Originally Posted by
kaysquare
Hello! I found myself on a regional train that was late, and missed my ICE and another regional train as a result. I bought super-cheap tickets, and yet I was able to get the DB office to get me seats on the following ICE and the subsequent regional train. Please note that they stuffed me into the smoking carriage on the following ICE! Oh how I suffered, until I begged the conductor to get me a non-smoking seat.
You don't have to sit in your reserved seat. You can sit in any seat that hasn't got a "reserved" label on it. You should have just moved into the nearest non-smoking coach and sat down in an empty seat.
And DB will always allow you to travel on the next train if you miss a connection. In fact you could probably have got the attendant on your late-running train to endorse your ticket, which would have saved you from having to queue up at the ticket office. S/he probably wouldn't have been able to get you a reserved seat, but that wouldn't have been a problem because seat reservations are not compulsory.