It is best to use the likes of https://www.bahn.com/en and https://www.oebb.at or their apps for planning as well as the website/app of the local operator. Interrail app is handy but it is not always accurate as it runs offline with occasional updates.

Rail Europe is a 3rd party sales portal that cannot provide reservations for passholders.

DB do have a less than stellar reliability, if you find the revised schedule problematic look at earlier alternatives or post up your itinerary here and possibly there will be some other options available.

Thanks, that’s really helpful. So, you’d say it’s generally best to use the website / app of the country you’re travelling from?

We’re travelling from London - Wien on 27/5, we’re booked on the Eurostar at 7am which arrives in Bruxelles at 10.05. Rail Europe was showing a quicker route via Paris (leaving at 6am) but I doubt we could change the Eurostar leg of the journey at this stage anyway. But if anyone can come up with a quicker route that gets us into Wien earlier than 11pm on 27/5 that would be fantastic.

Yes always use bahn.de or the companies websites

You won't be able to change the Eurostar leg yeah, it's a holiday weekend and all trains are sold out.

Due to engineering works that weekend ICE trains start at Brussels-Nord instead of Brussels-Midi and they take a longer route than usual. 

This would have been your schedule but it is apparently not possible :

- any train to Brussels-Nord

- ICE Brussels-Nord - Frankfurt Airport 12:15 - 15:17

- ICE Frankfurt Airport - Vienna 16:01 - 23:05

Book seat reservations for these 2 trains on bahn.de even though they're optional. 4.50€ for the whole journey. Trains will be packed that day.

It looks like that this connection is not offered on bahn.de. The train arriving in Vienna at 23:05 seems to leave Frankfurt Airport way earlier and the change is not possible…

bahn.de offers this as the only option to make it to Vienna that day :

- Brussels-Nord - Frankfurt (Main) Hbf 12:15 - 15:31

- Frankfurt (Main) Hbf - Kufstein 15:50 - 20:34

- Kufstein - Vienna 20:53 - 00:35

Seat reservations : 4.50€ for the whole journey

If you were to have too much delay when arriving in Munich at 19:11, switch to this train :

- Munich - Salzburg Hbf 19:55 - 21:42

- Salzburg Hbf - Vienna 22:07 - 00:35

Way longer than usual due to multiple engineering works it seems… usually you have the ICE at 10:25 from Brussels-Midi which is perfect... :/

Maybe someone else will be able to help or give another option.

Is your accomodation in Vienna fixed ? Maybe you could spend one night less there and stop in Munich on 27th May (to split this quite long journey)

All the alternatives I have searched would entail several changes and not much (if any) gain and many have significant reservation fees. I even checked leaving the E* at Lille and a TGV to Paris or Strasbourg.

Like the earlier suggestions I would split the journey (possibly at Frankfurt or Nuremberg ) as there are some reasonable hotels near the station (IBIS Hauptbahnof Nuremberg is one) and several onward options the next morning.

Hi. Thanks everyone, yes we were thinking we would take the 12.14 Bruxelles-Frankfurt Flug then 16.01 from there to Wien. The Interrail website says we don’t need to book and that it would cost 9Euros per person per journey if we did which seems a bit much. After already being mismanaged by DB reluctant to go with that again. Presumably we can still board the trains we just may not get a seat for the whole journey? (According to the interrail website anyway). So is the Interrail app just totally rubbish then - it seems to show very different times to local journeys…?

Yes Rail Planner is very bad for planning, too unreliable

On interrail.eu seat reservations cost 9€ person per train but it is way cheaper somewhere else (very often the case) :

• 3€ per train (2nd class) or FREE (1st class) on tickets.oebb.at
• 4.50€ per journey (2nd class) or 5.90€ (1st class) on bahn.de

I’d definitely make seat reservations for that day, thousands of people will travel that day (holiday weekend) and you’ll stand if you don’t have a reservation

Why would DB be unreliable for seat reservations ? They’re the ones operating the trains… interrail.eu is way worse

Now you need to choose which options you prefer to get to Vienna : 00:35 arrival (still only one pass day used) or a night in Nuremberg or Munich (2 travel days used then)

Thanks - it looks like the times have now changed again and the last leg is a ‘railjet’ - I think this is the same as ‘nightjet’ - so does this mean we need a reservation even if travelling overnight. And it’s already not possible to reserve seats for the journey we wanted to get. I’m feeling slightly depressed - we were looking forward to this as the first overseas family holiday in years and having planned all the travel and accommodation it now looks like it’s going to be super stressful. And there’s no way to contact Interrail it would seem other than this forum. Thanks everyone for your help and advice anyway!

Railjet are long-distance daytime trains operated by Austrian Railways (OBB). They have optional reservations but it is recommended for your date. Same process as above : through tickets.oebb.at or bahn.de (4.50€ for Brussels - Frankfurt - Kufstein - Vienna). There are available seats right now but definitely book in advance.

With the connection arriving at 00:35 you still have a backup plan with the regional train Munich - Salzburg just in case. I’d really take that option. You can even select seats through bahn.de. You’ll make it to Vienna that day, don’t worry : it’ll only be a really long day but then you’ll relax in the city. If any major delay happens, speak to DB staff and they’ll have to provide accomodation for the night and you’d travel the next day free of charge (without using an extra pass day)

Where are you checking train times ? Please use bahn.de and have a look at my previous post :

“- Brussels-Nord - Frankfurt (Main) Hbf 12:15 - 15:31

- Frankfurt (Main) Hbf - Kufstein 15:50 - 20:34

- Kufstein - Vienna 20:53 - 00:35

Seat reservations : 4.50€ for the whole journey”

Let me know for questions

Thanks so much, will try that. We’re also just exploring another option involving travelling through France instead. I can’t figure out how to reserve seats with TGV without buying a ticket - as I believe this is compulsory?

And presumably arriving at 00.35 won’t count as another day of travel?

All TGVs through France are quite surely sold out for 27th May + Eurostar definitely is : no passholder fares throughout the weekend and there would only be 200£ regular tickets on evening departures which is of no use to you.

Stick to your original route.

Yes it doesn’t count as an extra travel day as long as you board the last train before midnight

Hi. We’d already reserved a seat with DB before the timetable changed and they never let us know about the change and haven’t replied to my email asking for a refund on those reservations!

We also made a seat reservation with OBB (Austrian railways) for a journey from Paris to Wien (as we were going to get the overnight ferry Newhaven-Dieppe) but when I downloaded it the reservations are only from Karlsruhe so don’t take in the TGV journey so we’ve already paid for two journeys we can’t use and not sure how to get a refund on either. We’ve bought other reservations from OBB which will hopefully get us there - fingers crossed! Thanks!

ÖBB can't book seat reservations in France so please double-check what you've booked

Seat reservations are usually non-refundable

How does your schedule look like right now ? The 10:55 TGV from Paris-Est to Karlsruhe still has 4 seats but did you pay 17€ ?

There's no refund for a seat reservation, unless you can't use it because they changed the timetables.

ÖBB can't book TGVs (at least not online) and there will have been a warning that your reservations were only for part of the journey.