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Hello everyone! Although I've seen tons of videos on how to use the Railplanner app and Eurorail website so I'm still getting the confidence around it, I still don't quite get how to make the reservations and when I should  activate the pass. I bought a 5 days Global Pass.

here's my itinerary for now:

April 13th - From London to Paris @3:30PM

April 16th - From Paris to Bern,Switzerland @10AM

**We'll be visiting a few destinations within Switzerland with trains also.**

April 18Th - From Bern to Geneva.

 

Questions:

  1. Few websites including Eurorail guide says that reservations should be bought somewhere else, not directly with Eurorail but with the train companies directly. Website does give you the option to buy them though. Furthermore, it says that train times are not updated fast enough to be accurate. Please explain this.
  2. When exactly you should activate the pass and what if I miss a train or for some other reason I dont board the reserved seat, what should I do?
  3. What to do when not travelling? Should you turn off the QR code toggle?
  4. I'm travelling with a companion, I had to create a “copy” of my trip in the europlanner so I could add the other traveler to the PASS.
  5. When creating the journey, do I have to add it separately to my traveler as well?
  1. Eurail sell reservations but they're more expensive than elsewhere (they add booking fees), have worse refund/exchange conditions and sometimes can only issue paper reservations (that have to be sent via the post, with additional costs) while you can get reservations by email elsewhere. Eurail only update their timetable every few weeks, while most operators do that twice a week.
  2. You activate on the day you start.
  3. You just leave the pass alone.
  4. 2 passes in 1 app also means you can't travel separately.
  5. You can add 1 journey to 2 trips at the same time.

Have a look at this general guide : https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm

Rail Europe works well. Eurostar trains have a passholder quota so don't leave it too late to book.

Paris - Basel direct TGVs cost 29€ in 2nd class (39€ 1st) but to save money you can leave the high-speed train right before the border (Mulhouse for example) and then cross it on a regional train -> 10-20€ in both classes. For example :

- TGV Paris Gare de Lyon - Mulhouse 09:21 - 12:38 10€

- TER Mulhouse - Basel SBB 12:46 - 13:08

- IC61 Bern 13:28 - 14:26

Seat reservations are unnecessary in Switzerland.

Hopefully for clarity:

The process you follow to create your “Ticket” in the app is split into 3 steps.

Firstly there is the PLANNER where you search for the trains you will be using. From the PLANNER in the app you can add any train quickly to your TRIP (and any other pass on the device). You can use any other planning tool and, if your chosen train is not showing in the PLANNER you can add it manually.

When you find your chosen trains you put or transfer them into your TRIP. Each pass has a single TRIP linked to it. Think of this as a diary and trains can be added and removed at any time up to boarding. 

Once you activate your PASS (ideally shortly before you board your first train) all the trains in your TRIP will show a small grey slider. By operating this the PASS will create a travel day and your first train ticket. A button appears in your PASS home page with SHOW TICKET. Click on this and you will see your ticket for that travel day. It has a QR code and a text listing of the train details. As you travel that day you simply toggle the grey button against each train you plan to travel on the list will show that trains details along with the earlier trains. Note the QR code does not change.

If you activate a train and then have to change you simply de toggle it and add any new trains to your TRIP and toggle that one. Your ticket changes automatically.

None of these include a reservation, which if needed have to be sourced and shown separately.

Hopefully for clarity:

The process you follow to create your “Ticket” in the app is split into 3 steps.

Firstly there is the PLANNER where you search for the trains you will be using. From the PLANNER in the app you can add any train quickly to your TRIP (and any other pass on the device). You can use any other planning tool and, if your chosen train is not showing in the PLANNER you can add it manually.

When you find your chosen trains you put or transfer them into your TRIP. Each pass has a single TRIP linked to it. Think of this as a diary and trains can be added and removed at any time up to boarding. 

Once you activate your PASS (ideally shortly before you board your first train) all the trains in your TRIP will show a small grey slider. By operating this the PASS will create a travel day and your first train ticket. A button appears in your PASS home page with SHOW TICKET. Click on this and you will see your ticket for that travel day. It has a QR code and a text listing of the train details. As you travel that day you simply toggle the grey button against each train you plan to travel on the list will show that trains details along with the earlier trains. Note the QR code does not change.

If you activate a train and then have to change you simply de toggle it and add any new trains to your TRIP and toggle that one. Your ticket changes automatically.

None of these include a reservation, which if needed have to be sourced and shown separately.

All right! This definitely helps! What about the reservation? Thru Eurorail Yay or Nay? Whenever I go into other operators such as  Eurostar, it only shows tickets around 190 to 300 euros! I know I;m doing something wrong! I even created an account and it shows the same prices. I thought you went into these sites and somehow refenced your Eurorail pass, now i Know that's wrong!

 

Edited: I'm saying wrong because Eurostar is displaying an error message that it doesn;t find my pass, although Raileurope.com ddid recognized one of my passes BUT THEY ALL SAY INTERRAIL!!! Even after selecting the Eurorail Global pass option!!!! F*****!!!

Please follow the link I posted earlier. Don't hesitate to come back with questions.

Eurail adds fees and the overview can be confusing so don't book there.

Some companies websites allow passholder reservations, some don't.

In the case of optional reservations it's the same process whether you have a ticket or a pass (you don't mention it).

Interrail is the same as Eurail but for persons living in Europe, but from a reservation point of view, it doesn't matter if it says Eurail or Interrail. 

 

You can't make Eurail seat reservations directly from Eurostar. You must make them through Raileurope (only desktop version), b-europe or eurail.com. The 2 latter have a booking fee. 

Interrail is the same as Eurail but for persons living in Europe, but from a reservation point of view, it doesn't matter if it says Eurail or Interrail. 

 

You can't make Eurail seat reservations directly from Eurostar. You must make them through Raileurope (only desktop version), b-europe or eurail.com. The 2 latter have a booking fee. 

Oh wow! So it doesn;t matter if it says Interrail as long as we're talking about seat reservations. All righty then! That definitely gave me a peace of mind! Thank you so much! I will go with Raileurope since is the only one that recognizes my Eurorail Global pass! Happy traveling!
PS: You’re right! I did find the Raileurope app on Google Play but from the looks of it, it doesn’t provide an option to reference your Eurorail global pass as the desktop version does.

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