seat reservation

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Hi!

What kind of ticket?
What route?

Flo

kapitach
Traveller
11 comments

Super Sparpreis EU, BB89FR, Wien Meidling to Cologne Central station

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Go to either ÖBB or DB website, look for your train and select "reserve seat only" or "I already have a ticket" - you should then be able to book a reservation only.
Normally it is cheaper on ÖBB Website

kapitach
Traveller
11 comments

The problem is that no reservation is possible, there are no more seats. When I bought my ticket, it was written that the seat reservation is included, I had no idea that there are no more seats on the train. Had I known it, I would not have bought the ticket. It is extremely unfair that rail.cc does not advise. Do they think I should stand from Vienna to Cologne?

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Where does it say that reservation is included?

What exact connection are you looking at?

kapitach
Traveller
11 comments

Wien Meidling Köln, 08.07., 11:22. 1st class ticket, it was on the website, but also according to DB website, all 1st class tickets include a seat reservation

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Yeah, your assigned seat should be printed on the PDF ticket.

kapitach
Traveller
11 comments

But it is not.

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Cant help you further without seeing the ticket.

Seat reservation has to be included if you bought the ticket 1st class from DB.

Arend7
Traveller
645 comments

"Had I known it, I would not have bought the ticket. It is extremely unfair that rail.cc does not advise." Next time buy the ticket from the operator itself, DB or ÖBB. Probably the seat-information from the traincompanies doesn't reach railcc the proper way.

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

If you would check out the DB shop used by rail.cc (https://rail.shop/bahn/) you would see that of course a seat reservation is included in all types of 1st class tickets (even for the "cheapest offer" Super Sparpreis Europa). Nevertheless I would prefer to be able to book tickets via the original DB website via a rail.cc link but that is another story.

It would be great to see the ticket to clear this up...

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Same price including reservation on rail.shop/bahn and bahn.de

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

...

kapitach
Traveller
11 comments

Flo, I attach the tickets. I am sitting in Budapest, so for me outbound is when I travel from here.. I am first of all interested in the ticket for July 8th as it is in 3 days. It is good idea that I should buy my ticket directly at DB, but then why does rail.cc exist? Trust me, there is no place in that train and they sold me a ticket without warning me. Sure I will forget rail.cc next time, but as I never travel by train, I did not know it.

MisterSteve
Traveller
1092 comments

the question of why rail.cc exists is something I often ask myself, but not as much as why does google exists when we have had so many questions from people who don't use it. But that ticket is issued by DB. Rail.cc doesn't sell tickets, as the home page says "railcc is NOT a ticket booking engine. We are an independent project of some friends. We explain you train travel routes. Where and how to buy the best train tickets and rail passes. ". In the case of a query from Budapest to Cologne it just offered me links to the websites of DB, Omio and MAV, for Vienna-Cologne it would have offered DB, OBB and Omio. Why the DB website has clearly failed to provide a reservation in your case is something DB would have to answer, perhaps when they say a first class ticket includes a seat reservation they mean "a" as in one, but in that case it ought to have offered a chance to do any others. You are getting on almost at the start so there should be empty seats.

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Hm thats odd.
When did you buy the ticket?
I could imagine that no reservation was available anymore for Wien - Cologne.

You could now make separate reservations, for instance for Wien - Passau and Passau - Cologne (since there are no seats left for the complete route Wien - Cologne, but there are seats available for different shorter legs of the journey).

As explained above you bought your ticket through rail.cc from DB so you might also contact DB for a complaint.

kapitach
Traveller
11 comments

Flo, you are a genius. Thanks for the idea, in fact, I could reserve a seat from Wien to Passau and from Passau to Cologne.

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

You're welcome.
Unfortunately I cant help any further regarding why you didnt get a reservation in the first place - like I said above I would suspect that there were already no places available for Wien - Cologne at the time of booking but maybe there was another issue only DB can tell about.

MisterSteve
Traveller
1092 comments

Actually that may not be a simple solution. The train leaves Wien with 7 cars, first class is in car 28 and part of car 27 at the front of the train, it attaches to the rear of another 5 car train at Passau. So you might be given reservations for the two parts not only in different cars but also in different section of the train - and you can't walk through. The extra first class from Passau is in car 38 at the front of the combined train, meaning you would have to get out and walk down the train at Passau.

The seat in RJ60 (or RJX60 as it may appear) is in car 26 at the rear heading into Wien, since both trains are shown as using track 5 that means where you get off should be almost exactly the place to get onto ICE26. Just get in the front car of ICE26 quickly and look for an unreserved seat.

The annoying thing here is that the actual schedule allows time to change at Wien Hbf which would have given more chance of finding an empty seat, but the computer has used Meidling because it has even more connection time and less walking - those who know this can force it to use Hbf.

kapitach
Traveller
11 comments

Thanks for the detailed response. But if I buy two reservations, for car 28 from Wien to Passau and for car 38 from Passau to Cologne, then the only problem is that I have to get off in Passau and change to another car? Is that right?

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

Yes.
Normally you should see in which car your reservation is located.

kapitach
Traveller
11 comments

Thanks for the help.

MisterSteve
Traveller
1092 comments

The problems are not ended! Today's ICE26 is now well inside Germany and DB say it did NOT get the extra cars at Passau. Their system is also not sure which end first class is at. I think that a current diversion around Frankfurt has caused changes and this may be why there is a problem with reservations and train formations.

kapitach
Traveller
11 comments

Hi, I start to be anxious. What happens if my train from Budapest to Wien Meidling has a delay and I miss the train from Wien to Köln?

Flo
Traveller
10724 comments

You have a single ticket for all the way to Cologne. If you miss the train due to a delay you are entitled to a refund (25% for delay of 60 minutes or more, 50% for a delay of 120 minutes or more).
Also, the train company has to provide another option to reach your destination without extra costs.