Ticket notes

Checked on 2026-10-24. The rules come from the ÖBB conditions of carriage manual, the OÖVV terms and official queries; prices change, so go by the ticket page before you order. Each point is marked with how certain it is. For the single things to buy or reserve, see Tickets and reservations.

Bottom line

1. A standard ticket (incl. FLEX group standard ticket) is not tied to a train; if you miss it, take the next one. A Sparschiene (saver fare) is void if you miss the train yourself, and you have to buy a new ticket.
2. If you miss a connection because the previous train was late: no need to buy again; take the next workable train and ask the conductor or station staff to confirm.
3. A seat reservation only counts for the train it was booked on. If you take another train, the seat fee (€3 per person) is wasted. Reservations are only possible on long-distance trains such as IC and Railjet.
4. Luggage: free on ÖBB trains, each piece at most 90 × 60 × 40 cm. Carry-on bags are free on Lake District buses. On Wolfgangsee boats each piece must be at most 20 kg.
5. Lake District: for 10-28 buy 2 Freizeit-Tickets; for 10-29 always buy single tickets; for 10-30 me going to Altaussee, check the price in the ÖBB app first.
6. OÖVV tickets bought online are named; bring your passport. Buying from the bus driver is cash only; carry coins and small notes.
7. An ÖBB ticket is in principle not valid on WESTbahn (train numbers start with WB, a private railway company); you have to buy a separate ticket to board. The ÖBB app sometimes recommends WB trains (for the 15:56 on 10-30 it recommended WB 79219): switch to an ÖBB train at the same time (IC, RJX, REX), for example on 10-30 change at Attnang to the 17:01 IC 743 (D-66). Another source says WESTbahn accepts ÖBB tickets between Wien and Salzburg (except Sparschiene); this was not checked and may be a temporary arrangement from the 2024 floods, so do not rely on it. Source: the question-and-answer page "Kann ich mit dem ÖBB Ticket auch WESTbahn fahren?" at wandernundmehr.at (search snippet on 10-30, original page not read). Certainty: medium.

What if you miss it

Certainty: wording of the rules, high. The three points below are exceptions or uncertain:

• Whether REX 70 and SV170 can be swapped: manual B.1.3.3.2 says Nahverkehr (regional trains) may take an earlier or later one; the ticket page lists IC 742, REX 70 and SV170 all as "not swappable". The two disagree, so it cannot be decided. Follow the ticket page: if you miss a Sparschiene yourself, treat it as void.
• SV170 replacement bus: manual A.2.1.1.4 says the conditions of carriage and ticket rules also apply to buses marked as Schienenersatzverkehr. So if SV170 is late and you miss a connection, the same rule applies.
• Paying the difference on board: if you are caught on a long-distance train with an invalid ticket, you pay the difference or are treated as having no ticket (up to €110). Tell the conductor yourself, right away; buying a standard ticket in the app before boarding is safer (this is advice, not a rule from the text).

The tickets you have

• What if the ticket does not show in the app: only tickets bought with the same ÖBB account that is logged in to the app appear under "Tickets". My 10-30 ticket was bought on 10-24 on the official site as a guest, so it is not in the app; the two 10-27 tickets (EC 140, IC 742) were bought by a friend in the app (I said so on 10-27), so those tickets are on the friend's phone. Click the link in the purchase confirmation email to get the PDF, and show the PDF plus your passport at the check (plus the youth card for youth-card tickets). ÖBB site FAQ: a PDF ticket can be shown on a phone within Austria, but for trips to or from other countries it must be printed on A4 paper (EC 140 is an international train). Backup: the confirmation has a 12-digit pickup code; print a paper ticket at any ÖBB ticket machine or counter in an Austrian station, with photo ID. Source: ÖBB FAQ "Tickets & Buchungen" (read 10-27).
• 10-27 Wien Hbf → Bad Ischl (IC 742): I have not been told the ticket type yet (Sparschiene €169.60 for 4 people, or FLEX group standard ticket €231.20). Check the ticket: if it says "Sparschiene" or "valid only on this train", follow the first row; if it says any train from 10-27 to 10-28, follow the second row.
• 10-30 me, Altaussee → Wien Hbf: the €3.30 hourly ticket only covers Altaussee Kurhaus → Bad Aussee (valid 14:52 to 15:52); if you miss the 14:52 955, buy a new one, next bus 16:10. The standard ticket (Bad Aussee → Wien Hbf, 10-30 to 10-31) is not affected.
• 10-30 Companions, 3 people, Bad Ischl → Wien Hbf: the tickets are already bought; check which kind on the ticket. The 150 is a bus on the Salzburg side; whether it is on the same ticket as the train was not checked.
• 10-31 REX 7 to the airport: a ticket bought on the spot, not tied to a train.

