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Hi, apologies if this has been asked before. I’ve looked around but can’t seem to find any existing question that fits.

I made a few reservations on Trenitalia for April through Eurail’s reservation booking system as part of a much larger trip, for myself and a friend. Unfortunately, on two of the legs of our journey, the seats assigned to my friend and I seem to be less than optimal - 2C and 2A. Looking at the seatmap on Trenitalia’s website, we seem to be across the aisle, facing different directions, and one of us is seated at a table for 4.

From what I’ve seen, Trenitalia seems to be one of the more temperamental operators when it comes to reservations, so I wasn’t terribly surprised.

Since these trips are 3 and 4 hours each, I’m not keen on hoping to be able to just swap seats with someone else on-board (especially with one of ours being at a table for four). What I’d like to do is cancel this reservation and perhaps try to make it again via another method. When I try to cancel the reservation from Eurail’s reservations page, all I get after confirming the cancellation is “This reservation cannot be refunded.” I don’t really care about getting a refund, since this particular reservation was only a couple euro per person (plus Eurail’s booking fee, but whatever). I would have to imagine it’s frowned upon to reserve more than one seat per person, so I’d like to get this reservation cancelled before trying again.

I also tried entering the ticket PNR and CP Code on Trenitalia’s website, and I can fetch the reservation, but there doesn’t appear to be a cancellation option there either.

Any help would be appreciated!

I wouldn’t bother, if there is no possibility of a refund then you are just making work for yourself.

There is no comeback on you if you book another seat, as nobody will be using the third one there is nothing they can do about it.

Frankly I wouldn’t be at all concerned that you may be blocking the seat from being sold, this is entirely a situation of Trenitalia’s doing as they are preventing passholders from booking reservations through their site so they cannot choose seats.

The main problem you face is that there is no way of selecting a seat except visiting a Trenitalia ticket office to book there.

OBB are the recommended place top book Italian reservations online but they cannot provide seat selection either.

https://shop.oebbtickets.at/en/ticket

Only way to swap for free (not extra cost), from what I understand, is to visit a TrenItalia counter before the trip and ask them to readjust it. Do not have high hopes, even if you can get your message across.

IF it is for a FRecce-locals from there have also advised in the past there is a last-minute kiosk on the platforms that may be of more help. TrIt is not at all temperamental, more a mostly inefficient state-burocracy. Even for its honored 1st cl-which for them is mostly state-officials sent out on state-messages.

OH-as I had a Frecce trip myself last oct: at that time they still seemingly had kind of covid-spread out seating, which meant that not all seats were sold. As it was the birthroom of covid in EUR they still take it very sriously. IF this is still the case it may mean that you simply cannot sit beside 1 to 1 as not being a recognised couple?

I wouldn’t bother, if there is no possibility of a refund then you are just making work for yourself.

There is no comeback on you if you book another seat, as nobody will be using the third one there is nothing they can do about it.

Frankly I wouldn’t be at all concerned that you may be blocking the seat from being sold, this is entirely a situation of Trenitalia’s doing as they are preventing passholders from booking reservations through their site so they cannot choose seats.

 

Apologies for not responding sooner, this kind of slipped my mind.

Are you sure this won’t be an issue? Obviously, worse than an undesirable seat would be getting charged a fine + full fare ticket cost because I’m doing something I’m not supposed to, even if it is ultimately the fault of a system that won’t allow me to cancel the reservation. The pass Terms & Conditions feel a bit vague on this front, though the very general mention of “attempting to defraud Eurail and the participating carriers” feels like it would apply for someone booking multiple seats on the same train.

OBB was going to be my choice for rebooking.

 

As it was the birthroom of covid in EUR they still take it very sriously. IF this is still the case it may mean that you simply cannot sit beside 1 to 1 as not being a recognised couple?

I don’t mind if we can’t sit together. It’s just the seat at the table for 4 that’s the real annoyance.

Are you sure this won’t be an issue? Obviously, worse than an undesirable seat would be getting charged a fine + full fare ticket cost because I’m doing something I’m not supposed to, even if it is ultimately the fault of a system that won’t allow me to cancel the reservation. The pass Terms & Conditions feel a bit vague on this front, though the very general mention of “attempting to defraud Eurail and the participating carriers” feels like it would apply for someone booking multiple seats on the same train.

Pretty certain no one will care, particularly as they are to blame. 

OBB was going to be my choice for rebooking.

ÖBB does not allow you to select seats and the assignment of seats is as random as with Trenitalia (when booking for multiple passengers - they do get placed sort of together but for some reason not next to each other) but they do allow you to cancel it for free up to 3 minutes after purchase, as long as you haven't generated your PDF ticket.

You will be able to see the seat numbers in the details somewhere, and if you have the seat map on the trenitalia site open can then still decide to cancel if you don't like the seats you've been assigned. Be fast, as it's really only 3 minutes after booking - after that it's impossible to cancel afaik.

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