Eurail is a company in the Netherlands so they mainly work on business hours (7am - 8pm). Not quite different than here in Switzerland...

I can make an itinerary suggestion for you and your partner to Paris on Saturday if you'd like

Either you buy 2 tickets at the same time on sncf-connect.com and you should be seated together. TGVs are great but they are often so busy... if you book one of the cheap connections, then it's quite certain that you'll be seated together. You then use your pass after Paris or get a refund.

Or you find connections that fit you on sncf-connect.com (have at least 2 available seats in 2nd class for example), go to the train station tomorrow and ask what you'd like.

Itinerary suggestions :

- Zurich (at 5:59 or 6:08) - Basel 10-20 CHF for your partner + free for you

- Basel - Mulhouse - Dijon - Paris at 11:12 100€ for your partner + 40€ for you

Or

- Zurich (departure 10:30) - Neuchâtel - Frasne 38 CHF partner (half-fare) or 64 CHF full fare + free for you

- TGV Frasne - Paris (arrival 16:12) 48€ partner + 10€ you

Or

later TGVs from Zurich (11:34, 13:34,...) 140-150€ partner + 37€ you

Or

Zurich (07:36 or 07:59 via Liestal) - Basel SBB 11-13 CHF half-fare, 22-27 CHF full-fare (saver tickets) partner + free for you

Basel SBB (09:21) - Strasbourg - Paris-Est (12:38) 140€ partner + 20€ you

Unfortunately that's pretty much everything...

Last addition to my post

This is my favourite option so to speak :

- Zürich HB - Neuchâtel 10:04 - 11:34

- Neuchâtel - Frasne 12:06 - 13:06

- TGV Frasne - Paris 13:15 - 16:12

Price is the lowest and you'll sit together as the TGV isn't that full !

Partner :

- 21 CHF (half-fare) / 42 CHF (full-fare) Zürich HB - Neuchâtel (saver ticket on SBB app or sbb.ch)

- 70€ or 71.30 CHF Neuchâtel - Frasne - Paris

You : 10€ Frasne - Paris

Let me know and I hope that your trip will go well

so here’s the latest -- and I hope the final on this message.

I woke up this morning and tried again, and it worked -- yup, it just worked. I used the eurail website and it worked.  It worked like you’d think it would/should work.

Why did it work --- who knows….

I then checked the sbb website and there are 2nd class seats available.

For everyone that has helped I appreciate it.

Sadly the time I picked was the time I was available, so the many other travel times you offered would not work.

Can you imagine if the Airline industry worked like this? Or a Car rental agency or the hotel industry, why do we accept this type of service from this company?  Seriously - there are so many opportunities to make this a good experience, but instead it chose another route.

If eurail is watching this thread -- just know that I still haven’t received a return to my communication, and if you need a person to fix your website/app let me know - I have experience in the web/it world and I’m happy to say the websites I built back in 2000 are FAR superior.

conclusion:

--- I can’t imagine I would EVER recommend this service to anyone.  

--- I am happy I don’t have to go and “fight” with the SBB to get a refund, however I fully expect eurail is just waiting to fail me again, on my continued trip.

The Eurail/Interrail websites should only be used to book a reservation if you can't avoid it. They're often more expensive and not always reliable.

It seems that 6 seats have been released, surely due to the cancellation of a group

Nobody could have predicted that

Hope your trip goes well regardless

what other way is there to book a ticket.   I’m now researching my next leg of the trip and am having challenges finding an available seat (1 seat) on a train.   

Let us know the route and we'll help

Here are some useful links :

https://travel.b-europe.com/Eurail-GE/en/booking-tgv#TravelWish (TGV within France)

https://www.b-europe.com/EN/Booking/Pass#TravelWish 

Eurostar to London, Thalys to Brussels and Amsterdam. These seats can sell out weeks in advance. There is the possibility to go to Lille-Flandres via TGV and then take 2 IC trains to Brussels (journey time 3h in total) or Amsterdam (5h30). Also TGV to Lille-Europe and Eurostar to London (always more seats). There is a 27-32€ seat reservation for these trains but regular tickets are always way more expensive for Thalys or Eurostar

https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm (general advice)

My travel continues

Depart paris on Sunday April 30 after 4pm (1600 hrs)

Arrive Amsterdam airport

one person only and I have a 2nd class eurail ticket

There are no seat reservations left to Brussels, Schiphol Airport or Amsterdam. You'll have to go via Lille-Flandres :

- Paris-Nord - Lille-Flandres 15:16 - 16:18

- Lille-Flandres 17:03 - Kortrijk - Antwerpen-Centraal - Schiphol Airport 21:19 reservation-free

Or

- Paris-Nord - Lille-Flandres 17:46 - 18:48 20€

- Lille-Flandres 19:09 - Kortrijk - Antwerpen-Centraal - Schiphol Airport 23:19 reservation-free

how did you find this….    I like the 17:46 timeframe.

Unfortunately all direct trains are sold out, even regular tickets...

