this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2024

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Mildly Infuriating

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228

This seat reservation doesn't reserve any seats (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

48 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Any guesses for what chaos awaits us on this train?

Edit to add: This is not the ticket, it was printed alongside the actual ticket, after asking for seating preferences.

all 50 comments

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[–] [email protected] 80 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I'm not familiar with the ticketing system, but I think that it'd be reasonable for the ticket to simply be used to ensure that there is a seat somewhere, but not a specific seat.

If you go to a restaurant and reserve a table, the table doesn't need to be a specific one...just means that the restaurant will make sure that one is open.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 months ago (1 children)

This ticket is odd by UK standards, and the arrangement you describe isn't the norm. These seat reservation tickets normally specify a particular seat

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Every east-midlands train I've been on has had to cancel specific seat reservations when I got on anyway. I think they just constantly overbook or something.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

I am very familiar with this ticketing system, and if you don't have a specific seat reserved, you'll be very lucky to find a seat unless you're getting on at the beginning of the train's journey.

[–] [email protected] 59 points 3 months ago (3 children)

It means you can sit anywhere you want and you're not stuck in an assigned seat.
You get on the train early you can have any seat you want.
This seems like the exact opposite of infuriating.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Then why do you also need this piece of paper that doesn't even seem to function as a ticket?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

My money is on it being part of the ticketing computer’s programming.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (3 children)

They only issue as many tickets as seats. They just don't tell you what seat to take.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

They only issue as many tickets as seats

That's... optimistic?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

That's in fact absolutely false.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Read the full text. This, despite appearances, is not in itself a ticket.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Read their full comment. They never argued otherwise

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

The only way to understand their comment is that they think it's a ticket that they only printed as many as they have seats. Otherwise its a non sequitur as it doesn't explain the purpose of printing a second slip that says you don't have an assigned seat.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Very, very incorrect. You'll very likely be standing with this scenario. No seat number? No seat, unless you're very very lucky, or you happen to be getting on at the train start station and it's there very early and so are you.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago

Any seat you want

Provided that someone doesn't have a specific seat booked.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

In my experience it should be called general seating or something along those lines if it isn't for a specific reserved seat.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It means they are essentially guaranteeing you that the seats are not oversold. There will definitely be a seat for you somewhere on the train - that’s all this is saying. It’s capacity management. Have you not used regional rail before?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

No, they still sell tickets without reservations and anytime tickets without limit. Your only guarantee is a numbered seat that you can claim. This has no such thing.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago (2 children)

So many people in the comments don't get that having something called a seat reservation which doesn't literally reserve a seat is mildly infuriating.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

I’m reading some of these replies thinking I’m getting gaslighted by railway operator employees. Unless they actually sell “absolutely no sitting” tickets and the conductors fine abusers, this ticket makes no sense.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It just says no “specific” seat reserved but you’ll have a seat reserved, you just don’t know which one. It’s good if you can get there early and get a window seat.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (2 children)

That's a good example of not understanding, thanks!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

+1. "oh you'll surely be good if you are early, the train can't possibly already be overcrowded when it arrives"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Now you have to find out who is sitting without a reservation!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It can’t be overcrowded if the ticketing system works as it is supposed to. They can’t book 75 people for a train which can only seat 50.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

They can’t book 75 people for a train which can only seat 50

The official statistics lists how frequently that occurs.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Okay. I’m not from the UK so my comment is irrelevant!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Southwest Airlines does their ticketing a similar way. You get assigned a boarding number but not a seat. So if you check in early you get a better boarding spot and hence a get to pick your seat. Does this mean there are more tickets issues than the available seats? No. Sightseeing cruises don’t have seat numbers either, you get there early and grab a good spot. This might not be common to people and hence they are mildly infuriated. The other option is paying extra to get a reserved seat which I’m sure will be infuriating because the person next to you paid a cheaper price.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Soithwest has open seating which is accessible through a ticket. It does not have seat reservations or assigned seating, or at least it hasn't in the past but will apparently will start having seat reservations in the near future.

