Hey guys,
I've planned a trip to norway at the end of August through Germany, Denmark and Sweden. I planned every train and waited for them to be opened. I look for the trains I want and it says that "the seats reserved for pass holders" are all taken. So does it mean I won't be able to make my trip? Thanks
Hi, for this countries you can reserve via the train companies. I would not use Interrail/Eurail website app.
Wich trains do you need to take?
Hey thanks for your reply. You mean there are not enough tickets so this is useful to use Interrail? I wanted to book trains for Copenhagen, Stockholm, Kiruna, Narvik, Bodo, Trondheim, Oslo and Bergen but all seem to be full for pass holders although there are available for a few days only.
They’re definitely not full (except some night trains maybe).
Interrail/Eurail adds a 2€ fee per person per train + mails paper reservations for Norway (10€ surcharge) while they’re available online at no extra costs.
Oh okay so I just nees to find the websites for each train company then, many thanks !!
So the tickets won't be on the interrail web but I'll have free tickets because I paid for the pass? Do I still need to activate it? If someone is available to talk by phone :)
No need to activate the pass before your travel date.
Seat reservations are not free (except with a 1st class pass in Norway) : about 5€ per train (or equivalent). But not all trains require seat reservations. More info here :
https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm#Sweden
https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm#Norway
A couchette on a night train obviously costs more than 5€ but with a pass you only pay accommodation (couchette, sleeper,...)
Thanks. So for each train company I have yo go on their website and look for the way to pay only 5e for pass holders?
And what about the tickets bought on the app like the first one from Paris? Sorry but I'm completely lost how does it work for the trains booked on train companies? How do they know I have a pass?
And what about the tickets bought on the app like the first one from Paris? Sorry but I'm completely lost how does it work for the trains booked on train companies? How do they know I have a pass?
Your pass is your ticket. You don't need to buy any extra tickets.
Reservations can be booked in many ways, although not in the rail planner app, which can only forward to some of the websites where you can book. The websites all work differently, but there are 2 main ways to book: 1. Add Interrail/Eurail as a discount and 2. look for "Reservation/seat only”. Sometimes one of them works, sometimes both of them.
The recommendation from the experienced travellers in the community is to only make reservations through the Eurail website if no other options are available. Please read more about that below.
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.
The Stockholm-Narvik sleeper trains for the Summer were only released in the last few days and up to then they were showing as not available. They are now available - I booked one yesterday for June 16th.
The operating companies can be a little confusing in Scandinavia, with Norwegian railways (vy.no) having a Swedish arm (vy.se) and Swedish railways (sj.se) having a Norwegian arm (sj.no).
My suggestion would be - reserve Germany to Denmark with bahn.de, Denmark to Sweden and Sweden to Narvik with sj.se, trains with Norway with entur.no.
All these sites have very good and responsive chat functions where you can do the booking. You can book Swedish interrail reservations on sj.se by editing the travellers and indicating they have a pass.
Thanks zagmund, and on these sites I'll get special prices for pass holders right?
bahn.de - no discount on reservations, but they aren’t expensive to start with. You could book something like Zurich-Copenhagen (via Germany) on 3 trains on 3 days for €12 or something like that.
sj.se - yep. The reservations booked (with an interrail) are refundable other than a small (€1ish) booking fee.
entur.no - yep. There’s a flat rate for sleepers (with a 1st class interrail at least) of NOK 1000 for a sleeper compartment, no matter whether you are solo or in a group. Day trains are free (again for 1st class at least).
Thanks, my question was : on all these sites there's a way to find the prices for pass holders :)
Note:
Your pass is your ticket!
Some trains require a seat reservation, some others not, some other trains it is optional.
In your case most trains have compulsory reservations.
You will get not a discount, you only have to pay a reservation fee to have a seat. Often the websites to get the reservation you have to add Interrail/Eurail as discount card but you get only a reservation. I know a bit confusing.
The websites are linked before from others, just have a look. If you don't find one or have problems just ask again.
If it's for having the exact same message as yesterday nevermins haha.
What do you need? :)
I mean other send you the websites where to get the reservations and you ask again how to look it.
But here for your route:
For trains in Germany:
seat only option bahn.com (4,50€/journey), oebb.at (3€/train), cd.cz (~3€/train) or DSB (link below ~4€/train)
For trains Germany-Denmark
https://travel.b-europe.com/dsb-rail/en/reservation-only#TravelWish
Nighttrains to/from/in Germany except Snalltoget oebb.at one way ticket option and Interrail/Eurail as discount.
Snalltoget Nighttrain Berlin-Hamburg-Malmö-Stockholm at https://www.snalltaget.se/en add as discount Interrail
SJ Nighttrain Berlin-Hamburg-Malmö on sj.se
For trains in Sweden and Copenhagen-Sweden, Oslo-Sweden. go to sj.se add interrail/eurail as discount. Öresund trains between Denmark and Sweden do not need a reservation only high speed trains of SJ. You need a cover number of your pass you get get one here:
For trains in Norway go to entur.no and chat with customer service to get the reservation for the trains in norway.
Thanks mate
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