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Sitting in STD with a 1st Class ticket: Berlin to Prague

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gray1404

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I'm travelling from Berlin to Prague. My friend has a 1st class ticket and I have a standard class one. Can I please confirm my friend's ticket will be valid if he sits with me in standard?

I have told him it will be but he is saying he is worried about it not being valid in standard or if he doesn't sit in his reserved seat. Reservations were optional when booking the ticket.

Thanks.
 
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Mag_seven

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Generally first class tickets are "downwards compatible" i.e. valid in standard without additional charge - that certainly appears to be the case in the UK. It is not unreasonable to assume therefore that the same applies abroad. For peace of mind I would check with the guard first though.
 

Hadders

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I suspect the reality will depend on whether there are any unreserved seats in standard class.

Genuine question but do they mark up reserved seats like we do in Britain. The French don't meaning it could be tricky determining whether or not a seat is available or not.
 

30907

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It is certainly valid in 2nd.
It doesn't matter that your friend isn't in their reserved seat.
DB do not always mark reservations (the train is theirs till the border even if the stock isnt).
Wait till you get to CZ before going to the restaurant as the prices drop sharply!
 

Bungle965

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It is certainly valid in 2nd.
It doesn't matter that your friend isn't in their reserved seat.
DB do not always mark reservations (the train is theirs till the border even if the stock isnt).
Wait till you get to CZ before going to the restaurant as the prices drop sharply!
Happy hours as they like to call it.
Sam
 

gray1404

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Shoot. Didn't know that. I got two bottles of beer. 4 Euros each. Must have been the German side.
 

gray1404

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I must have been minutes outside happy hour annoyingly. But we live and learn. It was a horrid journey. Baggage all over the place including in the buffet car. First class full and standing. People stood up and blocking movement as they would not go to other coaches to find seats. It was full of tourists who were very anxious about travel and, to be honest, they spoilt the whole experience. The European people were reserved but loud Americans and Asians made it a rat race. Won't be getting that train again.
 

Starmill

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It was full of tourists who were very anxious about travel and, to be honest, they spoilt the whole experience. The European people were reserved but loud Americans and Asians made it a rat race.
Such generalisations on the basis of ethnicity come across as, in the most favourable view to you, tasteless comments.

Could it not be more accurately described that a shortage of seating and luggage storage capacity onboard the train was the primary cause of discomfort for you and other passengers?
 

Bungle965

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Could it not be more accurately described that a shortage of seating and luggage storage capacity onboard the train
This route seems to have been really suffering from this, I've seen quite a few photos on Twitter of overcrowding on those services. From what I have read also CD don't have any more carriages available to strengthen the services, allegedly RegioJet are looking into running services on that route.
Sam
 

Quakkerillo

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If you're coming by train from the UK towards Prague, I can also advise going:
Brussels - Frankfurt, Frankfurt - Nürnberg, Nürnberg - Cheb, Cheb - Prague.
That route is more interesting (Köln-Frankfurt SFS, Nürnberg - Cheb - Plzen very scenic), and much more relaxed in my opinion. It's what I'll be doing next Friday (and back on Monday).
 

rg177

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The last time I went for that service it was just for a Dečín-Bad Schandau hop on an Interrail. Packed, AC bust, and it broke down on arrival as apparently the loco was faulty!

I ushered my girlfriend and I onto the stopping train instead where we changed for the S Bahn as intended at Bad Schandau. A far more relaxed experience and the AC actually worked!

We later caught the ex-Prague service bound for Leipzig from Dresden which was the last one of the day. It seemed to have a weird lack of carriages (just 4) and First was rather busy indeed.

Usually when going that way I go via stopping trains- slower, but timed right, you still get some decent haulage and not a gigantic time penalty.

+1 on the Cheb route. I did it in the depths of winter and the scenery was gorgeous, if occasionally obscured by a blizzard!
 

Struner

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Such generalisations on the basis of ethnicity come across as, in the most favourable view to you, tasteless comments.

Could it not be more accurately described that a shortage of seating and luggage storage capacity onboard the train was the primary cause of discomfort for you and other passengers?
Indeed...
(no further comment ;))

 

Czesziafan

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Loud passengers who disturb the train's tranquillity with their constant noise, mountains of luggage piled around doors and vestibules, and those standing or sitting in corridors, around doors and gangways, and who refuse to move out of the way to let you pass, are a pain in the neck in all countries including the UK, particularly when you have impaired vision. Equally beyond the pale are howling, badly behaved children running amok in aisles and climbing all over the seats like monkeys, and drunks who insist on trying to engage you in conversation and get angry when you ignore them. And people who think the toilets are for smoking cannabis or engaging in passionate encounters.
 
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Bletchleyite

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Loud passengers who disturb the train's tranquillity with their constant noise, mountains of luggage piled around doors and vestibules, and those standing or sitting in corridors, around doors and gangways, and who refuse to move out of the way to let you pass, are a pain in the neck in all countries including the UK, particularly when you have impaired vision. Equally beyond the pale are howling, badly behaved children running amok in aisles and climbing all over the seats like monkeys, and drunks who insist on trying to engage you in conversation and get angry when you ignore them. And people who think the toilets are for smoking cannabis or engaging in passionate encounters.

It remains only Germany (Hamburg Hbf) where I've seen an addict running out of a train toilet onto the platform with a needle still hanging out of his arm. Quite an eye-opener, that. British stations and trains are a bastion of civility compared to the social issues at many German stations. As a fresh-faced 20 year old on my year abroad over there I found it all quite exciting and edgy. As a 40 year old I think I'd find it all rather off-putting.
 

Czesziafan

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It remains only Germany (Hamburg Hbf) where I've seen an addict running out of a train toilet onto the platform with a needle still hanging out of his arm. Quite an eye-opener, that. British stations and trains are a bastion of civility compared to the social issues at many German stations. As a fresh-faced 20 year old on my year abroad over there I found it all quite exciting and edgy. As a 40 year old I think I'd find it all rather off-putting.

It wasn't like that when I went to Germany by train in 1982. But I don't think they had the same scale of social problems then that exist now.
 

rg177

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It remains only Germany (Hamburg Hbf) where I've seen an addict running out of a train toilet onto the platform with a needle still hanging out of his arm. Quite an eye-opener, that. British stations and trains are a bastion of civility compared to the social issues at many German stations. As a fresh-faced 20 year old on my year abroad over there I found it all quite exciting and edgy. As a 40 year old I think I'd find it all rather off-putting.

I can't say you're wrong. In three days in the NRW region last week I witnessed some very odd behaviour.

-A random man yelling at me to "come here" in Wuppertal Oberbarmen and squaring up to me as if to fight, before being told to stop by his friends.

-Drunk bloke at 8am on a sleepy RB line screaming at some old ladies, screaming about how the train was "cheap s***" then producing something sharp and etching the windows before staggering off the train without even travelling.

I once saw someone doing coke off the pavement outside Hamburg Hbf and someone openly urinate in a waiting room in Köln Hbf, which go down as the worst things I've witnessed to date :lol:

I was wondering if I'd just had bad luck in witnessing this a lot, but alas it seems that in some parts that's just how it is.
 
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