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OBB not selling Nightjet Tickets? 😢

I am trying to book a Nightjet trip for May. The OBB and Nightjet websites, however, will not permit booking for May (and only permit booking through the end of February, the last time I checked). Yet the website says that ticket sales for Nightjet usually start 180 days before departure.

I emailed customer service at OBB to inquire when they would open up booking for May, but never heard back. 😢 If Nightjet’s not an option, we will need to book a hotel room for another night in Paris, but a lot of the hotels are filling up, so I’d love to get this squared away.

I’d appreciate any thoughts the Rick Steves folks may have.

Posted by
14521 posts

No doubt I will be taking the OBB Night Jet in May also. I am using my Senior Eurail Global Pass for those rides. The Pass allows you to board, the mandatory seat reservation is what I'll buy at a train station, presumably in Wien Hbf.

Posted by
1684 posts

If you do not see any availability for May then the inventory hasn't loaded in the system yet. Just be a bit patient. However do not wait to long with reserving your train once it does open. While it is usually not a problem to reserve a seat for a day time train the day before, for night time trains you may find out that the good cabins do sell out fast. And the accomodation surcharge does increase closer to departure.

Posted by
187 posts

Which Nightjet route are you looking for?

A week ago I had searched for Paris - Munich for end of May and found no available trains.
That's why I called OeBB and got the following answer:
The trains are blocked for booking in the system and are expected to be available for booking in mid-February.

Posted by
37 posts

OP, were you able to get May tickets? I was looking at NightJet for Rome to Munich in July, and nothing is available. I guess we assume that the 180 days is not accurate.

Not yet! I have been checking almost every day since mid-February. I have noticed a pattern so far this year that they open up the tickets for two months out around the beginning of the month -- for example, I saw that April dates were available to book beginning in February. So I am hoping that I will be able to book May travel in early March, but all I can do for now is keep checking.

Hope that helps!

(And, btw, I finally got a reply to my email from OBB -- they said they didn't know and to call customer service to inquire. But Paul636 had already done so, so I didn't bother.)

Posted by
14521 posts

"...for the end of may and found no available trains." It is exactly for this sort of contingency that one has to tailor the train rides in order to get to the desired destination. I'll be going from Paris to Munich by mid-June. Most likely, I don't discount , rule out train "difficulties"...late trains, cancelled lines, sold out routes, etc.

Instead of doing the entire route Paris-Munich in one ride, hopefully, I break it up, will take more time but also much more reliable, eg, going TGV Paris to Metz , change to Saarbrücken to Munich.

Posted by
1684 posts

Actually train routes do not suddenly stop operasting. So you can assume for example that if there is a Paris to Munich train now that there will be one in May. Just do not worry to much about trains in advance.

I travel a lot by train all over Europe. I rarely book more than a few days in advance.