Optional Reservation in Austria and Germany - Full trains in summer!

Angelo
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Userlevel 7
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Hello Interrailers and Eurailer!

How you (almost) all know, in Germany and Austria you don’t have to book a reservation, but you can via bahn.com (4€/trip 2nd class) and tickets.oebb.at (3€/train) via seat only option. 

Some trains are now and I presume this summer very full. Please check before boarding via bahn.com the utilization forecast for German trains and via fahrplan.oebb.at the utilization forecast note for Austrian trains. For trains that will be full you get a note with the text that a reservation is preferable to get a seat. Some trains now, have a note that due to that this trains are full, you only are allowed to get in the train with reservations. Without you have to leave the train. 

 

Do you have any questions? Feel free to ask in the community! Known languages: Deutsch, Italiano, English.

2 replies

M
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Userlevel 7
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There are no checks on boarding here in DE=Germany. PLus that the current ultra-cheap offer of the 9€ tickets for the whole month(yes, I have one and am now travelling on it, and have 2 days left on an INterRailpass too) makes the NON-REServed train sometimes so full that police has to come to drive people out. It remains to be seen how this ticket will influence pax on IC/ICE.

Yesterday there was a big derailment that blocked a few major lines for most of the day. This afternoon there was a very tragic accident in Bayern where a double-deck train (also local/RE) jumped from the tracks- 4 persons killed as far as news here tells.

The major problem with DB/ICE in normal times is the enormous amount of delays, which makes most connections pure fiction. IF a train becomes too full there is often an offer for immediate money coupon-for 20/30€ or so-poor InterRailers may even want to bet on that (it brings more as collecting bottles for the 25 ct deposit on them).

But as such it is indeed easy and not overly expensive to make an online REServ-the add-on is also you then get continuous mails about how much the delay is etc. IF you can preplan and make an account on bahn.com, you can apply for a free BahnBonus Card (=NOT a BahnCard), with which you can collect points  to gain free trips etc. These fees also count for that.

For a seat on the Overnight IC, joined as seat-only to the NightJet trains-cannot do on bahn.de, can do via oebb.at, but this is often not shown as usual on the displays on seats=you get trouble convincing the people who sit on your allocated place.

R
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Userlevel 7
Badge +9

But as such it is indeed easy and not overly expensive to make an online REServ-the add-on is also you then get continuous mails about how much the delay is etc. IF you can preplan and make an account on bahn.com, you can apply for a free BahnBonus Card (=NOT a BahnCard), with which you can collect points  to gain free trips etc. These fees also count for that.

No they don't. No points for reservations.

Please ask questions in the community and not via a private message. That's the quickest way to get a response. I don't work for Eurail/Interrail.

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