Last year, I used your service to buy point-to-point train tickets and was able to reserve seats at the same time. This year, I’m taking the train between German cities eight times, but I don’t see how to do that.
(I’ve compared pass prices vs. point-to-point, and the latter is half the price of even a Bahnpass.)
Must I reserve seats separately after buying the ticket?
Can you help?
Thanks.
The ICE between Munich and Nuremberg. Occurs to me it may be possible to reserve seats when you buy tickets only on one of the high-speed, intercity trains.
https://int.bahn.de/en/offers/seat-reservation/seat-reservation-long-distance-services
4.90 EUR per trip per person on ICE, IC, EC trains.
It's not possible to reserve seats on regional trains, which fall into the same category as buses, trams, subways... these are all "Nahverkehr" or local means of transport. Only the "long-distance" ("Fernverkehr") trains (ICE, IC, EC, etc.) offer reservations.
Just wanted to say thanks to you who responded to my question. It appears I simply had a bad assumption (that I could reserve a train seat when I bought a ticket), probably the toughest kind of question to answer. I think I get it: The only place I can reserve a seat is on a long-distance train.
I'm learning German and prefer to buy tickets, etc., on the DB site. But I never got the kind of help there that I got here -- quick and actually helpful. I'm going to buy my eight tickets via the Rick Steves affiliate and pay the booking fee to say thanks for your help.
German traveler, were you using the english language page fro Deutsche Bahn - bahn.com/en? Sometimes when you book through a third-party travel agency like RailEurope, not all trains and routes are shown or available.
German traveler, realize that this Forum is only answered by concerned and well-travelled and experienced fellow travellers. Rick Steves Enterprises (RSE) provides the bandwidth and we have a resident Webmaster from the company but other than zapping spammers and throwing buckets of water on people arguing (very very rare) we rarely see them. Rick Steves himself does not visit here, or at least not publically.
If you click through to RailEurope they are not affiliated in any way except that RSE gets a commission when you buy something by capturing the click.
If you use the German Railway website you get instant and accurate information, even running lates and which platform to go to and where on that platform (and a better price). RailEurope can't provide any of that, and if you have a problem you have to deal with a foreign (French) company between you and the real company running the trains - Deutsche Bahn (DB).
But thanks for the compliment, and welcome aboard to the Forums.
In one way your assumption was not incorrect. You buy a long distance train ticket using the DB website in German , at which time you can get the seat reservation then too.
Good that you are using the German language website, that sharpens the skills in the subject jargon, continue with that. I do likewise
As pointed out above , don't use Rail Europe.
