6 Months ahead Glacier Express reservation issue
A traveler named John is planning a trip from St. Moritz to Zermatt on September 16. He’s frustrated with the seat reservation process, as he faces difficulties booking trains and understanding availability. He hopes to secure four seats and wants tips on making this easier.
- Check your reservations three months before your travel date to avoid issues.
- Consider using local trains for the same route if you can’t secure a reservation.
- Avoid overthinking; the number of trains may vary by season, and not all routes will be available every day.
AI-generated summary-
I want to get a seat reservation in septemper and i know i cannot do that now and i can only reserver 3 months out for the seat. I am just experimenting with the seat reservation process for the future so i am ready when the day comes… I am frustrated by the website as follows
- I know there are 2 trains per day from St Moritz to Zermatt but on any given day it either shows me the 9:15 or the 10:20 only. Some days it shows me them both but not always??
- Some days when i try to but a seat it simply says “unable to book ” and thats it.???
- some days it shows that there are maybe 45 seats available but when i select the 9:15 train it says “there are no connections”. The 10:20 is not even listed so i am screwed for that day. If there are seats then why are there no connections??
- on some days it will show me 2 buttons “wagon 1”, and “wagon 2″… But only on some days… I would expect to be able to select the wagon i want on EVERY day??..
Anyway this has got to be the most complicated process to buy a ticket i have ever seen…. My concern is just that i need to guarantee my 4 seats for Sep 16… It is not an option to do this on any other day based on my other travel plans!!!… Very frustrating!!!
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Hello John,
You don’t say which site you are trying to book at. Let’s assume it’s at bit.ly/2XCI3KZ.
Relax, you are overthinking it. The number of trips per day varies with the season. Wait till three month’s out from your travel date and do it then.
Some of the retailers at http://www.myswissalps.com/gl acierexpress/packages will take your order further out but you won’t get your reservations until 3 months out and you don’t get to pick specific seats.
In the unlikely event that all else fails and you miss out on reservations you can follow the exact same route as the Glacier Express on regular trains and avoid the reservation fees. If you are so tempted then read bit.ly/2SJEvmE.
Glacier Express:
Take care with the hyped-up marketing of the Glacier Express. It is not always the best way to ‘see Switzerland’
The Glacier Express runs roughly on an East – West axis in the southern part of Switzerland. Nowadays it suffers from hyperbolic marketing but it’s not the be all and end all of scenic rail travel in Switzerland.
In practice the Glacier Express is just an ‘exclusive’ train on a normal railway route with plenty of other normal – non supplement , reservation-free trains on it.
Just visiting Zermatt will net you far more glaciers than are visible from the Glacier Express…
To understand the above, it is worth taking a moment to understand the Glacier Express and its history:
It was created (as one train each way daily with completely ordinary carriages) with the notion that well-healed travellers taking long holidays in Switzerland in the ‘Belle Epoque’ era (1920/30s) would stay in Zermatt and then also go and stay in the other fashionable resort of the time, St Moritz. The train was named (mainly) after the Rhone Glacier which has now melted so much that you don’t see it from the train and in any case the train runs under the Rhone Glacier in a base tunnel which replaced the Furka mountain section in 1982.
Points to bear in mind about the Glacier Express:
Although the whole journey is in the mountains, a lot of it is in valleys – where you get some good views of bubbling rivers but not all the time – there are some mundane sections.
in truth there are only 4 really spectacular sections – in order West to East: the loops around Grengiols and Fiesch; Andermatt – Oberalppass – Disentis; Ruinaulta (Rheinschucht aka Rhein gorge); Albula north ramp loops and spirals Tiefencastel – Filisur – Preda
The trip is a long one – tourists can frequently be seen sleeping rather than watching the view and missing the spectacular bits anyway!
The same railway lines can be travelled using ordinary local trains which are no slower in practice due to the single track infrastructure
Hello Johnadaly,
If you use the packages link provided by Rockoyster I believe this should solve your problem.
As also mentioned you could (for a worst case scenario) take regular trains for the same route anytime. Check this link for general timetable information: http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable
Get back to us should your issue not be solved.
Enjoy planning.
Best,
Steph
hi all
thank you for all the responses…
Maybe I AM overthinking this… It’s really my 3 other travelling companions that are pushing the GEX… Anyway I guess I see from the time table that there are 2 trains per day in the season I want to go but I only see one train listed on several days.. Anyway like you all have said I will wait till 3 onths out which will be june 16th for me for a sep 16 trip and see what happens..
once again thank you for all your help
Hi Johnadaly,
That sounds like the best thing to do. Get back to us should you encounter any problems in the future.
Happy planning.
Best,
Steph
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