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Desperate plea re non-arrival of paper pass...

  • 20 December 2022
  • 13 replies
  • 121 views

Hi there, our paper Global Pass has not arrived, it got to the Dutch border on the 22nd November but then the trail went cold. I dont know what the UK tracking number is, it was due to arrive in early December, and we travel tomorrow evening.

Is there any way to contact an actual person in Eurail to try to find out where it has got to? We have pre-bought lots of (often rare) tickets to get up to Northern Sweden, using the pass number we were given in the confirmation/order emails.

Can anyone tell us whether if we buy a mobile pass, and then cancel the paper one, we can use the existing paper tickets (bought direct via Eurostar and swedish railways as the Eurail website seemed to fall over lots of time), with the pass ‘number’ listed on the mobile pass? Does the Mobile pass even have a pass number? The paper tickets have ‘only valid with a railcard’ printed on them, but it doesn’t quote a particular pass number. I dont think we’re going to be able to re-buy all the tickets via the app, we just havn’t got time, some of them are sold out, and it was hell buying them all originally. Is this the end of our trip?

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Best answer by Camilo. 20 December 2022, 16:02

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Userlevel 7
Badge +7

Risky things, paper passes these days. Especially if they exit Schengen and the Customs Union.

Reservations are completely seperate things than your ticket (your pass). If you’ve bought them, and you decide to use a mobile pass, the reservations are still valid. They’re not linked, it’s just connected to your seat, sometimes your name but not your pass. No worries about that, you don’t have to re-buy everything.

There’s also a tool to generate randomly generated pass covers numbers for mobile passes that don’t have pass cover numbers. Conclusion: These numbers have limited value and are never checked.

You probably already got in touch with customer support? Best mention your travel dates so that you get prioritised rightly.

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

@Annie. @Camilo. Can you please assist?

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Don't worry. You can use all your reservations with a new mobile pass.

Thanks very much BendanDB! I have logged a query on the contact form that posted in another similar query. I’ve also worked out that the Dutch tracking number works on the British Postal Tracking service, and that there is no record of the passes after they left Holland. Presumably they are stuck at the border - @@!!?? Brexit.

AnnaB thankyou very much too, stress levels starting to subside. So, I think we now have to clear some space on our phone (we’re not very techy, that’s why we were doing it on paper), buy the mobile pass, download the app??, then cancel the paper one before thursday, the first date of the Global Pass? Hope the phone works abroad, and log into to eurrail every three days or something to keep it all working??

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

For next time: order paper passes from the UK website:

https://www.myinterrail.co.uk/

I see that this website warns about a postal workers strike, so that might also be the/a cause.

Anyway, if your paper pass does not arrive in time, you can buy a mobile pass (also last minute) and request a full refund since the sender is responsible for delivery.

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

, then cancel the paper one before thursday, the first date of the Global Pass? 

Don't cancel the paper passes yourself but let Customer Support handle that. If you cancel yourself you risk loosing the money as you then need to send the passes back so that Eurail has them before the start of the validity, which in your case is impossible.

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Do you have a continuous pass or a flexi pass? Depending on what pass you have you need to be online more often than every 3rd day.

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Here is some useful information from the experienced travellers in the Community regarding activation of mobile passes and travel days. Just ask here in the Community if anything is unclear. 

 

 Activation of pass (mobile pass)

During the activation process, when you choose the start day of the validity of the pass, the first day of the validity period is automatically made a travel day, even if you don't enter a journey, the advice is therefore not to activate the pass before the first travel day as you only can deactivate the pass before 00.00 on the day the validity starts. If your travel plans change in the last moment you will loose travel days if you have activated the pass in advance.

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 (mobile pass)

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.

Userlevel 7
Badge +7

Yeah, customs, it can be a mess sometimes 😬

The mobile pass is quite easy to set up, after finishing your order, it’s almost immediately ready to use. Then you don’t have to worry any more.

The longest you have to wait is half an hour until the mail comes in.

If you doubt yourself with technology a bit, you might want to familiarise yourself with some tutorials which you can find here: https://www.interrail.eu/en/interrail-passes/interrail-mobile-pass/getting-started

But it’s quite straightforward. In doubt, the community is always ready to help :)

 

Userlevel 6
Badge +3

Hi @Misadventure 

Could you please send me a private message? I will be happy to check it for you. Otherwise you can always contact customer service. Let me remind you that the tracking number for Royal Mail  is the same one you received from us.

Have a lovely day! 

 

Thanks for the further info, I’ve found the UK interrail site now - doh! Also pm’d Camilo. Will check how often we’ll need to log on, I dont know if the mobile pass will be continuous or flexi, it just says 10 days travel in 2 months. You’re all stars :-)

Userlevel 7
Badge +7

Then it’s a Flexi. Stick closely to the advice of @AnnaB about the travel days and all will go smooth.

Enjoy your holidays!

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