they didn't know what to do, but by their own admission they couldn't really stop me from sitting in the seat i had reserved. they were just really annoyed about it.
- Yeah that's the part I don't believe. I have seen people getting fined or charged the upgrade for this many times. Maybe they were nice to you because you were a tourist. But they could definitely have made you pay, or call the police to remove you from your seat and get your personal information
  
  but... why? i reserved the seat. there were no seats available in the rest of the train. would they rather i sat on the floor?
  there was an older woman who tried to sleep next to the door in an adjoining car. she had to move every time the train stopped. that seems insane to me.
  
  You reserved the seat, but didn't have a valid ticket for first class. So yes, either stand,sit on the floor until another seat becomes available, have a meal in the dining car, or take another train if you have a flexible ticket. (You don't need a reservation to board the train, and some people travel on season tickets or flexible fares where you can choose freely any train).
  If you want to be guaranteed a seat buy a reservation in your class
  You can pay a surcharge to upgrade your ticket. But the seat reservation just reserves a seat, not the right to travel in that class or on that train without a valid ticket. It's not linked to a ticket or a name
  Most people also prefer to sit on the floor or stand than to not travel on that service and be forced to wait an hour or two
  In other countries like France, Italy or Spain it's like Airplanes on their long-distance services, everyone with a ticket is assigned a seat. And the reservation is linked to the ticket. But in central Europe we fortunately don't do it this way (with the exception of Poland and Sweden).
  (In France and Spain they do this even on some regional services, but their national operators forget sometimes that they are Railways and not Airlines)
  
  i want to add that this was a long-haul night train (münchen to hamburg), so no dining car, few stops, and a travel time of about 9 hours. in that circumstance, selling more tickets than there exists seating seems negligent. the bathrooms were all closed, there were no sleeping cars, there was a police inspection at four in the morning, people were propped up against every wall in the train trying to sleep in peace... it is without exception the worst experience i've ever had on a train, and i was once stuck in jörn for four hours in a train car without electricity in -30 weather. i don't understand how the separate reservation system is better in any way.
  
  You know there is a Long Haul Night train between Munich and Hamburg with real Beds, Showers and complimentary breakfast. Or sleeping Pods if you're on a budget.
  Check it out the next time. Nightjet.com
  It's operated by the Austrian state railways
  Otherwise the separate reservation system makes international train ticketing easier and allows for greater flexibility.
  “hey, you need a first-class ticket for a seat reservation in first class”.
  That's just common knowledge in most of European Countries. I can understand that this might confuse visitors who are used to air travel
  
  Can you honestly justify seats in the first class being left empty, while people in the second class have nowhere to sit? There's so many ways to improve the situation here without anyone actually being hurt. Can't we all take a step back and see how crazy this actually this?
  
  Well you can always avoid sitting on the floor by paying the 5€ for seat reservations for the entire journey during the time of booking. And if it tells you there that no more seats are available you can make an informed decision on how badly you want to be on this service and if you want to pay the first class fare.
  Long-distance train journeys are unfortunately not subsidized by our moronic government so the state operator needs to earn back the money to operate the train or there will be no long distance train anymore in the future.
  And our traffic minister just hiked track charges for them by 30%
  
  So you just see absolutely no issue with those seats being kept empty while people don't have anywhere to sleep. Cool, not a sign of a broken system at all.
  
  we were trying to keep costs down, the total trip had something like 15 changeovers, three in germany, and cost us €800.
  i am european, i mostly travel by train, and we have mandatory seat reservation at no charge for intercity trains. if you don't select a seat, one is assigned to you. when there are no more seats, no more tickets are sold.
  it would never in a million years occur to me that people would be left without a place to sit for a nine hour trip. that's just inhumane.
  also, it would never in a million years occur to me that you could be fined for buying a ticket and a seat through the official system.
  what you're describing is how regional trains work. not long haul express trains.
  
  we were trying to keep costs down, the total trip had something like 15 changeovers, three in germany, and cost us €800.
  Sounds like an Interrail Pass would have cheaper, and more flexible
  what you’re describing is how regional trains work. not long haul express trains.
  No that's how Trains in all of Europe work with the Exception of
  France
  Italy
  Spain
  Norway
  Sweden
  Poland
  i am european, i mostly travel by train, and we have mandatory seat reservation at no charge for intercity trains.
  Yeah I doubt this part seriously, unless you only travelled in the countries listed above
  it would never in a million years occur to me that people would be left without a place to sit for a nine hour trip. that’s just inhumane
  No it's inhumane to deny them boarding and don't transport them for hours, days weeks or months just because seats are sold out, like they do in France.
  People want to get home or to their family, or an important meeting,even when they can't have a seat. (E.g. when it was spontaneous, an emergency, or they missed the last train)
  Everyone can have a guaranteed seat for their entire journey for 5.20€
  also, it would never in a million years occur to me that you could be fined for buying a ticket and a seat through the official system.
  Yeah that's bullshit too, they won't sell you a first class seat to your second class ticket when trying to book a seat during the booking process of the ticket. You have to explicitly select first class on the Website, and then tick "I only want a seat reservation" and then it shows them to you. Also 6.50€ for a first class seat for 9h Long distance travel, would have given you a clue that this is not an upgrade. If unsure you could have asked the staff in the train which ALWAYS sits and has their office between first and second class in those trains.
  
  It's pure bullshit. We've told ourselves "things must be this way for efficiency", yet we've merely commoditized casual cruelty.
  
  People who like trains with Mandatory Reservations are People who never take the train regularly
  
  disagree.
- Of course they could have and this has led to people being removed from the train by the federal police (which is extremely costly as the German Bahn charges one for the delay costs and the police also charges one).
  When you reserve a seat it means you have the right to use that reservation for 15min after the train left the station and not be moved from it when you have a taken the seat. The reservation even is void if you decide to sit in another seat before claiming your seat or go to the restaurant before claiming your seat.(Afterwards it's different)
  And of course you still have to have a ticket for the class/train. By your logic you could have simply reserved the seat for 4€ and then used no ticket at all - which is of course also wrong.
  BTW: It says you need a valid ticket for that class in bright red letters on the webshop.
  TLDR: You could have been removed from that seat and it would have cost you a lot of money if they did.
  
  it didn't when i took that train. instead of warning people they should just require a ticket for a reservation.
  that reservation footnote is very strange to me. here it's fine to sit wherever as long as you move when someone comes along with a seat reservation. then you can go back to your reserved seat.

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