Source: ÖBB manual B.1.3 (Sparschiene), B.1.1 (standard ticket), A.3.1.4, A.5.6, A.3.2, A.2.1.1.4; Sparschiene page; OÖVV terms; VVST terms.

How to reserve seats

• Reserve when buying: tick "Reservation" under "Extras". About €3 per person per direction, +€12 for 4 people.
• Add a reservation after buying: in the ÖBB app pick the same train, tap "More / Mehr" under "Best price", and choose "Ticket already exists / Ticket vorhanden". Then "Extras" only offers seat reservation. Tickets already bought for 10-27 can be handled this way.
• Long-distance trains only: IC and Railjet take reservations. REX, regional trains, the SV170 replacement bus and Lake District buses cannot be reserved and do not need it. One reservation covers all reservable legs in the same direction.
• Validity and voiding: valid only on the booked day and train. If you have not taken the seat 15 minutes after departure, the seat and the money are forfeited. A reservation cannot be moved to another train.
• Cancelling: free more than 15 days before the first valid day; after that, until 1 day before, 50% is refunded; from the valid day on, no refund. The 10-27 reservation can now only be refunded 50%, up to 10-26.
• Seat map: the official site only says Railjet has a graphical seat selection. Whether IC 742 and IC 743 have one is not confirmed. On the reservation page look for "Zur Sitzplatzauswahl"; if it is not there, the system assigns seats, and 4 people may not sit together.
• Both trains can be reserved: the ticket page shows a reservation offer on both IC 742 (+€12) and IC 743 (+€3).

Certainty: the official reservation page and the original text of manual B.2.1, high; the seat map rests on the single Railjet statement, the rest is unconfirmed. Source: ÖBB reservation page, manual B.2.1.

Luggage

I only have a carry-on bag, so I am not affected. Source: manual A.4.1.1.1; bus conditions of carriage §29–32; Wolfgangsee boat conditions of carriage.

How to buy each day in the Lake District

Is there a pass for the Lake District: there is a day ticket, but no multi-day ticket. The day ticket is called Freizeit-Ticket OÖ (Xiaohongshu (RedNote) calls it the "Upper Austria leisure card" or "Lake District leisure ticket"): €26.50 per ticket, shared by 2 adults (plus up to 4 children under 15) traveling together; valid from 09:00 Mon to Fri, all day on weekends and public holidays, until 03:00 the next day. It covers buses and regional trains in the whole of Upper Austria, plus buses in the Salzkammergut area of Salzburg state, including route 150 (Bad Ischl station → Koppl, via Strobl and St. Gilgen); it does not cover long-distance trains such as IC, Railjet and Westbahn, and boats and cable cars are not included either. You can buy it in both the OÖVV Ticket App and the ÖBB Tickets app (OÖVV site, read 10-25). The "€15 discount code" mentioned on Xiaohongshu is the Mobilitätsgutschein for guests, which stopped being issued on 2026-09-30; Xiaohongshu (Ximalaya Shan) also says the 2026 codes have all been given out. The Salzkammergut Card only gives discounts on cable cars, boats and salt mines, not buses. So: buy 2 day tickets on 10-28, €13.25 per person; 10-29 was changed to leave at 10:21 with 4 people together (D-60), so also buy 2 day tickets, €13.25 per person.

Prices are the full-price single fares shown by the official OÖVV query (verkehrsauskunft.ooevv.at) on 10-24, in euros. There is no student price (OÖVV age discounts only apply from age 15 up to under 21).

• Where to buy: the OÖVV Ticket App, the ÖBB Tickets app and the wegfinder app are all official sales points; buy before boarding. There is no signal in the valleys, so buy at the lodging first. OÖVV Ticket App instructions.
• Buying from the driver: OÖVV terms 5.3 say "Zahlungsmittel ist Bargeld" (payment is by cash); cards are "as per each transport company's rules", and some buses have card readers, but not every route or bus is guaranteed to have one, and a broken reader does not excuse you from paying. Postbus differs by route (airport buses take cards, some routes are cash only). If you want to pay by card, buy in the app with the card (OÖVV Ticket App, ÖBB Tickets app), before boarding. Paying cash on board: each person carries up to €10 in coins and small notes, uses at most a note one step bigger than the fare (for example a €10 note for €6.20), and at most 50 coins at a time; drivers on Steiermark (VVST) buses give change up to €20 at most. Source: OÖVV terms 5.3, the AGB of the Postbus routes.
• Ferries and cable cars: bought separately, not included in Freizeit. Wolfgangsee boat Markt → Fürberg or St. Gilgen €11.80; Hallstatt ferry €4.00 one way, cash only; Zwölferhorn student round trip €32; Gosaukammbahn round trip €24.50, no student price. Prices at Tickets and reservations.

