how to use reservations with Germany rail passes

Start here. http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en
So enter the "from" and "to" boxes, the date and the approximate time you want to travel. If you want a first class reservation, check 1st class, otherwise 2nd class. Then at the bottom of the page next to the "search" button, you'll see "seat only (no ticket)". Click on that and you will get a list of trains at various times. details show the route, location of train changes if any, even a map of the route and station information. Pick a train and go to the payment page. Some trains will even give you a map of the carriages and show which seats are available.

2nd class seat reservations cost 4.50 EUR, and 1st class cost 5.90 EUR. That price includes any connecting trains that have reservations available, regional trains generally don't. You don't need anything, not even a ticket to reserve a seat. Just a credit card to pay for the reservation.

There is an electronic sign over all the seats that illuminate when that seat is reserved, and between what stations. So board the train at that carriage and go to the seat and you'll see it. If someone is in it, you can ask them to find another seat. 15 minutes after the train leaves. the light goes off. If the person who reserved it is a no-show, the reservation is cancelled and anyone can sit there.

Hi,

I use a rail pass traveling in Germany and between Germany and Austria but not inside Austria. When I want a seat reservation, ie not always, on an ICE train or the EN night train, I go to the Reisezentrum and tell the ticket counter DB person that I would like to buy a Platzkarte (seat reservation) for this departure on this date, 2nd class, and pay in cash, since it's easier. If I get two or three reservations at once, I've used the credit card to pay but not always. Sometimes I show my Pass but not always, I usually say that I have a rail pass. I always have pass before flying over.

Be advised that ICE, IC and EC trains accept reservations, if you are riding a local train, the RB or RE, those trains don't sell reservations, ie seats are not reserved. If you board and it is pretty crowded where you can't find a seat, you stand or sit on the stairs, as others are doing. That's one of the reasons I try to avoid RB trains.

part 2 here...

If you come across on the electronic writing above the seat on an ICE "ggf bahn" or something like that, but the "ggf" is indicated, sit down. That seat is not reserved. The "ggf" is an abbreviation for "gegebenenfalls"

Hi, so Sam, that's it, right? Rail pass and printed reservation to the conductor and ride the train. No need to do anything in the station correct? I have already made two reservations online. They never asked if I had purchased a rail card. Just worried the conductor will say no dice. I just don't see how the train companies are protected from no shows. If a person only reserved the seat, and that's it, and there is a no show, the train company only makes 5 or so Euros. Thanks.

But German mainline trains, ICE, IC, EC, do not require people to have seat reservations, unlike French and Italian crack trains. In theory, a train with 400 seats, could sell out all the reservations, but they will sell 600 tickets. If the unusual happens and every one who bought a ticket shows up, and 400 of them had seat reservations, the other 200 hundred will just have to stand in the car-end vestibules or the snack car until people get off the train and frees up some seats.

I had to do that about 20 years ago on a French train that operated that way. Stood from Lyon to Avignon with all the other people who did not bother to get seat reservations.

In practice, that does not happen to that extreme. But I have gotten on an ICE train that was very full, and when we got to our reserved seats, two kids were sitting in them and all I could do was shrug and say "Sorry guys" and show them the reservation slip, and off they went.

At only 5.90 to buy a 1st class reservation, I can see business people, who have Half Fare cards, making multiple reservations on different trains when they don't know exactly when a meeting is going to be over, but want to be assured of a seat when the meeting ends and they can get home on the first available train.
Same thing when they are arriving on an airplane that they can't be sure if it will be on time or not.

Also, keep in mind that it could be rare that someone will ride a train all the way from its origin to termination. For instance a train starts in Hamburg going to Munich. someone reserves a seat and gets off in Hanover. Some one boards in Hanover and reserves the exact same seat, then gets off in Wuerzburg, Then someone reserves that seat again and boards in Augsburg and gets off at the end in Munich Hbf. Same seat, same trains, and DB collects a reservation fee 3 times.

If a person only reserved the seat, and that's it, and there is a no show, the train company only makes 5 or so Euros.

This happens a lot. The rule is, if the seat is not claimed within 15 minutes, the reservation LCD indicator goes off, and anybody can use that seat (for example you with your rail pass and no reservation). A "no show" does not deprive DB of income.

If it is only reserved for part of the journey, it is free to use for the rest of the journey.
Sometimes, if a reserved seat is empty as a train leaves the station, someone will sit in it hoping it is a "no show". If the owner turns up within the 15 minutes, they just ask the other person politely to leave their seat, showing the reservation.