nylilly

Hi. I’m a pretty calm traveler generally, but now that both of my longish distance train tickets have been cancelled, I’m hoping for some advice and experience. Months ago I had booked one way trips for my partner and I - the first on Friday, March 29th from the airport in Frankfurt to Freiburg and the second from Freiburg to Berlin on Tuesday, April 2nd. The second trip, because of the length, I had also paid for seat reservations. Now that both of the trips have been canceled, how do I proceed? As I understand it, our tickets are good on any other train, but I’m unclear how to ensure that we actually can board a different train. What if the train is sold out because of the holiday weekend? Tickets are quite a bit more money than when I originally booked, so repurchasing tickets holds little appeal beyond some mental calming. Can I just purchase seats on an alternate train and use my current tickets to actually board?

Thanks for any and all assistance. I have to admit, I never imagined the Italian rail system (in my experience) to be more reliable than that of Germany…

menachem

I don't think trains will be "sold out". Having no seat reservation is a bummer though. Is it an ICE you're taking from Freiburg to Berlin or a regular Inter City train? Why were they cancelled? Because of strikes?

PS, if you go into the Deutsche Bahn site to book, you can also book just a seat reservation for your alternative train, if the "Zugbindung" for your original ticket was dropped.

lavandula

Hi nylilly, this page has a lot of information for you. Most of all, it says you are entitled to a refund on your seat reservations. I would apply for refund on the old reservations and re-reserve seats on a new train.

https://int.bahn.de/en/booking-infor...hanges-refunds

Even Deutsche Bahn has its delays and strikes. When it's working, though, it's very good!

Lavandula