Their point is that any ticketing website in any other country would have the checks built in to not allow it. It’s like an airline showing the first class seats as avaient in the seating chart when you bought an economy ticket.
You can have a weekly/monthly/whatever ticket that lets you ride any train inside the area of validity. The seat reservation system doesn’t have a way to ‘check’ those types of tickets.
You can also book a ‘rail and fly’ ticket on DB that lets you take the ICE /anywhere/ in Germany 24h before/after your international flight, but doesn’t check your airline ticket because it can’t - you need to show the ticket inspector your confirmed booking (paper or phone) when they check your ticket.
If you don’t have a valid booking to show, they will charge you a full fare ticket, or call the cops to remove you and fine you.
No you can buy a reservation without a train ticket in
Germany
Austria
Switzerland
Czech Republic
Hungary
Sweden
(France)
Slovakia
Denmark
And probably more countries, thats just the ones I know from my memory where this is possible
It’s like an airline showing the first class seats as avaient in the seating chart when you bought an economy ticket
No it’s not, because the reservation is a separate service. You can buy it from the train operator but you might have obtained your ticket from your own national train company, or you bought it later on, or you have a flexible ticket and don’t know if you will make this train and it’s busy (your right to your seat goes away after 15 Minutes of departure), or you buy it for someone in your family. It’s just easier to not have this check included. Everyone in these countries knows that you still need to own a valid ticket for this class for the reservation.
I’ve never been able to buy a reservation without a ticket. It is usually buy ticket -> buy seat is you want one or get a random one if not.
Perhaps 20 years ago but not today.
Edit: if train ride continues with another company, seat is still managed in my experience.
Or here in the Swiss Railway App, to give another example (“Nur Sitzplatzreservierung” means “Just Seat Reservation”)
And the other carriers in the list I’ve made above allow it as well
It is usually buy ticket -> buy seat is you want one or get a random one if not. Perhaps 20 years ago but not today.
No, not buying a seat doesn’t guarantee you a seat on the train. Only if there is one available, which is the case most of the time (only during very busy services/timesthere might be no seats available (e.g. December 23))
That’s not how countries with trains without mandatory reservations work. And that’s the majority in Europe
SJ (Sweden) and VY (Norway) did not have this option. DSB (Denmark) does. How strange to allow only buying seats instead of changing an existing booking.
Edit: looked at https://jegy.mav.hu/ and could not find the option to buy only seats. It seems like this way of handling tickets is intermittent.
Sweden and Norway are countries with global price ticketing (Mandatory Reservations, integrated with Ticket/ SCIC-IRT), Denmark and Hungary not, so no surprise there (SCIC-NRT)
I don’t think it’s strange, it gives just more flexibility.
EDIT: Also it’s nearly impossible to do international ticketing to Global Price Countries with more than a change or outside selected connections, whereas such problems don’t exist in Countries that use SCIC-NRT, another Reason why Trains with Mandatory Reservations suck
yeah that’s my point, it’s super easy to bypass the system and they just assume you won’t. but if you don’t know how the system is supposed to work it’s hard to do it right.
Your seat reservation doesn’t entitle you to travel on that train in this class without a valid ticket. You will get a fine if you try to travel with just a seat reservation. And if you don’t pay or are catched multiple times they will initiate criminal proceedings against you
but just entering the ticket number when doing a reservation would be so incredibly easy to add. as it is now, i can buy up seat reservations without even being on the train, forcing multiple people to stand.
There are less seats in the carriage, it is more comfy, you get at-seat dining service, free newspapers, faster Internet, more generally people who behave better and are more quiet, and if you have a flexible ticket Lounge Access
Yes because a seat reservation doesn’t free you from the requirement of having a valid ticket for the desired class.
It’s the same in nearly every European Country on trains without mandatory reservations
I would say this is not about Germans being rule focused but you being just used how things work in Air travel
Their point is that any ticketing website in any other country would have the checks built in to not allow it. It’s like an airline showing the first class seats as avaient in the seating chart when you bought an economy ticket.
