ICE9574 - reserving 1st class seat from Strasbourg

I guess they are prioritising international passengers.

I think that you lose your right to the seat if you don't claim it within 15 minutes, so it could be given to other passengers. That could well happen if there's been disruption and the train manager is faced with a bunch of passengers looking for seats.

Thanks both - I suspected as much.  Pretty annoying though to have a supposed entitlement to a first-class seat (for the same reservation fee) but being prevented from claiming it due to this sort of chicanery.

But equally annoying if you’re in Stuttgart and you want to take one of the three direct trains to Paris, but you find they’re all booked up by people boarding in Strasbourg (which has 14 daily trains to Paris).

That’s why they do the chicanery. (Well that, and money 😉)

Is there no availability on an alternative departure with first class availability?

You can also book the 2nd class now and keep an eye out to see if availability comes back in first. If you book at Rail Europe, you can refund up to 30 minutes after departure.

Thanks ralderton for the tip on keeping an eye out for availability in 1st being loaded closer to departure: I have booked with Rail Europe (in 2nd) and check a few days before departure.

I don’t think it is a particularly busy day (a fairly random Tuesday in late September): I suspect it’s just the policy for that particular train.

Fair comment on the inconvenience to travellers coming from Stuttgart, but then that does presuppose that passengers boarding at Strasbourg are actually only travelling from Strasbourg.  I think I’m just a bit unlucky on this one: my journey is from Zurich back to the UK, and Plan A was the 0934 direct Lyria to Paris.  Unfortunately that’s been expunged from the timetable on the date I need to travel.  That leaves this connection via Strasbourg as the only sensible option that doesn’t require a very early start, connects with the Eurostar reservation I already had (and felt I needed to make before reservations on SNCF opened), and still leaves some contingency for things going wrong along the way.  C’est la vie.

The odd thing is that I could set off earlier and catch an ICE to Karlsruhe and take a 1st Class seat for the same money.  But then I might as well have booked the 0734 Lyria from Zurich to Paris.

None of this is a really big deal.  It’s just another of those niggling things that keep people using planes for journeys that could be done by train.

Depending on when you made the Eurostar reservation, you can charge it for free up to 7 days before departure, otherwise for €20. That does depend on availability though.

But yeah, I risky hear you on the faff of booking, compared with booking a flight. It's fraught with annoyances!

From September to December (pretty much every year) there are engineering works northwest of Dijon on weekdays. The line is closed between 9am and 4pm.

Few TGV Lyria are diverted via LGV Est but not the 09:34 service: too late for business travellers but too early for people coming from further away? No idea.

Going through Basel - Strasbourg is definitely the best alternative, that line is more reliable than Basel - Karlsruhe. Hopefully they'll release some seats from Strasbourg, possible but not guaranteed.

Arriving in Gare de l'Est is also much more convenient than Gare de Lyon.

SNCF do something similar with (almost?) all their international TGVs. Domestic seats are also limited from/to e.g Perpignan or Bellegarde. On the other hand, I haven't noticed (yet?) any limited quota on purely domestic TGVs; SNCF then usually increase the price for the shorter relations, e.g. Nice-Marseille on a Nice-Paris train, but they don't seem to limit sales.

SNCF indeed try to maximise profit and more so for their international trains: international passengers are their cash cows: they pay more, so SNCF try to get more of them in the international trains, rather than domestic passengers. I also have the impression that the seat shortage is bigger on their international trains. It seems intentional.