Seat reservations deleted when booking online

TheInformer

Hi, noob here. I bought saver tickets for Brussels-St Gallen via Koln and Zurich. When presented with price options, I chose a slightly more expensive saver allowing changes or refunds. However the seat reservations which had been included during the booking then disappeared - they were listed, but greyed out with a line through them. Naturally for such a long journey I prefer to have reserved seats, why were they cancelled, and how can I get them back? Thanks in advance.

Danhiel

Hello TheInformer

Did the reservations disappear for the whole trip or only a part? Could you give us the date and time of departure, maybe engineering works are planned and reservations are currently not possible. Otherwewise, you can reserve only seats on Bahn.de or in the DB Navigator app.

Kind regards
Danhiel

TheInformer

Thanks for your reply Danhiel, they disappeared for the whole trip, outbound and return, when I selected the exchangeable Sparpreis for the return.

Depart 15/11 @ 10:25, NB the seat reservations appeared in the booking until I changed the fare basis for the return.

Danhiel

Bonjour TheInformer

Seat reservations are never included with Saver or Supersaver tickets, you have to pay additional charges. An exception is when reservations are mandatory, but it is only in summer between Brussels and Cologne. As mentioned in my previous post, you can reserve seats on the DB site. Sometimes it is not possible to reserve seats on connecting trains in Switzerland (e.g. Zürich - St. Gallen), but reservations are not necessary.

TheInformer

Thanks a lot, will try that. Will I be able to find my reservations on DB, or can I simply buy seats without tickets?

cheers

Krist

You can easily do a “seat only” booking on www.bahn.de. As explained with a discounted ticket the seat reservations are extra.

Note: As a regular traveller between Switzerland and Belgium my approach is to just buy an Interrail pass1st class when there is a sale. That gives me a fully flexible ticket, at not much more than the typical discounted ticket.

TheInformer

Thanks Krist,sounds like a good tactic. Is the interrail a weekly or monthly pass?

Danhiel

TheInformer

You can find information here, but, if you already have saver tickets, it is probably better to keep them. Refunds are not always possible. It may be useful for the following trip.

https://www.interrail.com/en

TheInformer

Hi Danhiel

OK many thanks!