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.
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.
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.
I think people answering these comments are from other countries that don’t understand that on a train from Reading to London in rush hour, there might be 60 seats and 80 passengers per carriage. 20 of these pax standing despite their ticket that said “Feel free to sit on any free seat you happen to find!”
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.
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.
That’s a good example of not understanding, thanks!
+1. “oh you’ll surely be good if you are early, the train can’t possibly already be overcrowded when it arrives”
Now you have to find out who is sitting without a reservation!
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.
The official statistics lists how frequently that occurs.
Okay. I’m not from the UK so my comment is irrelevant!
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.
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.
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.