Not able to get seat reservations through Eurail on any popular lines in June (London-Paris, vice versa, Paris-Caen, Paris-Munich, Amsterdam-London). Why did I buy a Eurail Pass? Pretty useless.
Exactly what dates and times are you trying to make reservations for on the different routes? I can't think that all seats already are taken. However, there are often better ways to make reservations than the Eurail website
Tickets are available through the specific train companies (e.g. Eurostar, Rail Europe), but not through the Eurail Pass/Website since apparently Eurail gets a very limited allotment. So my question is still why did I buy a Eurail Pass?
The Eurail Pass is really good for travel in Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland… Good network, frequent trains and expensive regular tickets.
It’s a bit complicated for France, Spain and Italy as there are mandatory seat reservations to add on high-speed trains.
Eurostar can be bought here (30€, 4€ booking fee per order) : https://www.b-europe.com/EN/Booking/Pass#TravelWish
What is your travel date ? I find it hard to believe that all seats are already sold out.
Amsterdam - London has very little quota for Eurail passengers (but for regular passengers too). Due to capacity restrictions at the passport terminal, trains cannot leave more than about half-full (they fill up in Rotterdam and Brussels). If your train is full, take a reservation-free IC train to Brussels and from there the Eurostar. There are many more Eurostar trains from Brussels. Again please specify the travel date and we’ll have a look.
Paris - Caen costs 1,50€ and cannot be done online. There will be seats available, don’t worry. Simply use a SNCF ticket machine when you’re in France.
Paris - Munich can be done on eurail.com (17€ seat reservation 2nd class, 30€ 1st class). There is only one daily direct train but many more with a change in Karlsruhe, Mannheim or Stuttgart. You could save money by taking a TGV to Strasbourg (10€ 1st/2nd class), a regional train to Offenburg and then 2 ICEs to Munich. It is about 30 min to 1h longer.
Let us know for any other questions
It’s even more fun when the Eurail APP lets you get all the way to the payment page before saying “One of the legs of your journey could not be booked.” In my case that meant the whole journey. With no other explanation.
But thanks for trying to help.
It’s even more fun when the Eurail APP lets you get all the way to the payment page before saying “One of the legs of your journey could not be booked.” In my case that meant the whole journey.
The app can't book any reservations. It will only forward to some of the websites where you can book, including the Eurail website. Judging by the error message, that's where you were trying.
Thanks anyway rvdborgt, but this was on the website the app forwards you to.
Very disappointed in this whole Eurail business.
The recommendation from the experienced travellers in the community is to only make reservations through the Eurail website if no other options are available. Please read more about that 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 train in addition to the fee for the seat reservation.
Activation of pass
During the activation process you choose the start day of the validity of the pass. Once the validity has started it can't be changed even if you haven't travelled. The advice is therefore to wait with activating the pass and starting the validity until the first day of your travel as you only can deactivate the pass no later than 23.59 CET on the day before the validity starts. If your travel plans change in the last moment you can't deactivate the pass and change the validity.
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 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.
Thanks for the info AnnaB!
Userlevel 7
+10
Keep in mind that this is a community and we are no Eurail staff, except for some moderators but they have a Eurail logo at the name.
Angelo, my latest issue is the sleeper trains from Budapest to Bucharest leaving Friday night, June 2. Website provides the scheduled trains and lets me get all the way to the payment page before saying “One of the legs of your journey could not be booked.” Tried it also on the Rail Europe website and gave me a “try back later” message (its been doing that for two days).
Any insights would be appreciated!
Userlevel 7
+10
Hi, RailEurooe can't book reservations (it is only a thrid party booking platform, not a official website of a train company).
If you mean the sleeper at 22:45 from Budapest to Bucharest, you can book it online via Austrian Railways ÖBB tickets.oebb.at choosing One Way Ticket option (not only a seat reservation) and Interrail/Eurail as discount card.
Userlevel 1
Angelo, my latest issue is the sleeper trains from Budapest to Bucharest leaving Friday night, June 2. Website provides the scheduled trains and lets me get all the way to the payment page before saying “One of the legs of your journey could not be booked.” Tried it also on the Rail Europe website and gave me a “try back later” message (its been doing that for two days).
Any insights would be appreciated!
I recommend to create an account on the website of OBB and add on the profile that you have a Interrail pass. So it will be automatic the choice of the kind of ticket you’re doing (only reservation).
I’ve done Wien-Bucharest (sleepers, 13 euros), it worked like a charm.
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