I've found here the TGV ride : https://travel.b-europe.com/Eurail-GE/en/booking-tgv#TravelWish

20€ for 2nd class seat or 19€ for 1st class seat with 2nd class pass (9€ surcharge + 10€ seat)

I used bahn.de and SBB app as planners :)

Let me know

I’ve booked this one: - Paris-Nord - Lille-Flandres 17:46 - 18:48 20€    2nd class seat 

For this portion: - Lille-Flandres 19:09 - Kortrijk - Antwerpen-Centraal - Schiphol Airport 23:19 reservation-free    do I just get on the train?  do I need anything like a ticket or proof of anything?

Thanks --- this was super helpful. 

My gumpyness is back to normal.

The Interrail/Eurail pass is your ticket, for any train.

You add the train to the app before boarding (switching a toggle) so you get a QR code. You need to add any train to the app, even the one with mandatory seat reservations.

And then you can get on the train :)

Trains requiring seat reservations : whenever a ticket inspector comes you show both your pass (QR code in the app) + seat reservation (printed or PDF)

You only need to connect every 72 hours to wifi/4G, otherwise everything works in airplane mode

Did you mention the start date of your travel to Customer Support? They give priority to assisting travellers that currently are travelling and those travelling in the near future. But you should receive a confirmation email. How did you contact Customer Support?

Wooo Hooo --- I did it, I did my FIRST interail travel.

I went from:

• Zurich to Paris
• Paris to Amsterdam
• Amsterdam to The Hague and back
• The Hague to Brussels
• Brussels to Gent and back
• Brussels to Frankfurt 
• Frankfurt to Zurich

All in about 7days

All these trains had train transfers throughout the journey, so I’d say I was on 15ish different trains in 5 countries.

My take away from this experience:   TAKE THE BUS or WALK

EVERY single train (except the Zurich to Paris) Was delayed, or late or ….  you won’t believe this but BROKEN down. 

A few examples:

1. my train from Brussels to Zurich -- Supposed to take something like 8hrs (1 transfer).  Instead it took over 12hours and about 8transfers.  
2. One of the trains BROKE down and we all had to get off the train and get on another -- so your seat assignment, that didn’t happen
3. One train decided to NOT go any farther, I was supposed to exit at XX stop but instead the train stopped a few stops early and said the train would not go any farther.
4. About 90% of the trains had no way of “charging” a device.  So when the train stops and kicks everyone off to find a new train -- well, let’s hope you accounted for that in your batter power of your device (where your ticket is).
5. Take a look at the 2 images,  one indicates that the train plans to depart in something like 1.7million minutes (or 3,200 years)  Hmmm, do you think I have time to get off and get some food.  The other shows that we are driving at 200+ km per hour, but we have 0minutes to arrive and the original arrival time is X and the delayed time is Y and yet the current time is an hour later.
6. The best story ---- so the train is “stuck” at the station.  it’s 12:50 right now and An announcement comes onto the speaker…. we Will need to wait here for awhile, I will tell you what’s up at 13:50.   About 20min min later the same person communicates (over the speaker) we are still waiting and I will tell you what’s up at 13:50.   it’s now about 13:10.   I see some people get off the train to get some food.  At 13:15 the train pulls away from the station - no warning - no communication.  I look around and I no longer see those people that got off the train.  When we arrive at the final stop there are pieces of luggage in the train with NO one taking them.   Did the train seriously just leave people at the station.  The person on the announcement said he would “talk to us” at 13:50.   
7. I talked to person on the train, she said she takes the same - point to point (no transfer) train often to see her mother.  She said she seldom has a straight forward ride -- it’s almost always failing one way or another.   And sadly, this evening the train was not going to get her to where she needed to be so she was looking into getting a hotel room for the night.

OH MY GOD I have about 10more stories --- Like I asked a train person, at the train station, at the ticket counter if my train was on track 5.  they said they didn’t know.  I said, isn’t the train supposed to leave in 10minutes --- they said they didn’t know.  I said on the board it shows track 5 with a departure in 10min (did I read that correctly) they said they don’t know where the train is and if it will ever arrive.  I said, then what should I do - they said to go sit down and wait for an announcement because they don’t know when/if/where/if ever the train will arrive.   FYI - I only asked the question to Confirm what I read -- I was playing it safe and didn’t want to make a silly mistake and get on the wrong train.

at this point I think I’ll throw away the remaining 1.5months of this interrail pass.  I think I’ll go rent a car.  Seriously - I could have driven from Zurich to Brussels AND back in the time it took me to take the train 1 way.

OH - you might be asking yourself --- this has nothing to do with Interrail, all the problems were with the train “company(ies)”   And you'd be right.  However, the app that I used (that interrail said to use) had key information missing from the app - so I had to “triangulate” with 2 other apps to get the information I needed.   This then means I used up LOTS of data and Charge on my phone.

Believe me - I know many people will read this and tell me this was an isolated experience and they never had this problem.  And I understand, for some people it just works.  However, I’m not going to keep trying a food that makes me sick because someone else liked it.  Anyway - I’m glad my experience is over and I look forward to using other means of transportation in the future.  For example - I’m supposed to go on another trip in about a week, I’ve started looking at car rentals and flights because I will NOT use the european train system.