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Problem with Travel Day Activation and Invalid Pass on Overnight Train (Prague–Budapest)

  • April 26, 2025
  • 4 replies
  • 88 views
J

I’m currently facing a problem. I used a travel day for an overnight journey from Prague to Budapest, departing Prague at 22:01 and arriving in Budapest at 8:29 AM, with no stops or train changes after midnight — it was a direct train.

Before boarding, I activated my travel day, but I don’t understand how the app allows you to activate a travel day without adding the journey first. If adding the journey is necessary and mandatory, why does the app allow this?

Now I have an issue because I used a travel day, but there’s no QR code showing up anywhere.

Additionally, the Czech railway company controllers told me that my Pass code was invalid and they couldn’t find it. I showed them the official Eurail confirmation email, the order number, the payment receipt — everything — but it was not accepted. I even showed them the email with the Pass code, but it didn’t help.

It’s very frustrating to encounter these issues during such a long trip.

Has anyone experienced something similar?

Best answer by Al_G

You need to add every journey you take to your pass, it is not valid if you fail to do this.

As it is possible to add, delete, activate and deactivate journeys without limits up until the end of each travel day it is also possible to have an active day with no active journeys.

If you have failed to add an overnight journey and it has passed midnight you can no longer add it as the day’s journeys are locked once the day ends.

I am guessing this is where your problems with the train staff has come from, it was your requirement to add and activate their train and you now cannot do this.

 

The issue about the pass number is a different matter but most likely brought on because you had not presented a valid pass to begin with. What the Czech staff are checking your pass against is a question, if there even is a verified list of issued pass numbers they are able to access for them to check against?

    4 replies

    A
    Full steam ahead
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    • Al_G
    • Full steam ahead
    • Answer
    • April 26, 2025

    You need to add every journey you take to your pass, it is not valid if you fail to do this.

    As it is possible to add, delete, activate and deactivate journeys without limits up until the end of each travel day it is also possible to have an active day with no active journeys.

    If you have failed to add an overnight journey and it has passed midnight you can no longer add it as the day’s journeys are locked once the day ends.

    I am guessing this is where your problems with the train staff has come from, it was your requirement to add and activate their train and you now cannot do this.

     

    The issue about the pass number is a different matter but most likely brought on because you had not presented a valid pass to begin with. What the Czech staff are checking your pass against is a question, if there even is a verified list of issued pass numbers they are able to access for them to check against?

    J

    Thank you very much for your response. However, I believe it should not be possible to activate a travel day without first adding a journey, or at least the app should prompt users to do so.

    It seems to me that this could be improved in the app’s design, as situations like this can cause serious issues during a trip.

    J

    The app should display a message requesting users to add the journey, with the option to add it later in case they want to confirm or modify it afterwards, as you mentioned.

    However, the main point is that adding the journey is extremely important and should not be treated as something secondary.

    It seems to me that this could be improved in the app’s design, as situations like this can cause serious issues during a trip.

    Things like this really shouldn’t happen, especially when travelers rely so much on the app during long journeys.

    R
    Railmaster
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    • rvdborgt
    • Railmaster
    • April 27, 2025

    Thank you very much for your response. However, I believe it should not be possible to activate a travel day without first adding a journey, or at least the app should prompt users to do so.

    You can activate a travel day without journeys if you explicitly tap on the "Use travel day” button. The app will then ask for a date and only after you confirm, it will activate the travel day.

    One other way to end up with a travel day without journeys is when you delete all journeys from an active travel day.

    Did you do one of those things?

    Please ask questions in the community and not via a private message. That's the quickest way to get a response. I don't work for Eurail/Interrail.
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