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Hello 

I am planning a trip from Munich to Venice, then Florence, and finally back to Munich. To save money, I purchased an Interrail pass.

When I tried to book seats using the Interrail website, I noticed that it costs more than 130 euros for 2 adults and one child under 7 for just a one-way journey from Florence to Munich.

For the outbound travel, I managed to book a ticket using the DB website, which only cost me less than 9 euros.

Now, I have a few questions:

  1. How can I book seats for my Interrail pass?
  2. Is there a specific website where I can book seats for my travel?
  3. Should I use the Interrail pass for traveling between Venice and Florence as well?

I want to make the most cost-effective choices for my trip, so any advice or recommendations are welcome. Thank you!

 

There is currently a problem on Interrail/Eurail : the price you see is way too high but then it gets corrected at checkout…

However Interrail/Eurail is not the best place to book anyway : use tickets.oebb.at -> add Interrail as a discount and select one-way tickets.

Seat reservation costs in Italy :

- 13€ Frecciarossa

- 3€ IC trains

It would cost 13€ per person between Venice and Florence. Now it's up to you to check if regular tickets are cheaper on your date. Check on trenitalia.com and italotreno.it

Please note that there is a supplement on EC trains using the Brennerpass (between Austria and Italy) : 10€ in 2nd class. It can be bought on ÖBB (see above). You can avoid it by taking regional trains across the border. Reservations are optional on those EC trains (3€) but you'll probably stand if you don't make one.

EDIT : Your one-country Italy pass is only valid from/to Brenner/Brennero btw. In that sense you won't have to pay the supplement

Let us know for further questions.


Thank  you for the  answer. 

Is it also OK to book seat reservation using DB site? I already booked it and now cannot be changed.


Yes sure it's fine as long as you got seat numbers.

Please have a look at my edit.


EDIT : Your one-country Italy pass is only valid from/to Brenner/Brennero btw. In that sense you won't have to pay the supplement.

 

Very important thing that a One Country Pass is only valid in the select country.

@thibcabe The supplement is needed for One Country Italy on board of DB-ÖBB trains in Italy. Only German Rail Pass has no supplement.


Thank you . When i try booking seat with OBB for florence to muhich ,it booked seats only from 

Bologna Centrale →  Munich

 

and for florence→ bologine its says, 

There are No Services Available for this Section of the Journey

You will need another ticket for the section of the journey Firenze S.M.N. > Bologna Centrale.

 

No tickets needed Firenze SMN to Bologine?. If needed how can i do that reservation? 


Thank you . When i try booking seat with OBB for florence to muhich ,it booked seats only from 

Bologna Centrale →  Munich

and for florence→ bologine its says, 

There are No Services Available for this Section of the Journey

You will need another ticket for the section of the journey Firenze S.M.N. > Bologna Centrale.

No tickets needed Firenze SMN to Bologine?. If needed how can i do that reservation? 

Which train is tis for Firenze-Bologna? (date, departure time)

If both trains need a reservation, then you often need to book them separately via ÖBB.


Hello ,

On 16:08:2023 Departure at 10:55 Frecciarossa 9520 - with destination Milano Centrale.

 


OK, so please book separately on tickets.oebb.at:

  1. Firenze SMN 10:55 - Bologna Centrale. You can also take a train at 10:36 to have some more buffer in Bologna. Mandatory pass supplement €10 in 2nd or €15 in 1st class. Reservation optional but recommended (€3 in 2nd, free of charge in 1st class)
  2. Bologna Centrale - München Hbf. Reservation mandatory, €13 in 2nd and 1st class.

For both trains, add the Interrail/Eurail discount for each person and then choose "One-way tickets” (NOT "Seat reservation only”). It's not intuitive, but that's how the ÖBB booking website works for these trains.


Thank you very much.


Hello , 

During my joureny from munich to venice and bologna to munich the ticket checker asked me to show the joirney QR code in inter rail app , I showed the QR code for the supplimentery one way ticket ticket code but that was not enough for him.

The problem is,after adding the joureny in interrail app i’m not able to enable the QR for those routes(attached screen shot).the pass worked well with in italy for all my journey. Any one know why i’m

not able enable journey? Why the checker is asking for the joirney QR code even after showing onway ticket code?

 


If I understood correctly, it’s because you have a one country pass Italy, which is not valid out of Italy.

You need seperate tickets (ordinary, non interrail reservation) tickets from the border point or last station in Italy to your destination in Innsbruck/Munich in this case.


That make sense .thank you very much for the response


@thibcabe your advice makes total sense. Unfortunately it doesn’t with Eurail.. I’m currently in dispute with them, because the seat reservation doesn’t get corrected out. In fact, the seat reservation is also a train fare for the country outside of the rail pass. This is of course all information that, according to Eurail, is very clearly communicated on their part and also very obvious to know to travellers like me. I’m being cynical here. This terrible customer service person from Eurail has mansplained to me for over two weeks now how it is my fault that I got the wrong ticket and I should have known that it includes a train fare, and I should not trust what is written on The Community. They withhold 20% of the original price paid which is a total rip off and quite frankly a nice little side earner for Eurail for anyone cancelling and requesting refunds (I’m not the only one). I’m now pursuing a formal complaint via the ombudsman for European travel companies because Eurail can’t get away with deplorable behaviour and daylight robbery. 


Which train was it ? How much ?

If you were able to buy a regular train ticket on Interrail/Eurail this is clearly wrong and weird. Bugs are common on the website so I don't know what happened...

Could you please have a look ? @Camilo.  @Mukhammad 


It was the train from Zurich to Verona. Seat reservation was 91 euros. I naively bought it because I assumed train fare for the Swiss part is included. Then I couldn’t find that information anywhere and Eurail points to The Community for help. I came across your advice and thought that makes sense! I cancelled the booking quickly. I got refunded 70 euros. 20 euros Eurail keeps. Eurail told me that the fare includes the train and the system automatically adds the train fare it if the pass doesn’t cover it. It makes no sense to me as I explicitly selected seat reservation, and not ticket or pass. I think the system is faulty. 


It was the train from Zurich to Verona. Seat reservation was 91 euros. I naively bought it because I assumed train fare for the Swiss part is included. Then I couldn’t find that information anywhere and Eurail points to The Community for help. I came across your advice and thought that makes sense! I cancelled the booking quickly. I got refunded 70 euros. 20 euros Eurail keeps. Eurail told me that the fare includes the train and the system automatically adds the train fare it if the pass doesn’t cover it. It makes no sense to me as I explicitly selected seat reservation, and not ticket or pass. I think the system is faulty. 

Dear @monica99 , 

Our system allows you to book Zurich to Verona and depending on the Pass you have, it will charge accordingly. Since you had an Italy Pass (by the name it is understandable is only valid within Italy), the system charged you from Zurich until the first stop in Italy. If you suspected the reservation was too expensive, you should have contacted us before purchasing it. Unfortunately, you agreed on the terms while booking the reservation. We cannot make any exception on this. 

Have a nice day!


@Camilo. @thibcabe then what‘s the point of differentiating between seat reservation and pass? And why doesn’t the system and the ticket say: train ticket for non-pass country is included? If I had known this then I would have been happy to pay the 91 euros. Because I didn’t know it, and subsequently saw the advice on this community, that I cancelled it. 


@Camilo. @thibcabe then what‘s the point of differentiating between seat reservation and pass? And why doesn’t the system and the ticket say: train ticket for non-pass country is included? If I had known this then I would have been happy to pay the 91 euros. Because I didn’t know it, and subsequently saw the advice on this community, that I cancelled it. 

Frankly I didn't know that it was offered on the website... ticket to the border + reservation I mean. I knew that it was possible to get such things at train stations but that's it.

In any case it should be clearly mentioned on the website, this seems very important to me. 91€ seems about right for the ride since Zurich - Chiasso costs 72 CHF/75€ (full fare fixed price) + 13€ for the reservation + 2€ booking fee. Do you know something about it @rvdborgt ? (hope you don't mind being tagged).


@Camilo. @thibcabe then what‘s the point of differentiating between seat reservation and pass? And why doesn’t the system and the ticket say: train ticket for non-pass country is included? If I had known this then I would have been happy to pay the 91 euros. Because I didn’t know it, and subsequently saw the advice on this community, that I cancelled it. 

Frankly I didn't know that it was offered on the website... ticket to the border + reservation I mean. I knew that it was possible to get such things at train stations but that's it.

In any case it should be clearly mentioned on the website, this seems very important to me. 91€ seems about right for the ride since Zurich - Chiasso costs 72 CHF/75€ (full fare fixed price) + 13€ for the reservation + 2€ booking fee. Do you know something about it @rvdborgt ? (hope you don't mind being tagged).

It's new to me that the reservations page can now book (some?) reservations for which a pass is valid only for part of the route. This must be something new. One the one hand, that's good. On the other, it should be pointed out clearly what you're buying. I have no time to test this, but I'll have a look sometime in the near future.


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