A pregnant woman travelling with her kids has exposed a couple who took her reserved seats and refused to move. Photos / Twitter
A pregnant woman travelling with her kids has exposed a couple who took her reserved seats and refused to move. Photos / Twitter
A pregnant mum who reserved train seats for her three children and herself has shamed a couple online after they reportedly refused to move.
Amanda Mancino-Williams, 37, was travelling with her children on the CrossCountry train from Cheltenham to Nottingham in the UK when she ran into a "posh" couple who wouldn't budge from her reserved seats.
The woman, who is 6-and-a-half months pregnant, revealed on Twitter that the couple had a posh accent and told her that her reserved tickets didn't matter and that they wouldn't give up their seats.
She also shared a photo of her kids squeezed into the two available seats, with her daughter staring down the woman opposite. Photo / Twitter
Mancino-Williams also shared a photo of the couple, and another image of her three kids squeezed into the two seats across from them, to her 47,700 followers.
She wrote: "If a mum with 3 kids and bags has 4 reserved seats for a long train journey, and you're sitting in their seats on a full carriage, don't tell them that their tickets don't matter in a posh voice and then say you're not moving and refuse to make eye contact.
"Don't be these people."
She then waited for a conductor to come and resolve the awkward situation. During this time another passenger offered his reserved seat.
"No one intervened other than that. A few people said they couldn't believe the couple as I walked past. Shaking of heads, that kind of thing," the mother told the Sun.
When she spoke to the train conductor he offered the family an empty table in first class.
"[I] spoke to [the] conductor who was calm, lovely, and apologetic, said that instead of engaging with them that he was going to move us to an empty table in first class," she wrote on Twitter.
"I grabbed our bags and turned to the couple and said, with a smile, 'enjoy your seats!'
"I would always give up a seat, reserved or not, for someone who needed it more.
"But for her to tell me that my tickets meant nothing and then refuse to acknowledge me? Do people just expect you to slink away?"
A spokesman for CrossCountry trains said it was a shame the family was "let down by others who ignore the labels", but hoped they enjoyed the "extra space in First Class".
Speaking to the Sun, Mancino-Williams said she would have left the couple alone if they gave her a reason as to why they needed the seats.
"What's the point of reserving if anyone can just take any seat? It's inane," she said.
"[The woman's] instant dismissiveness of me and the children told me all I needed to know about her. I didn't feel it was my responsibility to acquiesce to that kind of behaviour."
She also added: "My kids just told me that while they were sitting across from the couple the woman said to her husband, loud enough so the kids would hear, that 'even when we take first-class people don't give up their seats, you take what's there.' In case you felt sorry for them."
Many praised the mum for her actions.
"Well done for posting this!" one said. "It may be an 'everyday' occurrence but that doesn't excuse this couple's appalling behaviour.
"Civilised societies depend on people following rules — like seat reservations on trains. Otherwise we have anarchy. Enjoy first class."
Another added: "You got better seats, these miserable people get to spend the rest of their lives together. Here's to happy endings."
