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Rail pass users in several apps?

  • June 30, 2026
  • 8 replies
  • 41 views
I

Hi, 

I am travelling with my family, we are four, and we also travel with another family of four. 
First question: when I activate the rail passes for me in the Rail Planner app, will the passes to my three connected family members also be activated? 
Or do they all have to have their own pass on their own device and activate it themselves? My youngest kid does not have a mobile, so how does that work?

Secondly: 
I am wanting to book a train leg in France, and if we can get the reservation, I want to make sure we are in the same train, sitting somewhat together. 
 

Will it be a problem if I add the other family’s passes to my seat reservation, either in the Rail planner app or with SNCF? 
Will the other family be able to access and use their interrail passes on other trains where they dont travel with us, if I add them to my trip and my booking? 

thank you so much🤞🏼❤️

 

Best answer by zagmund

“will the passes to my three connected family members also be activated?” - no, they won’t.  You can add the passes to your copy of the app on your phone and activate them, or you can install the app on their phones (if they have phones) and activate their pass on their phone.  If you go with the first route then unfortunately there’s nothing automatic about it - you will need to add each train journey 4 times.  I think it would be great if the Interrail folks would add the function to clone or mirror trips for situations like this.  Note that if you install all 4 passes on 1 phone you lose the ability for 1 parent to go somewhere with 1 child to and the other parent to go with the other one.

“how does that work?” - I should have read the entire post, shouldn’t I?  Given 3 phones and 4 passes then you will by definition have to have 2 passes on 1 phone.  It can be on any of the phones.

“Will the other family be able to access and use their interrail passes on other trains where they dont travel with us, if I add them to my trip and my booking?“  Yes, they won’t have any problems.  In general terms, passes and reservations aren’t directly linked.  The pass lives in the app and is effectively a stand alone ticket.  Reservations can live in any number of places - often just on the train companies system, or on paper, or in the train companies app, or any other number of ways.  Assume that you manage to somehow convince SNCF to give you 8 seats together on the train you will both be on . . . this won’t impact the other families ability to travel from (say) Sweden, through Denmark, Germany & Belgium to meet you using their own passes . . . which live on their phones.

    8 replies

    Z
    Engin-ius
    Forum|alt.badge.img+9
    • zagmund
    • Engin-ius
    • Answer
    • June 30, 2026

    “will the passes to my three connected family members also be activated?” - no, they won’t.  You can add the passes to your copy of the app on your phone and activate them, or you can install the app on their phones (if they have phones) and activate their pass on their phone.  If you go with the first route then unfortunately there’s nothing automatic about it - you will need to add each train journey 4 times.  I think it would be great if the Interrail folks would add the function to clone or mirror trips for situations like this.  Note that if you install all 4 passes on 1 phone you lose the ability for 1 parent to go somewhere with 1 child to and the other parent to go with the other one.

    “how does that work?” - I should have read the entire post, shouldn’t I?  Given 3 phones and 4 passes then you will by definition have to have 2 passes on 1 phone.  It can be on any of the phones.

    “Will the other family be able to access and use their interrail passes on other trains where they dont travel with us, if I add them to my trip and my booking?“  Yes, they won’t have any problems.  In general terms, passes and reservations aren’t directly linked.  The pass lives in the app and is effectively a stand alone ticket.  Reservations can live in any number of places - often just on the train companies system, or on paper, or in the train companies app, or any other number of ways.  Assume that you manage to somehow convince SNCF to give you 8 seats together on the train you will both be on . . . this won’t impact the other families ability to travel from (say) Sweden, through Denmark, Germany & Belgium to meet you using their own passes . . . which live on their phones.

      Marvin Heer
      Engin-ius
      Forum|alt.badge.img+7
      • Marvin Heer
      • Engin-ius
      • June 30, 2026

      You can activate multiple passes on the same device. But for everyone who can travel on there own i would recommend for each person to have the Pass on their own Device. 

      I speak german 🇩🇪, english 🇬🇧, and i understand a bit of french
        Z
        Engin-ius
        Forum|alt.badge.img+9
        • zagmund
        • Engin-ius
        • June 30, 2026

        Assume that you end up with 1 family in coach 1 and the other one on coach 23 at the other end of the train . . . the only issue that might arise here is that the person with the reservation in their hand or on their email is sitting 22 carriages away when the inspector comes along.

        However, unless SNCF do something particularly weird this shouldn’t be a problem in reality.

          Marvin Heer
          Engin-ius
          Forum|alt.badge.img+7
          • Marvin Heer
          • Engin-ius
          • June 30, 2026

          It is possible to share a whole trip so you can just import the trip on other Devices (Usefull if you already created a trip and want to share it to the other people as a starting point)

          Also if you add journeys during your travel you can select multiple trips (on your device) to add them to at the same time. Usefull as you need to have a separate trip for each Interrail pass.

          I speak german 🇩🇪, english 🇬🇧, and i understand a bit of french
            Z
            Engin-ius
            Forum|alt.badge.img+9
            • zagmund
            • Engin-ius
            • June 30, 2026

            “Also if you add journeys during your travel you can select multiple trips (on your device) to add them to at the same time.“ - I didn’t realise that.  This is good news.

              I
              • Ida Jevne
              • Author
              • Rail rookie
              • June 30, 2026

              Thank you so much! This is super helpful, and really so much quicker than asking a chatbot which doesn’t understand your question and then waiting days before a human answers the thread😅

              I
              • Ida Jevne
              • Author
              • Rail rookie
              • June 30, 2026

              And just to double check if I’ve understood this: 

              So all of the seat reservations for the different train legs in question can stay on my phone in my app (if we are travelling on the same train and sit together)? I don’t need to transfer/mirror these seat reservations to the others. 
              Since the seat reservations and the interrail passes are totally separate. Right? 
              However, you guys would advise us to keep the interrail passes for each passenger separate on different devices and activate them separately.
              It is still possible for me to use the pass codes for all four (or eight) of us when making seat reservations? 
               

              thank you❤️

              Marvin Heer
              Engin-ius
              Forum|alt.badge.img+7
              • Marvin Heer
              • Engin-ius
              • June 30, 2026

               

              And just to double check if I’ve understood this: 

              So all of the seat reservations for the different train legs in question can stay on my phone in my app (if we are travelling on the same train and sit together)? I don’t need to transfer/mirror these seat reservations to the others. 
              Since the seat reservations and the interrail passes are totally separate. Right? 
              However, you guys would advise us to keep the interrail passes for each passenger separate on different devices and activate them separately.
              It is still possible for me to use the pass codes for all four (or eight) of us when making seat reservations? 
               

              thank you❤️

              If you sit together, that is fine. (which should be the case if you book them together)

              But you can also just share the seat reservations as a pdf.

              Yes you can use all 8 pass codes when booking the reservations. Booking reservation should be done together so you get seats next to each other.

              I speak german 🇩🇪, english 🇬🇧, and i understand a bit of french
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