If you book a pre-assigned seat in business class on a high speed train, explicitly Trenitalia, are you guaranteed to be able to use those seats when you board?
I ask because I saw the following comment from someone on another social media site and wonder how true it is?
From another site: "We paid for business class and there were not any seats once we got on train. People sat wherever and no one on train checked tickets so we had to stand both way… it was a waste of money".
I often have to show my ticket to the person in my seat and ask them to let me sit in my seat. It works out fine and no one has ever refused to go find another seat.
Yeah, can't say for Italy, but in other countries, show them your ticket, they move on. Find it unusual that it would be an issue in Italy, on the high speed trains, since a seat reservation is required, and only available seats are sold. If they are sitting in your seat, they have a seat someplace.
It is more an issue on German ICE trains, where there is no mandatory seat reservation, and trains do not sell out, but again, show your ticket, they move.
I assume the people from the other site were too timid to press the issue.
Yes, your seat number is on the ticket, if someone is sitting in it you just show them and they move from my experience. If they don't then you get the conductor. This is the same system for 2nd class on high speed trains.
We've never felt the need to book business class but never had an issue with our 2nd-class carriage/seat assignments. I guess if it was a 4-hour journey, we might pay the extra but 2nd class has been comfortable enough.
Your assigned seats are your seats. As others have said showing your tickets and insisting should be enough and if it's not employ the conductor to free up your seats. I haven't had to do this for 20 years or so but it can happen. The closest I've had recently was Trenitalia sent me an email saying some "changes were necessary" due to train capacity. There was another couple with the same seat assignment as us and I had to track down the conductor to get new seat assignments from a clipboard of open seats but it was ultimately sorted out.
The general issue is that trains run from before your stop to after your stop unless you ride to the end of the line. Your Milan to Verona train runs from Turin to Venice so people who get on in Turin may decide they don't want to sit across from others and take new seats. Those people are displaced and take new seats if they don't care about their seat assignments and it rolls downhill from there. I've often seen Italians not care about their particular seat when someone is in it and just take the original seat or another nearby. When the conductor comes to check tickets they just point them at the new person in another seat and life goes on. I think for Italians riding trains is just a necessity so they aren't as worked up about it as tourists. They're going from A to B and which seat they sit in doesn't matter.
Trains in England I've ridden show where a seat is booked from and to so you can take that seat knowing when a passenger will get on and if it is after your stop you can use it knowing you won't disrupt their travel but Italian trains don't have that.
The bottom line is that your reserved seat is yours and you can claim it if it is occupied. Or you can go with the flow and take some other seats.
My $0.02,
=Tod
Only once have I experienced issues with someone in my seat and it was due to chaos that ensued after unexpected cancellations. My train was holding additional passengers from the cancelled train. When I arrived at my seat it was occupied and the person did not want to move. Fortunately after insisting and showing my ticket to other passengers they stepped in and insisted the person move to give me my seat. Finally with the help of others the person moved. I don’t recall a time I rode where the conductor did not come through to check tickets except in this case.
