airline seats don't bother me and I would always prefer them above a table if alone. My tall mate, with whom I travel, likes to look out of the window rather than play Angry Birds, has an unspoken code of preferences which we always subconsciously know, depending on if it's dark or light and if a table seat involves him sitting opposite or next to me. We just get on a train and look at the seats available, maximise our comfort without even thinking about it. I could draw a flow diagram...

 

[barrykas]

In days of yore, the charge for exclusive use of a compartment (remember those?) was six times the Standard or First Class Single for the journey being made.

It should be noted, however, that The Manual (admittedly not a passenger facing document yet) states that you now can't make a reservation if nobody is going to use it, even if buying additional ticket(s).

 

[alex17595]

what about if you filled those seats with an obscene amount of luggage?

 

[Mutant Lemming]

what about if you filled those seats with an obscene amount of luggage?

...or three tailors dummies, or three cages of gerbils.

What does the actual "manual" say you can and can't do with your four reserved places if you are travelling alone ?

 

[DarloRich]

anyone i found in those circumstances would quickly be subjected to a short blunt northern industrial suggestion that they stop being so silly. I would then sit next to them.

If you want to travel in your own space buy a car
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what about if you filled those seats with an obscene amount of luggage?

i would move it in a less than careful manner

 

[pjnathanail]

what about if you filled those seats with an obscene amount of luggage?

Conductors on XC often say they will charge people an extra fare if they occupy a seat with luggage, so if you were to pay that you would be within your rights to keep the seat for you/your luggage's use. The situation with advance tickets is different because they have to be purchased in advance, but as they each come with a specific seat I think it would be fair enough to use them all.

If you were to use someone else's ticket for this purpose (e.g. your friend who decided not to travel) that would be illegal though, as tickets are not transferrable!

 

[tsr]

On the other hand, I have been offered extra seats for my luggage to rest on by an EMT TM in the not at all distant past, largely on the basis that the coach was only half-full and the reservations system wasn't working, so neither my reserved seat nor anyone else's could be shown, and it was unlikely anyone would want or need to occupy our newly-invented "luggage priority seats" for the remainder of the journey anyway.

I would argue that my reserved seat was occupied by my luggage and that I was occupying what I assumed was an unreserved seat, if an RPI decided they had nothing more urgent to do than query this.

 

[dvboy]

The thing is if the seats are shown as reserved then most people are going to look for a seat elsewhere

They will do this up until a point where the option is sit in a reserved seat or stand.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

what about if you filled those seats with an obscene amount of luggage?

There are also limits on the amount of luggage you can take on a train without being charged.

 

[SimonS]

Ah, but they haven't paid for four seats, they've paid for being transported from A to B.

Even with seat reservations?

Interestingly on some airlines you can do this to get some extra space.

 

[ainsworth74]

Even with seat reservations?

When you still had to pay for seat reservations you might have been able to make something of an argument towards saying you'd purchased the right to have a seat (though I'm not totally convinced personally). However, seeing as seat reservations are free you can't at all purchase seat you can only purchase the right to travel from A to B.

 

[Goatboy]

However, seeing as seat reservations are free

Not always - FGW sometimes charge.

 

[ainsworth74]

Not always - FGW sometimes charge.

Hmm true, but those are rather specific circumstances.

 

[northwichcat]

Incidentally - it isn't something I am advocating but just wondered what the official take is.
People have bought extra seats on planes so as not to have anyone next to them.

Sometimes airlines permit such use if you want to take something like an fragile or oversized item like a musical instrument with you or if you're oversized and can't fit in a seat.

I think if you purchased multiple seats just to have no-one sat next to you and the flight was oversold or the booked plane had a fault and only a smaller one could be sourced as replacement, then the airline would refund your additional seats rather than let you take up 2 or 3 and have to compensate someone who is left behind at the airport.