7

Me and my friend would like to book two second class coach seats on a NightJet train from Vienna to Venice at oebb.at. We'd really like them to be next to each other, ideally, facing each other. However, the ticket booking service does not seem to offer such option.

While it does allow us to specify whether we want a window, center or aisle seat (see the image below), it says nothing about where those seats would be located in relation to each other.

Is it possible to book 2nd class seats together? If not, what would be the least expensive alternative rail service that would guarantee that we are seated next to each other?

enter image description here

Improve this question
2
  • 2
    If you can't do it with Austrian Railways, then you probably just can't do it. Just for grins, I walked through reserving a couple of Basel->Berlin NightJet seats through Deutsche Bahn. Similar to the above, it asked what kind of seats I wanted (window, aisle, etc.), but it didn't give me the option to pick seats. There was just some text saying they'd try their best to get us seats near each other.
    – Kyralessa
    Aug 12, 2019 at 12:48
  • 2
    However, my experience in train travel elsewhere in Europe is that many trains have so many empty seats that no one will care where you sit. But I have been on a few that were packed.
    – WGroleau
    Aug 12, 2019 at 17:55

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
5

Generally you should get seats next to each other if you reserve in a single booking.

You could also try your luck making two individual bookings in rapid succession both requesting window seats. Normally seats are booked from one end of the train to the other so that might get you something like a 50% chance that you land in adjacent facing seats.

Most of these ÖBB trains have very interesting seats in such compartments: they can be pulled out to create an almost lie-flat kind of bed. This is perfect if you're just people who know each other in the compartment. I've even made a the whole compartment into a bed with three strangers before - certainly was a little funny all trying so hard not to touch each other but we all got a great night's sleep. This blog has a picture, though in my experience one side of seat went all the way flat:

enter image description here

Of course you can also seek out non-reserved seats on the train, though using extra seats to create the "bed" may end up getting you woken up in the night when a large Czech school group boards with no reservation and needs them. :)

Improve this answer
3

If you book early you should get "perfect" seat in the sense that you will sit next to eachother. If you want to sit in front of eachother then it's probably a bit harder and you then have two ways of accomplishing this:

You can try asking customer service (maybe a boutique at the station) if they can assign you specific seats. Some of the agent are more helpful than others.

If this isn't a possibility, simply ask if anyone would like to switch seats with you. If you find empty seats, take them and if someone is claiming them, ask if they could take your seats instead.

This is just from my general IC train experience.

Improve this answer
0

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .