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Hi everyone, 

My boyfriend and I are from Belgium and we bought a global pass to do two trips (4 travel days) in one month. We already went to Italy and back. We had to use our inbound and outbound trips because the app recognized it like that. Tomorrow we want to leave for France with a TGV and we already made the reservations. We don’t have an outbound/inbound journey left and I want to buy a ticket separately, but does this mean that I have to buy another ticket for the TGV until Paris? Because then we have to make an extra reservation on the train and that is quite expensive. Is there anyone with the same experience? 

Thanks a lot for your help!

 

Which TGV exactly are you using?

Thalys requires a valid Interrail for the complete length of the journey. They don't have reservation fees when you have a pass for only part of the journey.

The TGV from Brussels to the south of France do have a fare for when only have a valid pass for part of the journey. The price is currently the same for a valid global pass and a pass that is valid only in France so that could work.

 

Your pass is not valid for travel in Belgium any longer, there is no way around that.

 

The way to travel is to pay separately for travel out of Belgium and continue with pass from there, picking up TGV to Paris from Lille would be the most obvious but that probably depends on where in Belgium you are.

Which TGV exactly are you using?

Thalys requires a valid Interrail for the complete length of the journey. They don't have reservation fees when you have a pass for only part of the journey.

The TGV from Brussels to the south of France do have a fare for when only have a valid pass for part of the journey. The price is currently the same for a valid global pass and a pass that is valid only in France so that could work.

 

We are traveling from Brussels to Avignon so you think we can pay an extra fare and then it would be okay? Do you know how much it would cost and where I can find this?

 

The TGV Brussels - Avignon is indeed one that has a pass fare for when you only have a pass for part of the journey. If you only have a valid pass for France (as in your case), you would formally need a reservation "Pass 2”, which would cost €20/€30 (2nd/1st class). Formally you'd have to exchange your current Pass 1 (nl/fr) reservation for a Pass 2 (nl/fr) reservation. However, it is unlikely that there are still pass holder seats available for tomorrow and the prices (nl/fr) of both reservations are the same.

You don't need an extra ticket. You can fill in your pass from the Belgian/French border point, which is called Wannehain(fr), using a manual journey.

The TGV Brussels - Avignon is indeed one that has a pass fare for when you only have a pass for part of the journey. If you only have a valid pass for France (as in your case), you would formally need a reservation "Pass 2”, which would cost €20/€30 (2nd/1st class). Formally you'd have to exchange your current Pass 1 (nl/fr) reservation for a Pass 2 (nl/fr) reservation. However, it is unlikely that there are still pass holder seats available for tomorrow and the prices (nl/fr) of both reservations are the same.

You don't need an extra ticket. You can fill in your pass from the Belgian/French border point, which is called Wannehain(fr), using a manual journey.

I have just contacted the NMBS in Belgium but they don’t understand what Pass 1 and Pass 2 means. They say I have to buy an extra ticket to get to Paris and from there on I can use the Interrail Pass. I can’t believe that they don’t know what the different passes are but I don’t want to risk missing a train or getting a huge fine. So I will check out the option to go to Lille Europe. Thanks for your time and information and I hope in the future this will be solved.

 

I can only say that I linked to NMBS's official tariffs. What is in there, is 100% valid. If the staff don't know their own tariffs, then they should look them up.

One of the TGVs (the one leaving at 13:17) also stops at Lille Europe, so if you want to buy anything extra and you're taking that train, then a ticket to Lille is far enough.

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