My wife and I will be traveling from Zurich to Salzburg on a Railjet train and decided to splurge 20 Euro total for 1st class, since it's a 5.5 hour trip. Reservations are not mandatory, but I wanted to ask the collective braintrust here if it is recommended - it's an additional 6 Euros total to get a reservation. I just don't know how crowded the train will be, or how likely it will be that we cannot sit together without a reservation.
Appreciate any and all thoughts on this...
Thanks,
Wade
I don't feel the difference between 2nd and 1st class is worth the money, but, for a 5½ hr trip, I would definitely reserve a seat. On the positive side, the chances of all seats being occupied in 1st class on that train are probably pretty small.
In 15 years I've been on a few express trains in Europe, and on only one were all seats occupied, and then, most seats were not reserved. At the first stop, people got up to get off and we found seats. That was in 2nd class.
Get the reservation and enjoy the ride together. One thing not to think about. Rail jet is very comfortable.
Since you are boarding the train at its point of origin, if you get there plenty early, you can board as soon as they spot the train on the platform and get your choice of unreserved seats. Now I cannot recall if the Railjet trains have electronic indicators showing the reservation status of individual seats like DB ICE trains, but you can check the status online.
We took rail jet from Innsbruck to Zurich. There were electronic labels showing which seats were reserved. We liked Railjet because of friendly staff, good service and good food we were served. Go ahead and make a reservation just to eliminate any worry.
