MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Would you give up a £50 train seat for a pregnant woman?

SCAMPIDOODLE

Yes I certainly would, but would expect a thank you in return. I'm pregnant but I gave up my seat for an elderley lady recently who promptly sat down without a glance in my direction, let alone a thank you. Some old people think its their god given right, especially from young people. I know it should be that way, but a little courtesy from the recipient is always appreciated.

adz692003

You bunch of jacka**es, Of course you would give it up whats so hard about standing for a few hours??? If i were standing in a carrige and a hevily preggers women was standing in the aisle next to some chump sat down listening to his i pod i would go over and drag him owt myself and knock some respect into him!!!!

pineapple

I am not too fit myself so it would depend how I was feeling. But I probably would give up my seat while groaning inwardly and praying that she gets off before the 5 hours are up.

jatos

This thread seems to have a lot of posts saying the same thing (13 pages of them in fact).

Personally, I would be inclined to give up my seat, though I may pass comment about her not booking a reserved seat.

hstrike

You all assume that everyone who isnt pregnant and looks "normal" is healthy but its often not the case so you shouldnt expect anyone to give up their seat and certainly shouldnt judge them. Pregnancy is a natural state and not an illness. If the lady really wants a seat she will wait for the next train or book in advance. If she is really suffering she shouldnt be travelling at all as this puts the health of her baby and herself in jeopardy. There are usually seats in each carriage that state something like "if a pregnant or disabled person needs this seat please give it up" and this is where I would go to get a seat and ask the person there to give it up - if they refused I would insist and if they still refused I would ask the guard to intervene.

DX-SFX

Depends.

You could always ask her how long she might want the seat for. Doing favours is one thing where the pregnant person, through no fault of her own is disadvantaged, such as getting on an unexpectedly busy bus but a paid for seat is something else. It's not like she got on the train knowing it was a five hour journey and then suddenly found herself pregnant and needing to sit down. If she was in real distress, I would obviously give up my seat but on principle, she's quite capable of paying the extra the same as everyone else and booking a seat if she knows she needs one rather than expecting to inconvenience someone else. If she gets hungry, should I give her my lunch I bought on the station because she didn't bother to bring anything? It's the same principle.

alanobrien

Yes i would, in a heartbeat simply because i like to think of myself as a decent human being and she would need the seat more than i. The selfish nature of some people today deeply saddens me which i guess means i must be getting old.

The_Fun_Police

Funny how we all get into a fight about the rights & wrongs of this. Of course we should have morals & common decency but surely the basic problem lies with the greed of the rail companies selling as many tickets as they possibly can with little regards as to whether there is enough seats or even standing room available.

If there was a seat available for all of those who have paid for them then this problem would not arise. I know the argument is that not everyone who pays for a ticket gets on a train but I have rarely got on a train where there have been spare seats - except in first class of course.

dave2

I'd give up my seat.

To the posters saying she should have booked the seat, true, and for this reason I'd be annoyed about it. But unborn babies can't book seats and that's who I'm giving up the seat for.

For £50 I'd consider writing to the train company to see if I could get a refund of the reservation. Trains here have a couple of seats at each carriage end marked for elderly or disabled, so I would point out that they had under-provided and I was merely extending their good policy.

To be honest the real villain here isn't the woman, who could have any number of reasons for travelling without a reservation. It's the train company for not providing sufficient seating. So many people have been so quick to blame the woman for not booking when she has paid full price for a long journey where passenger numbers are largely predictable. !!!!!! should she not expect a seat to be available? The train companies could quite easily introduce standing-only carriages which could hold more people (and more comfortably) than a seated carriage. So why don't they? Because you would expect to pay less for a standing-only carriage and then you would question why you are paying full price to be standing in a seating carriage.

mr-tom_2

Circumstances.

I've had to travel at short notice before, too short to book. There's no reason to assume that she is also not travelling at too short notice to have booked.

I guess the question is how heavily pregnant she is.

I'd probably sit there for 5 minutes watching her struggle & before I'd feel too guilty, give in and give her my seat.