joer1212

Two things:

(1) I want to purchase a multi-city train ticket (Munich-Vienna; Vienna-Prague; Prague-Dresden; Dresden-Berlin; Berlin-Munich) on RailEurope.com. The only problem is that this site only allows you to enter a maximum of 4 legs of a multi city trip, and it doesn't expand to allow for more legs. I will be traveling 5 legs, so I can't book my trip in one transaction.
I don't know how the people who designed the RailEurope site could be so hideously shortsighted. Am I missing something here?

(2) Then there are "rail passes", which totally confuses me. How does this work exactly?
On sites such as Eurail.com and EuroRailways.com they say that I get to choose how many countries I want to visit, or how many "days" (24hr periods) I want to travel on. I can then simply "hop on" or "hop off" any train within the period that my rail pass allows.
What's not clear, however, is how am I assigned my seat? Do I just hop on any train I want and sit in whatever seat is empty? What happens when someone with a confirmed seat comes along and bumps you?
Also, how do you know if the train you want to hop on is fully booked or not? These sites don't do a good job at clearly explaining how this works.
I wish my trip was less than 5 legs, so I could just book standard multi city tickets with confirmed seats, dates and times and avoid all this crap.

FYI: I will be in the above mentioned cities between March 17 and March 28

Reindeerflame

Traveling by train is not exactly the same as traveling by air. In Germany, you never need seat reservations on any trains except for a handful of exceptions. With a rail pass, if you want seat reservations on the express trains where they are available, you can buy them, either on line or from a ticket machine or from a station agent. In your case, a rail pass is unlikely to be the best approach, as they are quite expensive and work best with intensive travel, rather than just a few segments; for international travel, only first class is typically available, and second class travel is usually quite adequate if saving money is desirable.

If you don't have a seat reservation, you would look for an unoccupied seat, or go sit in the dining car, if available. On trains where reservations are optional, there are separate charges for transportation (right to be on the train) and seat reservations (right to be in a particular seat). You can buy one or both. (This is foreign to people who are used to airlines, where just getting on without a seat or confirmed space (Southwest) is not an option. Now, some countries operate their rail systems more like airlines...all seats on major express trains are reserved, and getting on without a reservation is not allowed).

In any case, Rail Europe is probably the most expensive place to acquire rail tickets. If you want to use them, perhaps you should just call them up rather than using their on line form. Unlike the airlines, there is unlikely to be an extra fee from calling them up.

Here's another approach: as most of your travel involves Germany, go to the DB website, register, and check fares/book tickets (even with seat reservations!) for all segments within Germany or to/from Germany (again with limited exceptions, like trains to France...not applicable here). Then, when you get to Europe, buy any other needed tickets on arrival (such as Vienna-Prague, which should be available at any major German DB station). Or, try to get it on the Austrian Ry. website.

joer1212

This is getting more and more confusing. I don't know why it can't be simple.
I'd much rather deal with one party to get my 5 tickets, rather than 3 parties. Also, I need to have my tickets confirmed before I arrive in Europe. I have limited time, so I can't take a chance trying to get tickets in Europe, where language and logistics will be a major issue, as well as the possibility of tickets being sold out.
I'd much rather just book segment by segment, but how do I book more than 4 segments?

Doc Savage

It might be helpful if you didn't abbreviate "DB" and "Austrian Ry." to make it easier to know what you are referring to.

OP, why not just book the first 4 legs, then sign out and book the last segment separately? Seems like a lot of angst with such a simple solution available.

joer1212

I can do what you suggest, but It's just incredibly confounding how this website can be so bad that it would require me to perform multiple transactions for just 5 segments. I shudder to think what someone with 20 or more segments has to do through.

Reindeerflame

Pick up the telephone. That's the answer for you. Price is obviously not that important: certainty is.

Who do you call? Well, you can try calling Rail Europe. Or you can search on the Internet for another travel agent that will handle rail bookings like this.

Sometimes, in life, things are more complicated than they should be. But, this is not the time to discuss why. You're in a hurry.

