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Interrail pass deactivated after claiming delay refund


I booked a three-month global pass I planned to use between early July and late September. As I had severe delays on multiple of my journeys in July, I decided to claim a refund. To my delight, it didn’t take long until I received a small sum. The negative consequence I wasn’t expecting is that my pass got deactivated even though it is valid for another month.

I now know that the ticket has to be deactivated to claim a refund but instead of simply deactivating the pass for me without warning, they could have told me that a refund was not possible as long as the pass is in use.

Is there a way of having my pass reactivated? I am happy to return the refund. I already contacted the customer service but still haven’t heard back. I’m planning to travel in a week and really need to make those reservations.

 

Many thanks!

 

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Best answer by rvdborgt 24 August 2022, 10:45

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Userlevel 7
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It does not say anywhere on the delay compensation page that the pass validity should be over before claiming, or that the pass will be deactivated. So this must be a mistake.

Please contact customer support to fix this. Also say you are currently travelling, so they can prioritise correctly.

You can make reservations without an active pass. If it currently doesn't work via the Interrail website, then there are often multiple other possibilities:

 

Userlevel 7
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How do you mean that your pass was deactivated? Can you post screen shots, without personal information, that shows "your Trip"? 

 

There are several ways to make reservations so you don't need an active pass to make reservations. 

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

 

 

Hi rvdborgt, hi AnnaB,

thanks a lot for your replies. I guess the correct translation (my settings are in German) would be that my passport has expired despite the validity period going until 30th September.

I’m relieved that you also think that this must be a mistake.

Thank you for providing links to other reservation pages. That helps already!
In the meantime I will try to have my pass issue fixed.

I really appreciate your help.

Have a lovely day!

After having contacted Eurail a second time and having waited for 10 and 3 days, respectively, without response, I’m running out of time as I will need to travel on Wednesday.

Does anyone has experiences in such a situation. Do you expect the rail companies (UK and France) would be understanding enough if I showed them my mobile pass on which it says that it is technically still valid for another month?

Any kind of help would be highly appreciated!

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Extra question: could you please go to My Pass and let us know what the validity period is there?

Userlevel 7
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After having contacted Eurail a second time and having waited for 10 and 3 days, respectively, without response, I’m running out of time as I will need to travel on Wednesday.

Does anyone has experiences in such a situation. Do you expect the rail companies (UK and France) would be understanding enough if I showed them my mobile pass on which it says that it is technically still valid for another month?

Any kind of help would be highly appreciated!

 

Essentially what you are asking here is will you be able to get away without a valid ticket.

Even if someone here said yes, they aren’t going to be there to deal with the consequences if you get caught by an unsympathetic revenue officer.

 

2 of this forum’s most knowledgeable experts have tried to help you but you haven’t provided the information needed for anyone to figure out what is going on with your pass.

My best guess is that you have done something wrong with the pass and the whole theory that the pass being cancelled because of your refunds is incorrect but without much more details all that can be done is make guesses based on other situations people have reported.

Userlevel 7
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@paulonatrain You can try to contact Customer Support via Twitter.

Extra question: could you please go to My Pass and let us know what the validity period is there?

Hi rvdborgt,
thanks a lot again for your reply.

The validity period is 1 July - 30 September 2022.

On top of the page it says however that the pass has expired.

Many thanks!

 

@paulonatrain You can try to contact Customer Support via Twitter.

Hi AnnaB,

thanks a lot for this suggestion. Twitter might help with a more direct link to the support team.
I also attached the screenshot you were asking about in my reply to rvdborgt. Sorry that I didn’t do that initially, I thought contacting the customer support would have resolved the issue and I didn’t want to take even more of your time.

Many thanks,
Paul

After having contacted Eurail a second time and having waited for 10 and 3 days, respectively, without response, I’m running out of time as I will need to travel on Wednesday.

Does anyone has experiences in such a situation. Do you expect the rail companies (UK and France) would be understanding enough if I showed them my mobile pass on which it says that it is technically still valid for another month?

Any kind of help would be highly appreciated!

 

Essentially what you are asking here is will you be able to get away without a valid ticket.

Even if someone here said yes, they aren’t going to be there to deal with the consequences if you get caught by an unsympathetic revenue officer.

 

2 of this forum’s most knowledgeable experts have tried to help you but you haven’t provided the information needed for anyone to figure out what is going on with your pass.

My best guess is that you have done something wrong with the pass and the whole theory that the pass being cancelled because of your refunds is incorrect but without much more details all that can be done is make guesses based on other situations people have reported.

Hi AI_G,

thanks for your reply.

I’m fully aware that I won’t get a guarantee for anything on this forum. I was just hoping that there might have been other people with similar issues in the past. I am really grateful for the help received already and didn’t expect anyone on here to completely resolve my issue as this could only be done by the company itself. You’re right that I didn’t provide more information but I assumed that contacting the customer support early enough would resolve the issue without anyone on this forum being required to invest even more time. I hoped my reply to AnnaB and rvdborgt signalled that.

You might be right with your theory, even though I don’t know what I could have possibly done wrong to reach this outcome without Eurail sending an email about it. Maybe this is not the right place to ask for advice as the problem must lie somewhere in the system and I don’t have much more information myself than the My Pass page.

Anyway, thank you everyone for your replies. I will keep you posted.

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There's definitely something wrong and customer support will have to solve it.

If you created a request via this link or sent an email, then also have a look there to see what the status of your request is. Maybe a question was asked but the email notification never reached you. Click on "Sign in” and then "Get a password”. Use the email address you entered when creating the request.

There's definitely something wrong and customer support will have to solve it.

If you created a request via this link or sent an email, then also have a look there to see what the status of your request is. Maybe a question was asked but the email notification never reached you. Click on "Sign in” and then "Get a password”. Use the email address you entered when creating the request.

Thanks for the suggestion, I didn’t know about the website. Eurail could have mentioned it in the email in which they confirmed that they received my request. The status of my request is “open”, so I don’t think there is anything more I can do. I also wrote to customer support on Twitter but who knows how long that will take.

Userlevel 7
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@Claudi. Can you please look at this immediately? There seems to be an error in the travellers pass that must be fixed ASAP.

Okay, after reaching out on Twitter the problem got finally resolved, a massive thank you for your support. 

The issue, in fact, was that after my delay refund claim there was a system error that deactivated my pass. I received a complementary pass I can start using from tomorrow on so that’s perfect.

Again, thanks so much @AnnaB and @rvdborgt. If I should ever travel through your cities or you’d pass through Glasgow and you’d want to, the coffee or other drinks are on me.

Cheers,
Paul

Userlevel 7
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I’m glad to hear that you got a new pass. I hope that the remaining part of your Interrailing will be nice. Let me know if you are coming to Sweden.

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