Reservation Only Please

after 15 attempts each ending in the person at the other end hanging up after stating they do not speak english.

That's strange. I've called German Rail twice. The first time I made the mistake of asking the woman if she spoke English (I can speak some German, but it is difficult on the phone). She immediately put me on hold for an English speaker, who came on in about 5 minutes. The second time I just spoke German (she did not speak English).

However, you will never get reservations for that connection; the man at the Bahn was correct. All of the direct train connections from Munich to Prague are by regional trains. Reservations are not possible for regional trains.

Note: there are a few non-direct connections where you go from Munich to Nürnberg by reservable ICE, then from Nürnberg to Prague by regional trains, but the leg from Munich to Nürnberg doesn't get you any closer to Prague. It takes as long from Nürnberg to Prague as it does from Munich to Prague.

Don't worry about reservations. Take one of the direct trains (8:44, 16:44) from Munich and get to the station with plenty of time to get a seat.

Matt,

I'm not sure how busy the trains will be on Christmas day, but you might try just buying your tickets and reservations at the main station in Munich as soon as you arrive there. There's a Euraide office in Munich with english speaking staff, and I've found them to be extremely helpful in getting tickets (check Rick's book to see where this is located in the station).

Good luck and happy travels!

The Euraide office is located in the corridor perpendicular to the tracks, behind the German Rail Reisezentrum (where they usually speak English).

However, even Euraide cannot get you reservations!

Ken, he doesn't need tickets. He has a railpass; he only wants reservations.

There are three direct 6 hour regional connections from Munich to Prague. At 8:44 and 16:44, the train goes directly (no changes) to Prague. At the same time, a train leaves Nürnberg and meets the Munich train at the Czech border (Furth im Wald). The people on the Nürnberg train transfer to the Munich train to go on to Prague. At 12:44, a train leaves Munich and meets a train from Nürnberg at Furth, where the Munich passenger transfer to the Nürnberg train.

If you take the 12:44 train out of Munich, you might have trouble getting a seat at Furth for the trip to Prague, but I doubt it. You could also take an ICE at 12:20 from Munich to Nürnberg and catch the train to Prague where it starts. However, you would only arrive 9 minutes before the train leaves, so you still might not get a seat.

If it were up to me, I would take the 8:44 and get to the station a little early to be assured of a seat.

Lee, Thanks for the clarification. I missed the reference to "Railpass" when I read the OP.

I would most certainly choose the 08:44 train, as it's direct and also the shortest travel time.

Cheers!

Thanks for the advice.

I guess I was confused as I had read reservations were available.

We will just arrive early to the station to ensure we secure seats. I am hoping it will be a quiet day on christmas day and that there will be plenty of space onboard.

One final question is: Do people who purchase tickets given priority for seating over Eurail pass holders?

Cheers,

Matt

I had read reservations were available

Where did you read that?

I don't know what to expect on Christmas day. I do know that the 26th is a German holiday (2nd day of Christmas), and travel is heavy on that day.

On German trains, at least, non-reserved seats are available on a first come basis. I have never heard of anyone being "kicked out" of a non-reserved seat because of ticket type. However, reservations are less expensive (€2) when purchased in conjunction with a ticket purchase than when purchased separately (€4).

On some "premium" trains (ex. Thalys) the so-called reservation is a price supplement for a higher cost train. In that case, they limit the number of passholder reservation sold, so that it might not be possible to get a reservation with a railpass when regular tickets are still available. For premium trains it is adviseable to reserve as soon as you can. The same is true of night trains.

Matt--for some of my trips when I really need a specific train on a specific day, I purchase reservations through Herman at the Florida Euraide office. The reservations cost the same as if they were purchased in Europe but with $55 (I think that's how much) per entire order. (For example when there were 8 of us traveling together, the $55 divided by 8 was well worth it.)
Only a certain number of seats are allotted for reservations for rail pass holders so during the peak summer months, it can also be worth pre-purchasing reservations.
In 2001 I was able to purchase railpass reservations for trips to Italy, Switzerland and France through Euraide in Munich but it sounds like that's no longer an option.

Interesting. I just looked at the Bahn website, and it seems that they do sell reservations for that train ONLINE, but only with an online ticket purchase. However, for reservations only, they state "not available for this connection".

That train is not operated by the Bahn; it is operated by a private company, Allgäu Express (ALX), and maybe ALX has provisions on their trains for reserved seats (I've never seen a regional train operated by DB that does). I started the purchase process for the DB regional trains to Salzburg and to Füssen, and reservatons were not offered at all.

So, it might be worth trying to get reservations for that train as soon as you arrive in Munich. There is a hallway leading from the track area of the station into the main building opposite the end of track 19, and just inside the main building, on the left, is a Reisezentrum (Travel Center), where they sell tickets.

Update I also looked up the ALX train from Munich to Lindau and it does not have reservations. It appears to be just the ALX trains to Prague.

The reservations cost the same as if they were purchased in Europe

Darcy, they are purchased in Europe. Euraide has an office in the Munich Hauptbahnhof, with a German Rail ticket terminal. They write the tickets there and mail them to the U.S for the $55 (?) service charge. It might be a good place to get night train reservations, but you would have to get a lot of €4 seat reservations to make it worthwhile, particularly when you can get German reservations online for the same or less.