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Hey, I wanted to book a trip by Night Jet (ÖBB) from Paris to Vienna on december 26th. I checked regularly since august but no seats were ever available. I wanted to know if it’s because every seats have already been booked or if this trip was not officially open to reservation yet ? 

On ÖBB website, this message appears: 

“Timetable 2024

Please note that planning for local, regional and long-distance passenger rail services for the 2024 timetable year (as of 10th December 2023) has not yet been completed and the timetable data is not yet complete.
It is therefore possible that the local, regional and long-distance connections will be changed or cancelled at the time of the timetable change, that additional services may be added to the timetable data or that the departure or arrival times or the operating transport company may still change.
This particularly affects the long-distance services listed below:
List of affected long-distance trains
Ticket sales for the night train connections are expected to start in mid-October 2023.
We thus ask you to review the current timetable of your connection in due time before starting your journey. Thank you very much.”

 

Does anyone know more about it ? 🙂 Thank you !

My guess would be that for long bookings weren't opened. But sometimes as soon as they release them the train can sell out in a day or two, especially on busy periods like Christmas and New Year. This happened to me on Amsterdam - Zurich in August !

I wouldn't expect this train to be released later unfortunately, earlier and later trains are bookable at the moment.

Here are some alternatives I can think of to get you in Vienna on 27th December morning :

OPTION 1 (best) :

- Eurostar (ex-Thalys) Paris-Nord - Bruxelles-Midi 16:55 - 18:17 27€ reservation (passholder quota, book ASAP)

- Nightjet Bruxelles-Midi - Wien Hbf 19:07 - 10:13 couchette 33.20€ (6 women compartment) or 43€ (4 women compartment)*

OPTION 2 if you want to avoid Eurostar :

- TGV Paris-Nord - Lille-Flandres 15:46 - 16:48 10€

- TER/IC Lille-Flandres - Tournai 17:08 - 17:36

- IC Tournai - Bruxelles-Midi 17:44 - 18:48

- and then Nightjet as above

OPTION 3 :

- TGV Paris-Est - Strasbourg 13:51 - 15:37 20€

- TER Strasbourg - Basel SBB 15:51 - 17:08

- IR36 Basel SBB - Zürich HB 17:37 - 18:49 (for example)

- EC Zürich HB - Bregenz 19:33 - 21:00

- Nightjet Bregenz - Wien Hbf 21:40 - 06:58 all accommodation types available (36€ couchette, 46€ sleeper, etc.)

I assume that Paris is your starting point ? If that's not the case let me know.

*Seats are also available (13.70€) but avoid them honestly, you won't sleep much.

Questions welcome. Don't wait to book whichever option you choose :)

Yeah it is fully booked for that date. Bookings were opened in beginning of November and for such a busy day it sells out quickly.

but there are some alternatives as thibcabe suggests

Thank you so much for your help and advices ! 

I just had time to check for the timetables and availability of the first option, I was just going to pay when it ended up full… I can’t believe it went that fast… It says to update 15 min after and I’ll try again ! 🤞

My global plan is to go finnish Lapland (Oulu). I booked a train from Wien to Warszawa, where I will take a bus until Tallinn, as there is no easy/existing connection by train (and then continue to Helsinki, and Oulu). 

I will keep looking for this connection from Bruxelles to Wien as it seems to be the easiest, and pray for a seat to reappear ! 

 

Again, thank you so much !! As it’s the first time for me to use a Interrail pass, I don’t really manage to find the best routes, so your help is precious ! :) 

Yes Brussels is clearly the easiest option.

I can see more than 6 couchettes available from Brussels. Please really spend a bit extra on a couchette (6 or 4 people compartment) for a better experience !

From 27th December there will be again a direct train from Vilnius to Riga. Great news ! This means that Warsaw - Riga can be done with a single change in 2 days. Then Riga - Tallinn is doable with a few hours wait in Valga.

I agree though that connections in the Baltics are suboptimal until Rail Baltica opens one day...

I couldn’t find those Bruxelles-Wien couchettes options on december 26th. Instead I took a trip from Liege to Wien at 10:13 (so the same train I suppose). It’s a normal seat, but at least I’ll arrive at Wien

 

Did you use nightjet.com or oebb.at ? Always better to book through the railway company, you also save booking fees.

Yes it's the same train which starts in Brussels. Good luck for the night...

Brussels-Vienna still has couchettes available in the ladies compartment. Bookable on tickets.oebb.at and nightjet.com, the latter one being less prone to user error. Price is €33.20 (6-person compartment) or €43 (4-person compartment).

You can still book a couchette and then cancel your seat reservation, which is possible until 15 days before departure.

Indeed, they appear on the website. Thought, I tried to book it, but I got an error message when it came to add payment information. I called the client service (who was very kind), and there might be a problem in the reservation service, as the support couldn’t book the ticket either. He thinks the train is fully booked and the system doesn’t take it into account yet. 

Anyway, I might try in a few days, but at least I have the train from Liege !

Thank you again !

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