I know phrasing has stupid nuances in different contexts but there are differences between a reserved seat, reserved seating, reserving a table, etc. and while table reservations often mean first available seat reservations generally include assigned seats in my and the OPs experience.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Okay, understandable. If we are just talking trains, Amtrak trains do the same and don’t issue seat numbers so in my experience the train is never crowded and every one gets a window seat which is preferred by many here rather than being seated next to a stranger.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Fairly common in Germany. Trains can be so full often times that people are standing butt to belly in the aisles.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

In the UK where this ticket is from, if you buy a ticket from the machine in the station it will spit it out in potentially multiple parts (because one isn't enough space for all the information)

You can see this ticket says "Valid only with Travel Ticket", which means this is the second of two parts. The "Travel Ticket" (not pictured) is the one that actually allows you to travel on the train, and the seat reservation part (pictured) is the one that gives you a seat.

Normally the machine only gives what you need, so if there is no seat reservation you'll get the travel ticket only.

So the mystery isn't that there is no reserved seat, but that because there is no seat, this ticket doesn't even need to exist. The machine could have just not printed this ticket at all.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Thanks for the clarification!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I suspect it's an "Advance" reduced fare ticket, which is only ever valid with a seat reservation, but either the seat was over specified (ticking all three of facing forwards, table seat, near the entrance, for example), or the train company continued to issue "Advance" tickets even after all the reservable seats are gone, which you could count as a dick move, or you could interpret as allowing more people to buy tickets at the reduced fare.

It could be that that was one of the least overcrowded trains scheduled on a day that's expected to be very overcrowded indeed, and they're trying to spread the no standing room pain across as many trains as possible. It's certainly cheaper than putting on additional services.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago

"Specific." It's general admission. Ideally, they would only sell as many seat reservations as there are seats available in whatever cars are in the "seat pool."

I don't see a problem here.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Not really infuriating at all.

Think of it like an airline. You have a reserved seat, but it isn't actually allocated until you check in .

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

In the UK you can get on a train without booking a ticket for that specific train, for example an open return or just a day pass. The train company has no idea how many seats will be taken or how many people will get on the train. So say it's a 10 carriage train. Every seat is taken by someone, reserved or unreserved, and theres not a bit of standing room anywhere (this is very common). Which person sat on a reserved red light indicator seat should you kick out? And how do you know they didn't reserve that seat specifically before you do that? Or do you kick someone out of a green lit non-reserved seat, with thier proof that the seat is not reserved and they are allowed to sit there, and your proof that you dont even have that seat reserved. It will also be the old people and small children sat down, and you won't really be popular if you make them stand. Yeah you're not sitting if you have this ticket. You'll likely be stood by the entrance door for 3 hours instead. This seat reservation ticket may as well say, "sorry no seat today", and it's definitely infuriating to lean that you will be standing for your journey when you've payed full price for a seat, maybe £40 depending where.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Is that how airlines work where you are? It'd be wild for me to not pick my seat

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Seems reasonable enough to me if you bought a ticket for a train which doesn't have assigned seating, which is pretty common. Just choose your seat as you board the same way you would with a bus.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Not common in the UK where this seat reservation ticket is from.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Same thing as general admission at a concert, but on a train.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Everyone crams to the front to get there faster?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

See, Jerry Seinfeld could make a whole bit out of this....

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Heavenly: If there are few people then you can sit anywhere.

Hell: If there are a lot of people then you might not be able to board the train.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Certain tickets in German rail have similar reservations. There are numerous seats kept free in the train for those who have a reservation - simply find one of these seats and sit down there. Always worked fine for me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

My guess is that it printed this "null" reservation slip to let you know that the reservation had failed, because otherwise people would think that the printer wasn't working? It prints the ticket(s), then the reservation(s), then the receipt listing how many things were printed.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I'm guessing that they have limited seats and are trying to make sure no one has to stand on the train by limiting the number of reservations, even if which seat to sit in is not assigned. In Japan, bullet trains and some express services require extra payment with your ticket or pre-booking, for either non-reserved or reserved class.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

This is the UK. The train will be heaving, and those without a specific seat number reserved will likely have to stand unless they're getting on at the first station and are early on to the train.