Younger Woman Applauded For Not Giving Up First Class Seat To Rude Older Woman

Oct 27, 2022 by apost team

We all know by now that a person aboard any form of public transportation – including trains – has the right to keep an assigned seat as long as they paid for it. Understandably, we need to consider the situations of other people with disabilities, pregnant individuals, and also elderly folks.  

Then again, we also have to understand if the other person refuses to give up a seat because we never know the circumstances they are in – not to mention that young people get tired, too. At the end of the day, it’s still up to the person whether or not to give up his seat.

In the case of a 32-year-old woman who recently had the same experience, she chose not to give up her seat.

The young woman then turned to Reddit's "Am I The A******’" thread to know the point of view of others regarding a decision she made where she did not give up her seat to an elderly woman.

The young woman said she was traveling from London to Aberdeen, which usually takes about seven hours. So, she decided to book her trip in advance.

The young woman said she opted to go for a first-class seat even though she found it expensive because she wanted to treat herself.

She also explained that she had a number of reasons why she deserved to treat herself, enumerating them one by one. Her primary reason was she just came from an exhausting two-week-long trip from overseas.

“I was making the journey the day after returning from a two-week-long work trip abroad and I knew I'd be exhausted/totally unable to function,” she said.

The young woman went on to share her second reason and said that since she still had some work to finish, she went for a seat where she could do them while feeling comfortable. “I knew I'd have work to do on the train, so I wanted to make sure I had space/comfort to be able to work,” the woman said.
 
Lastly, she wanted to have a space of her own. Since trains in the UK, such as the one she chose, offer individual seats, she decided to go for it. “On certain trains in the UK, the first-class carriages have "individual seats" which means you're not sitting next to or sitting opposite anyone,” the woman said.
 
“The space is entirely your own and you can spread out over the little table. I specifically booked one of those seats to enable me to work,” she added.
 
The woman then shared what happened on the trip, revealing that an older woman in her 60s approached her in a rude manner to point out to her that she wanted to have the “priority seat” she was seated in.
 
The woman went on to explain that she paid for the first-class seat but was assigned to a priority seat in the first-class seats since the rest of the seats were full. Priority seats are the ones at the end of carriages for people with mobility issues due to age.
 
The young woman then explained to the elderly woman that she could approach one of the staff members on the train to ask if there were still available seats. 

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The elderly woman then told her that there were no more seats available. So, the young woman apologized.

“I apologized but reiterated that I'd booked the seat and wasn't going to move,” the young woman said.

Thankfully, a guard approached them to find out what was happening and help them out with the situation they were in. Apparently, the elderly woman only had an “open ticket” and did not make any seat reservation which meant she could hop on any train she liked but wasn’t guaranteed to have a seat unless there were available ones.

The guard tried to ask the young woman if she was willing to give up her seat, but she refused. The guard also tried asking the people seated in the first-class carriage if any of them were willing to give their seats, to no avail. So, the guard took the elderly woman to the standard class.

But the young woman admitted that she felt bad over what happened despite her wanting to keep the seat.

“I felt bad, but I also don't think I needed to put myself in severe discomfort because someone else didn't think ahead and reserve a seat,” she said.

At the end of her post, the woman asked if she was in the wrong for pulling what she did to the elderly woman. But those who have read her post told her she wasn’t and that she simply did what she had to.

One person pointed out: “The train company is the a****** here.” “But it’s really on the provider. They shouldn’t sell seats and yet also declare them ‘priority seating’,” another person said. 

Do you agree with the woman’s decision not to give up her seat? Let us know your thoughts, and pass this on to anyone who might find this story interesting!