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Seat Reservations on Trains in September

We have 4 day Global Eurail passes for travel in Germany starting September 20. How busy are the trains? Should we get seat reservations even though they're not required? It's an extra cost of about $11 for the two of us for each train leg.

Posted by
2488 posts

Seat reservations are indeed not required. And it is anyway not needed to worry about them till you are here. The Eurail Pass is about flexibility after all.
But trains can get full. The timetable will tell you if it expects a train to be very full or not, and wether reservations are recommended. But as mentioned: You do not have to worry about that now.

Hi, I have a question to add to this topic. I am buying a ticket from Frankfurt to Vienna on the DB site for later this month. The site is telling me that all seat reservations are full. Do I buy the ticket anyway and plan to stand for some or all of the trip?

Posted by
1130 posts

If a seat reservation is required, you are not entitled to travel on the train without one. You should continue to contact the local ticket office before the day of travel to see whether seats have opened up. They often do.

If a seat reservation is "optional" or "recommended," I believe you can stand or else sit in an unreserved seat. I've not really encountered those circumstances.

Posted by
21139 posts

What is time and date of your desired trip? I am seeing seat reservations available on all the direct trains on September weekends.

Thank you, @jphbucks. The reservation is "recommended," so I think I can purchase my ticket.

@Sam I will be traveling on a Thursday. I have found 2nd class seat reservations available, but not 1st class. I think I will buy the less expensive ticket and reserve my seat.

Thanks to you both!

Posted by
2488 posts

You can also reserve with DB, and for trains to Austria, with ÖBB.
You do not have to use Eurail.
Trains don’t “sell out” weeks in advance cao if you can’t reserve a seat something else is going on. Just try again later. Or board the train without a reservation. Worst case you’ll stand till the next stop.

Posted by
21139 posts

I am seeing 1st class seat reservations available on all direct trains for all the remaining Thursdays in September.