FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Confused about purchasing train tickets for Europe
Old Dec 30, 2013 | 1:11 pm
  #94  
joer1212
10 Countries Visited
100 Countries Visited
150 Countries Visited
10 Years on Site
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 1,283
I am really having a hard time booking a simple ticket.
I just went on the DB Bahn site, and tried to reserve a seat for Munich-Berlin on the ICE (direct, no changes; 16:10-22:42) for Monday, March 17, and during the process of booking it tells me "Reservation temporarily not possible".
Then, at the bottom of the page it said "Unfortunately we cannot offer you a reservation for the connection you have selected. Please go back and select a new connection, or continue if you wish to book without making a reservation."

I am booking this trip less than 3 months prior to the date of travel (as required), and the trip lasts over 6 hours! What is the problem?
I'm having a hard time relating to the train cult subculture. I can't stand the way they do things. They make it unnecessarily complicated and difficult.
Why is getting a seat reservation on a 6+ hour train journey not standard procedure? What am I supposed to do, book it anyway, and hope the train is not packed so I don't have to stand for 6 hours? How are other people getting reservations? It's ridiculous and nonsensical.

The worst part is that I have another 4 reservations to make, some of which are international. If a simple domestic ticket is causing me headaches already, I shudder to think what I will have to go through to book those.
This is European-style bureaucracy at its finest.

What am I supposed to do now? Go on Rail Europe and pay a fortune for train tickets?

Last edited by joer1212; Dec 30, 2013 at 1:23 pm
joer1212 is offline