Solved

How to write my hyphenated last name!


Hey, I'm travelling tomorrow and haven't purchased my pass yet. I don't know how to correctly put my name information in the First and Last name boxes on the site. The two small question mark icons that are supposed to help, are simply confusing me, because I have ONE last name which is hyphenated. Here's my full name:

Tobias Adam James-Cooke

Tobias is my first name, Adam is my middle name and James-Cooke is my last name. How do I correctly write it into the First and Last name fields on the purchase page?

 

 

 

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Best answer by rvdborgt 8 July 2022, 20:37

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Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Middle name is not needed; about the last name it says "If you have two last names, do not connect them with a hyphen.”

I think the most important thing is not to use a hyphen, so enter your last name as "James Cooke”.

Userlevel 1

Hi sorry to jump on this post but I have just received my sons pass. When filling out the booking for him I didn't know about the hyphen rule. His pass came this morning with a hyphen in his surname, does he need to change his pass please?? So confused. 

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

@Tosh Smith 

The problem is that if you want to make reservations through the Interrail website they don't allow special characters in names. And name has to be the same as on the pass.

The simple solution is to not make reservations on the Interrail website. Please read more below. 

 

Here is some useful information from the experienced travellers in the Community regarding both planning, reservations and activation of pass and travel days. 

 Planning

The rail planner is normally not up to date, as it only is updated once a month, so to be sure of the time table you better check the timetable and availability on the websites of the national railways. The bigger national railways, like DB (Germany) SBB (Switzerland) and ÖBB (Austria) cover several countries. 

 Reservations 

The advice from the experienced travellers in the community is to use other ways to make reservations than the Interrail/Eurail website.  You can look at the guide in the link:

https://community.eurail.com/train-connections-reservations-47/how-to-get-reservations-105

If you, after having looked at the guide, have questions about how to make specific reservation, please give your travel details (departure date, time and route) preferably in a new topic, and you will get advice.

Please note that Interrail/Eurail charges an extra fee of 2 EUR per person and ticket in addition to the fee for the seat reservation.

 Activation of 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

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, 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 1

@Tosh Smith

The problem is that if you want to make reservations through the Interrail website they don't allow special characters in names. And name has to be the same as on the pass.

The simple solution is to not make reservations on the Interrail website. Please read more below. 

 

Here is some useful information from the experienced travellers in the Community regarding both planning, reservations and activation of pass and travel days. 

 Planning

The rail planner is normally not up to date, as it only is updated once a month, so to be sure of the time table you better check the timetable and availability on the websites of the national railways. The bigger national railways, like DB (Germany) SBB (Switzerland) and ÖBB (Austria) cover several countries. 

 Reservations 

The advice from the experienced travellers in the community is to use other ways to make reservations than the Interrail/Eurail website.  You can look at the guide in the link:

https://community.eurail.com/train-connections-reservations-47/how-to-get-reservations-105

If you, after having looked at the guide, have questions about how to make specific reservation, please give your travel details (departure date, time and route) preferably in a new topic, and you will get advice.

Please note that Interrail/Eurail charges an extra fee of 2 EUR per person and ticket in addition to the fee for the seat reservation.

 Activation of 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

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, 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.

 

 

Thank you for your reply, I'll keep in mind the information you have provided and book via direct train services and at train stations. 

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