I bought a Swiss Flex Pass for some train travel days while in Switzerland next month.
I traveled by train back in 2017 so I need a refresher on something.
To preface, this time I'm traveling w/ my husband who is pretty insistent on having seat reservations on trains despite my sharing with him that many trains do not have reservation option and seats are usually available. SBB does say that you can book seats even if you don't have to (and, yes, I am aware that some trains like JungfrauBoch and Glacier Express do require reservations).
I have the SBB Mobile app.
I'm selecting a train from the timetable that show an "R" on the timetable.
I select "Purchase Ticket"
I select "Seat reservation only" (because I have a Swiss Pass)
The red bar/button at the bottom switches to "Purchase ticket for CHF 5.00 -- this is what I was expecting
But I'm given no option to select a compartment or seat--the next screen is to Confirm Purchase and pay
Does seat selection come AFTER paying?
The online instructions under Help state I can choose which compartment by clicking the Seat Reservation button which opens a dropdown menu with a list of bookable compartments
Any thoughts here? What am I missing?
Robin
Posted by
Chicago
3370 posts
Did you try on the SBB website? Sometimes it’s easier to get reservations on the website. I had to do that recently to pick my seats for Austria.
I don’t recall if this video covers reservations, but it will be a good refresher for the app.
Posted by
Nashville, TN
725 posts
What routes are you trying to reserve a seat on? Many don’t allow you to pick a specific seat, as seat reservations are not at all common on non specialty scenic train rides. For example, taking a train from Zurich Airport to Interlaken Ost. No one gets reservations for that, you just get on and pick a seat. Getting a reservation for that is more hassle than it’s worth.
Posted by
Wengen
2678 posts
You can't select seats on the SBB app (nor on the website). A seat will be assigned to you. Which is why you must add your husband to the booking first before proceeding, in order to get seats together.
You can't really chose the "compartment". That is just a literal translation of "Abteil", which actually should be translated as "section" in this case. So you can choose wether you want to be in the restaurant, or the business car, etc...
Its not a very useful function, because, frankly, its only there so that people stop nagging the app designers at SBB.
Posted by
Chicago
3370 posts
If your husband is concerned with finding seats, I have generally found 1st class to be less crowded than 2nd class in Switzerland. If a particular route is expected to be crowded (check the little people on the SBB app), you could upgrade to 1st class.