Forced Seat Reservation - Bernina Express & Allegra Carriages

RichardLynch

I hope you can help,

The Benrina Express has Allegra Carriages. These Allegra carriages do not require a reservation, the Panorama Carriages do. On the SBB website which i try to buy a ticket for the Bernina Express (ex 8.06 AM Tirano to Chur), a seat reservation is automatically added. I remove the seat reservation as i want to travel on Allegra and dont require Panorama. However, if i switch tabs and return to SSB, the page refreshes and the seat reservation is re added. I think this is incorrect, perhaps forces people to but a seat they do not actually need as Allegra is unreserved.

Input and observations welcome

Danhiel

Hello RichardLynch

You can buy a Point-to-point ticket or a Saver Day Pass (no Supersaver Ticket) for another train without mandatory reservation, add “via Thusis” to be sure that you get a ticket via the Albula route. These tickets are valid in the Allegra carriages of Bernina Express trains.

Kind regards
Danhiel

RichardLynch

Danhiel Hi Danhiel, thanks for the detailed and fast reply. Your post is also my understanding. However at present i find the sbb site confusing and perhaps misleading. It is not clear that a person can book a ticket for ALLEGRA only on the train Bernina Express. The customer can de select the reservation, but clicking different tabs on the browser re adds the seat reservation without user action. I believe this is inappropriate and could make the user purchase something they don’t want to, which could be bad practice.

It would be much better practice for a user to specifically add the panorama carriages seat reservation, or if they did not then inform them that the ticket without seat reservation is for Allegra only. Forcing a user to buy a seat reservation when they don’t need it, or forcing the webpage to re add a seat reservation when a user clicks between tabs, is very bad practice.

Many thanks

Richard

RedBaron

RichardLynch
Note that the sbb ticket shop is a ‘one-stop-shop’ universal platform for 250 public transport operators (RhB as Bernina Express operator being one of them) and 20 regional fare networks, so the average traveller does not have to bother with getting separate tickets from separate places for each operator.

However it is virtually impossible to accurately depict all pecularities, irks and quirks of every single operator on such an universal platform.
For a start, railway seat reservations are generally unusual in Switzerland, then trains with mandatory reservations are even more unusual (SBB do not operate any), now just don’t let us get started with coaches without reservation in such trains…

It looks like the RhB ticket shop (= Bernina Express operator) would better map your travel scenario. But here again you have to be careful not to click on ‘Bernina Express’, but on ‘tickets without seat reservations’ instead, so you must be already aware that there are such unreserved coaches.

Danhiel

RichardLynch

I think that this possibility should be reserved for informed people who know what workaround is available to buy a ticket without reservation. Otherwise, a lot of people would travel in these cars to avoid the reservation fees, and it would no more be possible to find free seats. It would also not be fair to offer this possibility knowing that not enough seats are available. You have a lot of other trains without mandatory reservations.

RichardLynch

RedBaron Hi RedBaron, Thanks for your message and the fantastic detail. I think you land on my point perfectly “so you must be already aware that there are such unreserved coaches”. This is my point, from both SBB and RhB it makes it look like that a reservation is the only option (unless you know its not). This might be a piece of information that a local/swiss person might know, however a visitor might unwittingly pay for something they don’t need. I appreciate trying to tie all the operators together is difficulty (to say the least) but i do think the SBB website needs a slight improvement in this usecase.

Many Thanks

RichardLynch

Danhiel Hi Danhiel, Thanks for the reply. In this case i politely disagree with you. Just because someone doesn’t know about a particular path, does not mean they should be deliberately excluded from that path. I think this is an unfair approach.

Danhiel

RichardLynch In this case i politely disagree with you.

No problem, everyone can have another opinion as me in this community.

I observe that when you travel by train, not only in Switzerland, but also in Europe, you must always search yourself the best offer. This was once the role of travel agencies, but now, everyone is their own travel agent, without having always the necessary knowledge. However, I agree that websites and apps are not yet perfect.