Etiquette of moving to an empty seat ..

I think they did close it off after the roof fell in. No great loss, DEFINITELY one of the worst balconies in London. Give me the Wyndham's any day!

I remember one where at first sight it was almost like walking down a ladder. The floor just dropped away. Once I was sitting down and looking around it didn't seem so steep, but the initial surprise and the tiny rail that couldn't possibly stop a falling body were a bit disconcerting.

But what's the point? OK, the seat is cheap but if they're that scared of heights isn't the likelihood that they won't be able to sit there in the end and they'll have wasted the money, making them even poorer?

At West End prices, for some it's the only way to see a show. When I lived in London I rarely went to the theatre, despite being besotted with it as a teenager going to theatres in the North-West, because I just couldn't afford a decent seat and the cheap seats were as scary for me as a big dipper ride. This was pre-theatre-ticket-internet days, so I didn't know how to hunt out bargains.

Ha! I do love that we're fine with seat jumping, which as @baemax says is technically theft, but not with someone using their phone at the theatre (which isn't a crime).

Court Services around the country are frantically scrubbing various names off of the jury service register as we speak.

Is it? Who are you stealing it from, the venue or the ticket holder, and if the latter, where does that leave the issues/controversy around selling your ticket at above face value on a secondary ticket site?

But shifting to an unoccupied seat of the same value or less?

Last Saturday, the empty seat I was looking covetously at - it was too late to move - was £5 and had an unobstructed view. Mine was £32.50 plus £3 fee with a view blocked by the average hight woman in front of me.

And what counts as the value, when you can find seats in the same area being offered at very different prices depending on where, when and how you book? For example, the £5 stalls seat mentioned above, which wasn't on offer at that price on the website, or the last minute £5 and £10 stalls seats to the Old Vic, where normal price was £60? On trains, you can upgrade an existing ticket to 1st at quiet times for a fee, but in theatres you can get the first class experience for as little as a fiver from the off if you spot that bargain.

It'd be interesting to see this principle tested in a court of law.

Yes, the people behind might be a bit annoyed as they've lost an unexpected clear view, but it wasn't their seat either (I do see people booking two seats on night buses so they can sleep!)

If you moved seats without asking permission, and a big chunk of plaster, or a cherub or something fell off the ceiling and hit you on your head, would you be entitled to compo?

In this crazy world, probably yes. In a sensible world, no you shouldn't.

If you sat in front of me when you shouldn't have, you absolutely shouldn't.

I am so looking forward to holiday season when people will be telling all their stories of how they spotted a premium economy or first class seat on their plane/train/boat and decided to take it as no one was using it.

And before all the cries of 'but that's different'. No, actually it isn't.

I'd 100% do that if no one checked/said anything.

Whole load of pearl clutching going on in this thread!