Certainty: prices are the figures from the official query; the segments assumed to have the same price in reverse (the St. Gilgen direction, Hallstatt → our stop in Bad Ischl) were not checked individually; the Zwieselalmbahn → Gosau segment is an estimate. The comparison between Freizeit and single tickets depends on these prices. Source: Freizeit-Ticket page, OÖVV terms 3.3.2; manual B.3.3.1.1 (across Verbund).

Youth card (Vorteilscard Jugend) and Lake District discounts

• Youth card: half price on ÖBB standard tickets (manual C.5.2.1.2). My 10-30 return on the 14:52 is €36.40 with the card (€69.50 without), bought on 10-24, €39.40 with the reservation. When buying, add Vorteilscard Jugend among the passengers and enter the card number; show the youth card and passport at the check. Certainty: actual price on the ticket page, high.
• Does not stack with Sparschiene: saver fares cost the same with or without the youth card (both from €28.20 for the 10-30 18:09).
• No discount on Lake District buses: manual C.5.2.1.3 says the youth card "does not count as a discount card in any transport association", and can only serve as proof of age to buy the association's own youth fare. OÖVV's youth fare is only for ages 15 to under 21, so it is of no use to you. The ticket page agrees: on the 10-30 ticket the €3.30 bus segment stays the same with the card.
• The ÖBB app can sell Lake District bus tickets: on 10-24 the main session checked three segments on the ÖBB ticket page, and all had quotes: our stop in Bad Ischl → Altaussee Zentrum €12.30 per person (OÖVV single €9.00 + Steiermark hourly ticket €3.30, issued together); St. Gilgen → Bad Ischl (150) €7.10 per person; the Altaussee → Bad Aussee 955 hourly ticket €3.30. OÖVV terms 1.16 also list the ÖBB web shop and app as official sales points for OÖVV tickets. The Freizeit-Ticket OÖ can be bought in the OÖVV Ticket App, the ÖBB Tickets app and the LinzMobil app (OÖVV site, read 10-25).
• Lake District discounts that really help:
• Freizeit-Ticket OÖ: €26.50, shared by two adults for one day, from 09:00 on weekdays (used on 10-28). It includes route 150 on the Salzburg side, so on 10-28 taking the 150 from St. Gilgen back to Bad Ischl also works (OÖVV site route table, read 10-25).
• Salzkammergut Card: free if you stay 3 nights in Bad Ischl; collect it at the Bad Ischl tourist office with the guest registration (Gästekarte) your host gives you; valid until 10-31. Up to about 25% off cable cars, boats and salt mines, for example the Gosaukamm (Zwieselalm) cable car round trip €26 → €23.90, Wolfgangsee whole-lake boat ticket €31 → €29.40. Buses are not included.
• Student price: Zwölferhorn cable car student round trip €32 (adult €36), student ID required. ISIC gives no discount on ÖBB or Lake District buses.
• The guest transport discount code (Mobilitätsgutschein) stopped being issued on 2026-09-30.

Source: ÖBB manual C.5.2; OÖVV terms 1.16; Salzkammergut Card; Freizeit-Ticket OÖ.

Payment and ID

• OÖVV tickets bought online are named and must be used with an official photo ID. Bring your passport.
• When ÖBB tickets are checked on the train, you must also show your passport. Passenger names are spelled as in the passport.
• A digital ticket (Wiener Linien 7 Tage) is tied to one person; bring your passport.
• When the ÖBB app finds no Verbund ticket in a Verbund, it gives you an ÖBB standard single ticket (manual D.1.1.1.2).
• Buying on your phone is the safest. An OÖVV ticket bought online is only valid if bought before boarding (OÖVV terms 1.16).

Not found or unsure

• Whether IC 742 and IC 743 have graphical seat selection.
• Whether a Sparschiene can be shifted earlier or later on a REX (the manual and the ticket page disagree; take the conservative approach).
• Which type the ticket for 10-27 is.
• The price of the 952 and 955 legs across Steiermark; whether the ÖBB app will quote 952 + 955 as one connected journey.
• Whether you can pay by card on Postbus buses.
• How long an OÖVV single ticket bought in advance stays valid, and whether it can be used on the next service if you miss one.
• Luggage rules for the Hallstatt ferry and the two cable cars.