Originally Posted by
joer1212
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?
It seems seat reservations for the through ICE trains on that date (I didn't check other dates) are not yet available. Reservations are available, however, for ICE trains with a connection in Goettingen. I think this may be because DB are receiving delivery of new ICE trains from Siemens, which are expected to be introduced on the Munich-Berlin-Hamburg route, but the delivery schedule is yet unclear. As other posters have recommended, wait and your patience will no doubt be rewarded.