How to get adjoining train seats when only traveling for one stretch of the journey together?
Me and a relative of mine will be staying at location A. We will be leaving A by train - traveling together to location B, and then we split up with me continuing on by train to location C.
We want to sit next to each other on the way from A to B. Obviously, the simplest - but slightly risky - way is to just not reserve seats and stick together. But sometimes either you have to reserve seats, or you expect the seats might run out and you'll be stuck without a reservation.
Now, if we were both just traveling to B, or both traveling to C, we could buy 2 tickets at the same time with reserved seats, and I'm guessing they would be reserved alongside each other. But since we aren't, we can't. If we were to buy just a ticket to B together, the ticket to C would (with many/most railways) be much more expensive. Also, let's assume the seat reservation just means you just get a seat assignment, not that you get to pick a specific seat - which would solve the problem.
So, my question is how to get both seats reserved next to each other for just the A->B part of the journey...
- In general, i.e. any railway system with which you have experience.
- In Germany, with Deutch Bahn, with the A->B being on an ICE (ask for more details if necessary).
Best Answer
For Germany it is possible to select specific seats with the following conditions:
- Online: For all ICE and specific IC trains (here only the newest IC trains)
- By phone or in a Reisezentrum: Here you can select specific seats for all ICE and IC trains
The reason for the difference in the IC trains is, that the seatmaps for older IC trains are available for the service agents on the phone or at the Reisezentrum, but not yet on the website, due to the differences in the seatmaps.
Exceptions are here, if there is e.g. a replacement train running instead of a scheduled one. Then it could be, that the seatmap is not available online. But that's only in rare cases.
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