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Pass Activation - will the 2 months period begin when I activate my pass, or only when I start my first travel day?

  • 24 August 2021
  • 21 replies
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I have a 10 days within 2 months pass. Will that 2 month period begin when I activate my pass, or only when I start my first travel day? Thanks!

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Best answer by seewulf 24 August 2021, 10:56

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Userlevel 7
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the 2months starts from the activation date :) The first travelday can be any day within the pass validity :)

Ah okay thank you! So I really activate as close to my first travel day as possible, then? And I can activate up to 24 hours within my first day, right?

Userlevel 7
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When activating your Pass, you'’ll choose your first travel day. This is the first day you'll be using your Pass to travel. Your Pass will be valid from this day until it expires.You can activate your Pass up until the day you start travelling.
Remember that you can't board your first train unless your Pass has been activated, and you need to be online to activate your Pass.

Please can someone confirm.  Is the 2 month period from the activation day, or from the first travel day? seewulf says from the activation date, but surely it must be from the first travel day.

Userlevel 4
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Please can someone confirm.  Is the 2 month period from the activation day, or from the first travel day? seewulf says from the activation date, but surely it must be from the first travel day.

@seewulf got it right!

The 2 months validity of your pass starts from the date you activate your pass.

Userlevel 7
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Please can someone confirm.  Is the 2 month period from the activation day, or from the first travel day? seewulf says from the activation date, but surely it must be from the first travel day.

@seewulf got it right!

The 2 months validity of your pass starts from the date you activate your pass.

Well, you can activate your pass on 15 May but choose 15 July as your first travel day. The 2 months of course then start to count from 15 July.

"Activation day” can have different meanings, depending on how you interpret it.

Userlevel 4
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Please can someone confirm.  Is the 2 month period from the activation day, or from the first travel day? seewulf says from the activation date, but surely it must be from the first travel day.

@seewulf got it right!

The 2 months validity of your pass starts from the date you activate your pass.

Well, you can activate your pass on 15 May but choose 15 July as your first travel day. The 2 months of course then start to count from 15 July.

"Activation day” can have different meanings, depending on how you interpret it.

 

Oh, I didn't know that. Thank you for the clarification @rvdborgt 

Newbie here and bought a 3 month continuous pass a few days ago during the sale. It states that I need to activate the pass within 11 months. Can I get clarification in that do I need to travel within the 11 months or can I activate the pass on the 11 month and still have the joy of 3 months continuous travel onwards?

Pass Bought in May 2022 - so in 11 months it will be April. If activated in April, can I travel during April,May, June 2023

Userlevel 7
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As you thought you just have to Start till April next year :) so you can travel in April/May/June

As you thought you just have to Start till April next year :) so you can travel in April/May/June

Thanks for your reply! Really helpful and i’m more at ease now that I know!

Dear Everyone, I have approximately the same question as MH2024. I purchased a 3 month continuous pass on May 10, 2022 during the flash sale. Just to be absolutely clear, can I start the pass on April 10 and then use it April 10-July 10? (I ask so specifically as I was going to use the pass this fall but fell -- no pun intended and broke my wrist, so it is hard to carry a backpack and want to give maximum time for my wrist to heal.) Thank you everyone for your forbearance. 

Userlevel 7
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Dear Everyone, I have approximately the same question as MH2024. I purchased a 3 month continuous pass on May 10, 2022 during the flash sale. Just to be absolutely clear, can I start the pass on April 10 and then use it April 10-July 10? (I ask so specifically as I was going to use the pass this fall but fell -- no pun intended and broke my wrist, so it is hard to carry a backpack and want to give maximum time for my wrist to heal.) Thank you everyone for your forbearance. 

Your pass should show a latest activation date, and then after activation you have 3 months. I am not sure whether the latest date will be the 9th or 10th April 2023.

Userlevel 7
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 Just to be absolutely clear, can I start the pass on April 10 and then use it April 10-July 10? 

You can use the pass from the 10th of April until the 9th of July 2023.

Please can someone confirm.  Is the 2 month period from the activation day, or from the first travel day? seewulf says from the activation date, but surely it must be from the first travel day.

@seewulf got it right!

The 2 months validity of your pass starts from the date you activate your pass.

Well, you can activate your pass on 15 May but choose 15 July as your first travel day. The 2 months of course then start to count from 15 July.

"Activation day” can have different meanings, depending on how you interpret it.

@rvdborgt I see you stated “your pass on 15 May but choose 15 July… 2 months start to count on 15 July” … but that is not what @seewulf seemed to say. They said the “day” you activate, not the day you first travel. 

Can you clarify?

I am heading to Europe 14 Dec 2022 through 12 Jan 2022 with a 15 days in 2 months pass. If I read seewulf correct, I CANNOT activate before 13th November or my time will run out before I leave 12 Jan, is that correct??? Or is it that I can activate today 22 Oct, set my first travel day 14 Dec, and I will have until 14 Feb 2023 to use the 15 days… PLEASE clarify, these posts are helping me to understand how to move forward. 

