Hi all, I have a question about travelling on the OBB - apologies if something like this has been asked before, I did do a search but couldn't find anything related to this specific question!
I'll be in Vienna in October, and have booked three OBB trips for myself and my husband - a day trip to to Hallstatt in 2nd class (I know half the trip is on a regional train and we won't have a seat reservation), and then a few days later we're leaving Vienna and going to Prague via train (I booked in 1st for this trip since we'll have luggage). All three trips were Sparschiene fares, so I believe they're not cancellable/refundable.
Anyway, I reserved seats for all three trips, but when it came time to select my seats I kept getting an error message every time I tried to view the seat map itself, so I couldn't select specific seats. There was a drop-down menu that asked me for my seat preferences and I selected "window seat".
Now that I'm reviewing my tickets, I noticed our seats aren't labelled sequentially, and I'm wondering if the system might have given my husband and I each a window seat - I think he might be seated in the row directly behind me rather than next to me. I haven't been able to find anywhere online that has a seat map of the train and coach I'm actually on to confirm this, but I have looked at seat maps for similar trains and this seems to be the case.
So, that's a long-winded explanation for what my actual questions are.
First of all - if my husband has a reserved seat behind me, but the seat next to me is not reserved and is free when we board - there's nothing stopping him from just sitting there, right? Is there any proper etiquette for removing the "reserved" sign on the seat behind us that he is no longer using?
Secondly, if the seat next to me is occupied, would it be considered rude to ask one of our neighbours if they wanted to switch seats with one of us? (I would be very polite and absolutely understand/accept if the answer is no, but I don't want to alienate the stranger next to me for the next three hours just by asking either haha).
Alternatively, does anyone know of any way we can change our seats on an OBB Sparschiene fare? Or are we stuck with whatever the seats assigned at the booking are?
Finally, does anyone have any insight an "official" site to see a seat map for my specific train? As I said, the OBB seating map wasn't working for me (and even now, if I go on the website and try to book a new ticket I still can't view the seat map).
Thanks very much for your help. I also wanted to add that I know it's not the end of the world if we can't sit together. We'll definitely manage! It just would be nice to be able to enjoy the view and the experience together.