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Railjet seating question

for a trip from Salzburg to Zurich (or all the way through to Luzern), I see a nice 5 hour direct Railjet available. Though my understanding now is you can book a ticket later, I would like to book seats since this is our only opportunity on our first Europe winter trip to see scenery . (later in trip we will have chance to do Golden Pass train ride from Luzern to Interlaken).

My Railjet questions for Salzburg to Zurich:
1) worth 1st class? It's double the price at 400 total for both my daughter and I. Second class is 200total.
2) if choosing 2nd class, It also says I can either request the seat selection or let them choose for me. Any seat or cabin tips?
3) there is one railjet that says zurich (departing morning) and one that says innsbruck (departing later)....any difference in routes? I cannot tell which exact route but I believe here in this forum, I read that the Innsbruck route is more scenic?

I am using OEBB website for tickets.
THank you all SO much!

Posted by
3090 posts

My sister and I opted for 1st class on our railjet train from Innsbruck to Switzerland. For us, the extra room and less crowds were worth the additional expense. For seats, we like 2 across with a table near the luggage rack.

Like Badger said, the train goes from Salzburg to Innsbruck to Zurich—all the same train. I did not find this route to be very scenic compared to some of the routes I have taken in Switzerland. I traveled it this past Sept.

Posted by
3090 posts

I just read on another post of yours that you are actually travelling to Lucerne. so, you want to buy a ticket from salzburg to Lucerne. The salzburg to zurich part will be on the railjet and then you'll transfer in zurich to a train that will take you to lucerne. The zurich-lucerne leg will not have a seat reservation so you can sit anywhere. And as mentioned on the other post, if you miss the connection in zurich, no worries as you can just take the next train to lucerne.

Posted by
2467 posts

You are still traveling on the 31st?

The 31st is a Saturday, and the Arlberg route servers several ski resorts. So that makes Saturday a peak travel day on that line. That explains why the tickets are expensive. Look a few days later and you will see that you can do this trip for 39 euro...

So buy your ticket now, and reserve seats with it. Without seat reservation you may be standing part of all of the way.

The 13:56 departure with a change in Innsbruck I no longer see for sale on the website, which is odd, as that leaves a 4 hour gap in the Salxburg - Zurich service.

Posted by
5493 posts

You’ve mentioned in another post that you think you can wait to buy your tickets. As I said in that post, this is a BAD idea as the tickets will only get more expensive. For such a peak travel day, you should have bought these tickets weeks ago. A seat reservation is the least of your concerns.

  1. Absolutely not. The regular class ticket is very nice - it is not like an airplane

  2. I would make sure to get a window seat and a seat facing forward.

  3. As mentioned above, you buy a ticket from Salzburg to Lucerne. The trains from Salzburg towards Zurich all stop in Innsbruck. It is the same route.

Posted by
4160 posts

I get the impression that that this OP and mm are one and the same

Posted by
2216 posts

For the RailJet select seats at a table, there is more legroom and you can place some stuff in front of you (drinks, snacks, laptop, etc.).