You can have a weekly/monthly/whatever ticket that lets you ride any train inside the area of validity. The seat reservation system doesn’t have a way to ‘check’ those types of tickets.
You can also book a ‘rail and fly’ ticket on DB that lets you take the ICE /anywhere/ in Germany 24h before/after your international flight, but doesn’t check your airline ticket because it can’t - you need to show the ticket inspector your confirmed booking (paper or phone) when they check your ticket.
If you don’t have a valid booking to show, they will charge you a full fare ticket, or call the cops to remove you and fine you.
No you can buy a reservation without a train ticket in
And probably more countries, thats just the ones I know from my memory where this is possible
No it’s not, because the reservation is a separate service. You can buy it from the train operator but you might have obtained your ticket from your own national train company, or you bought it later on, or you have a flexible ticket and don’t know if you will make this train and it’s busy (your right to your seat goes away after 15 Minutes of departure), or you buy it for someone in your family. It’s just easier to not have this check included. Everyone in these countries knows that you still need to own a valid ticket for this class for the reservation.
I’ve never been able to buy a reservation without a ticket. It is usually buy ticket -> buy seat is you want one or get a random one if not. Perhaps 20 years ago but not today.
Edit: if train ride continues with another company, seat is still managed in my experience.
It’s directly on the landing page of bahn.de
Or here in the Swiss Railway App, to give another example (“Nur Sitzplatzreservierung” means “Just Seat Reservation”)
And the other carriers in the list I’ve made above allow it as well
No, not buying a seat doesn’t guarantee you a seat on the train. Only if there is one available, which is the case most of the time (only during very busy services/timesthere might be no seats available (e.g. December 23)) That’s not how countries with trains without mandatory reservations work. And that’s the majority in Europe
This is why I said usually.
SJ (Sweden) and VY (Norway) did not have this option. DSB (Denmark) does. How strange to allow only buying seats instead of changing an existing booking.
Edit: looked at https://jegy.mav.hu/ and could not find the option to buy only seats. It seems like this way of handling tickets is intermittent.
MAV offers it too (the last option on the bottom)
Sweden and Norway are countries with global price ticketing (Mandatory Reservations, integrated with Ticket/ SCIC-IRT), Denmark and Hungary not, so no surprise there (SCIC-NRT)
I don’t think it’s strange, it gives just more flexibility.
EDIT: Also it’s nearly impossible to do international ticketing to Global Price Countries with more than a change or outside selected connections, whereas such problems don’t exist in Countries that use SCIC-NRT, another Reason why Trains with Mandatory Reservations suck
I didn’t look hard enough out seems. :-)
i basically never fly these days. i am just confused why i could even buy a reservation for a different class to begin with.
Because they don’t check anything, you can walk up to a counter or ticket machine and get a reservation without any personal or other details required
yeah that’s my point, it’s super easy to bypass the system and they just assume you won’t. but if you don’t know how the system is supposed to work it’s hard to do it right.
There is no bypass.
Your seat reservation doesn’t entitle you to travel on that train in this class without a valid ticket. You will get a fine if you try to travel with just a seat reservation. And if you don’t pay or are catched multiple times they will initiate criminal proceedings against you
Are you saying that you can buy a reservation without a ticket? That the act to buying a ticket and buying a reservation are two distinct actions?
Yes, that’s the case
I saw your other comment. I’ve never seen that before.
That is actually a necessity:
but what’s the difference between first and second class except the seat? why not make a seat reservation require a ticket?
The seat (more comfortable, more space) ist the main difference.
Of course they could check if you have a ticket at the time of purchase, they just don’t. When buying a seat reservation it’s clear it’s not a ticket.
but just entering the ticket number when doing a reservation would be so incredibly easy to add. as it is now, i can buy up seat reservations without even being on the train, forcing multiple people to stand.
There are less seats in the carriage, it is more comfy, you get at-seat dining service, free newspapers, faster Internet, more generally people who behave better and are more quiet, and if you have a flexible ticket Lounge Access
That is not clear
What is not clear?