Alex71

As Reindeerflame said, rail travel is not like flying. You will be dealing with different national railway companies (think airlines from different alliences), therefore trying to get everything on one ticket will unnecessarily complicate things and also cost you more.

Just buy the tickets online from DB (Deutsch Bahn) for all legs involvig Germany and from OeBB (Östereichische Bundesbahn) for the Vienna Prague leg.

A quick search on the DB website shows tickets from Munich to Vienna for 39 EUR, the OeBB website shows Vienna to Prague for 49 EUR. DB shows Prague - Dresden for 19 EUR.

These low fare buckets will sell out as the travel date gets closer, therefore I would recommend booking as soon as your plans are firm. These low fares will be restricted to the exact train you booked.

A seat reservation is not abslutely needed, but since it's only a few euros extra, I would recommend it. Once you get on the train, you will see which seats are reserved. If you don't have a reservation, you can pick from the available ones. In case nothing is available, you can wait in the aisle till something opens up.

Aviatrix

Just to reiterate, and add to, what others have said...:

When you buy train tickets in Europe you buy them on a per-journey basis, not as an "itinerary" (the way you would with multi-stop airline itineraries). That's just the way it's done, and you are complicating matters unnecessarily by trying to book your five journeys as one trip. It's just not done that way.

Some train booking sites will let you put your tickets in a basket and pay for them all together... but that's as close as you are going to get to being able to book it all as one. I don't know if bahn.de has a basket system, others might know.

So, what you need to do is go to www.bahn.de, create an account and book those journeys that start or end in Germany (i.e., all of them except Vienna-Prague which you need to book at www.oebb.at)

Trains don't "sell out" in Europe (except those few services where seat reservations are compulsory, like Thalys and Eurostar). Saver fares sell out, but if you have a full-fare ticket then it's valid on any train on the route and you just get on and look for a seat (or stand!), just like you would on the New York Subway.

While it makes sense to book ahead and get saver tickets there is absolutely no requirements to have your tickets confirmed before you leave, as you can always just turn up at the train station, buy a full-fare ticket and hop on the next train. You may end up standing for a while, but that's the worst that can happen. You will get from A to B.

exilencfc

And actually buying the tickets in Europe isn't too bad because most places have ticket machines which speak English (and probably humans who speak English). You do need a chip and pin card to use them though.

Personally though, I'd just use Deutsche Bahn's website to book as much of it is possible: far cheaper than raileurope, the site's in English and I think they have a UK call center if you get really stuck. Plus you have FT to help you

joer1212

Thanks, I'll try this.

joer1212

I still don't understand this concept of no seat reservations. Do you just hop aboard a train, grab a seat that looks unoccupied, and then get bumped if someone with a reservation for that seat shows up? I don't get it. This would never work on a flight, so why does this even exist on a train?

Aviatrix

Just like restaurant tables reserved seats have a sign on them saying "Reserved".

On most trains you will find the "reserved" sign above the seat, where you would look for the seat number in an aircraft.

On trains with enclosed four or six-seater compartments you will see a panel by the compartment door saying which seat are/aren't reserved.

And if a seat is only reserved for part of a journey the sign will usually tell you that too - e.g., "Reserved from Munich to Salzburg".

So - just find a seat without a "reserved" sign, and sit in it, and relax! Or, if it's reserved for part of the journey, sit in it until you get to the place it's reserved from, and then, as you approach that station, watch other people get out of their seats and grab a newly-vacated non-reserved seat before the next lot of people get on.

Alex71

The difference between planes and trains is that on planes standing is not permitted during take-off and landing. Therefore a plane can only carry as many passengers as it has seats. A train has no such requirement. If there is not enough seating, people can stand in the aisles or next to the exits. It's very rare that trains are so overstuffed that they will not let any more passengers on board.

FlyingDiver

Umm, maybe because trains came first? So there's no reason that the railroads should adopt airline customs?

joer1212

I see. But it sounds terribly chance-y. I'm going to go old school and get reserved seats for all my segments.