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Purchased Ticket to a destination but ticket only takes me part of the way.

  • 9 January 2023
  • 9 replies
  • 112 views

I purchased a ticket from Barcelona to Geneva, Switzerland and had to make two reservations online. The ticket shows that it ends at Valence TGV, France. What do I do to get from Valence to Geneva?

Thank You

 

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Best answer by Schelte 9 January 2023, 23:37

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9 replies

Userlevel 6
Badge +4

From Valence to Geneva you can travel all the way with a TER regional train. These don't require (nor allow) reservations: you add them to your pass and you're ready to board.

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Please be aware that tickets and reservations are 2 different things. As such you message is confusing.

Did you book train tickets? If so, where did you book them?

Or do you have a Eurail pass (which is your ticket) and did you book reservations for certain trains? If so, please specify for which train(s). Especially the train from Valence to Geneva would be interesting (date, departure time), because for some train no reservations are possible, in France e.g. for TERs.

Thank you for your help,

I just bought Eurail passes for me and my wife, I booked several trips in Italy and Switzerland using 1st class reservations with no problem. The ticket from Barcelona to Geneva has been a little more complicated and confusing. I was booking a train for the 17th of March, It showed that I needed to buy reservations and I did. The ticket that I printed out shows a ticket from Barcelona to Valence TGV. I am confused about the remaining portion of the trip to Geneva. Do I need to find another train and just use my Eurail Pass or do I have to purchase something. Sorry for my ignorance, first time Eurail user.

Userlevel 7
Badge +7

You don't have to buy or reserve anything. It's a TER (train express regional) or regional train. It doesn't require reservations. Just add the train from Valence to Genève to your trip, tap the slider to add them to the pass. Et voilà, ready to board, find a seat and travel. Your pass is the ticket. 

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

@Enrique Cafaro You're again confusing tickets and reservations.

Your pass is your basic ticket for all trains included in Eurail.

For most trains, no reservations are possible, such as for TER in France.

For some trains, reservations are possible but not mandatory, such as in long distance trains in Switzerland, Germany, Austria etc.

For some trains, reservations are mandatory, such as for TGV in France.

Thank for all help and assistance,

One more question though, In seat reservations I found the train that I want, Valence TGV Rhone-Alps Sud to Geneva, No Seat Reservation Required and “Your Ready To Board”. How exactly do you tap the slider and add it to your trip?  

Okay,

I see it, big difference using the App and the website, very confusing when you use the two.

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

One more question though, In seat reservations I found the train that I want, Valence TGV Rhone-Alps Sud to Geneva, No Seat Reservation Required and “Your Ready To Board”. How exactly do you tap the slider and add it to your trip?  

You tap on it. The slider will become visible after you activate the pass. But there's no need to activate until shortly before you board the first train).

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Here is some useful information from the experienced travellers in the Community regarding both planning, reservations and activation of pass and travel days. 

 Planning

The rail planner is normally not up to date, as it only is updated once a month, so to be sure of the time table you better check the timetable and availability on the websites of the national railways. The bigger national railways, like DB (Germany) SBB (Switzerland) and ÖBB (Austria) cover several countries. 

 Reservations 

The advice from the experienced travellers in the community is to use other ways to make reservations than the Interrail/Eurail website.  You can look at the guide in the link:

https://community.eurail.com/train-connections-reservations-47/how-to-get-reservations-105

If you, after having looked at the guide, have questions about how to make specific reservation, please give your travel details (departure date, time and route) preferably in a new topic, and you will get advice.

Please note that Interrail/Eurail charges an extra fee of 2 EUR per person and train in addition to the fee for the seat reservation.

 Activation of pass

During the activation process you choose the start day of the validity of the pass. Once the validity has started it can't be changed even if you haven't travelled. The advice is therefore to wait with activating the pass and starting the validity until the first day of your travel as you only can deactivate the pass no later than 23.59 CET on the day before the validity starts. If your travel plans change in the last moment you can't deactivate the pass and change the validity. 

It can be wise to make a test and activate the pass with a start date well in the future and then deactivate the pass immediately, just to see that everything works.

 Activation of travel day

The advice from the experienced travellers in the community is also never to activate a travel day, that is connect a journey to your pass and create the ticket (QR code), until just before boarding the train, otherwise you might loose a travel day if your travel plans change in a late stage  You can't delete a travel day in the past. A travel day can only be deleted until 23.59 CET the day before the travel day.

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