Userlevel 7
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@rvdborgt I see you stated “your pass on 15 May but choose 15 July… 2 months start to count on 15 July” … but that is not what @seewulf seemed to say. They said the “day” you activate, not the day you first travel. 

Can you clarify?

I am heading to Europe 14 Dec 2022 through 12 Jan 2022 with a 15 days in 2 months pass. If I read seewulf correct, I CANNOT activate before 13th November or my time will run out before I leave 12 Jan, is that correct??? Or is it that I can activate today 22 Oct, set my first travel day 14 Dec, and I will have until 14 Feb 2023 to use the 15 days… PLEASE clarify, these posts are helping me to understand how to move forward. 

@PraNor 

When you activate your pass you select a start date. The start date is when the validity of the pass will start. The start day can be the same as the activation date or a later date. 

 If you have a flexi pass, the start date will automatically be made a travel day even if you don't add any journey that day.

The experienced travellers recommend that you don't activate your pass in advance. 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, 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 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.

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Just for my clarification:

If I buy a flexi pass with a final activation date of January 31st 2023 and I activate on that date I can choose a first travel date in the future but I will still have to have all my travels completed by midnight March 30th 2023.

i.e. the absolute maximum validity for travel on a 10 in 2 months pass is 13 months.

If it is a continuous pass I also assume something similar - Latest activation date of Jan 31st will automatically start travel days from then and must be completed by midnight March 30 2023.

I also remember reading that if you are travelling on the last calendar day of validity of any pass ALL travel must be completed before midnight - the travel after midnight rule does not apply.

Userlevel 7
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Just for my clarification:

If I buy a flexi pass with a final activation date of January 31st 2023 and I activate on that date I can choose a first travel date in the future but I will still have to have all my travels completed by midnight March 30th 2023.

The latest date on which you can activate a pass is always exactly 11 months after purchase.

The latest start date is also 11 months after purchase.

So if you're activating your pass exactly 11 months after purchase, you can only choose that same day as your start date. If you try activating one day later, you can't activate anymore and you can only request a refund or exchange, if your pass allows that.

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I appreciate these are likely to be rare scenarios, but if they save one user some grief.

So, with a flexi pass, if latest activation date, for example, is January 1st and I don’t want to start until Jan 6th I will lose a travel day on Jan 1st?

Userlevel 7
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I appreciate these are likely to be rare scenarios, but if they save one user some grief.

So, with a flexi pass, if latest activation date, for example, is January 1st and I don’t want to start until Jan 6th I will lose a travel day on Jan 1st?

Not necessarily. You can cancel the first travel day after activating the pass, but then you need to activate it before January 1st. E.g. go through the activation process on 31 December, choose Jan 1st as the start date, then go to My Pass, select the first travel day and tap on "Cancel travel day”. The app will then ask whether you also want to deactivate the pass and then you choose No.

This isn't explained anywhere, but IIRC the plan is not to activate a travel day anymore when activating a flexipass. I'm not sure though when that is going to be implemented.

Userlevel 7
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I appreciate these are likely to be rare scenarios, but if they save one user some grief.

So, with a flexi pass, if latest activation date, for example, is January 1st and I don’t want to start until Jan 6th I will lose a travel day on Jan 1st?

Not necessarily. You can cancel the first travel day after activating the pass, but then you need to activate it before January 1st. E.g. go through the activation process on 31 December, choose Jan 1st as the start date, then go to My Pass, select the first travel day and tap on "Cancel travel day”. The app will then ask whether you also want to deactivate the pass and then you choose No.

This isn't explained anywhere, but IIRC the plan is not to activate a travel day anymore when activating a flexipass. I'm not sure though when that is going to be implemented.

Again I appreciate the rarity of the event but if you do that you will reduce the end day by one, but keep your full number of travel days.

OOI I do have a 3 month pass which I will be unable to activate until very close to its 11 month date so I have an interest in maximising its validity.

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

I appreciate these are likely to be rare scenarios, but if they save one user some grief.

So, with a flexi pass, if latest activation date, for example, is January 1st and I don’t want to start until Jan 6th I will lose a travel day on Jan 1st?

Not necessarily. You can cancel the first travel day after activating the pass, but then you need to activate it before January 1st. E.g. go through the activation process on 31 December, choose Jan 1st as the start date, then go to My Pass, select the first travel day and tap on "Cancel travel day”. The app will then ask whether you also want to deactivate the pass and then you choose No.

This isn't explained anywhere, but IIRC the plan is not to activate a travel day anymore when activating a flexipass. I'm not sure though when that is going to be implemented.

Again I appreciate the rarity of the event but if you do that you will reduce the end day by one, but keep your full number of travel days.

No, you would still be able to choose the latest possible start date, which is Jan 1st in this example. You just need to go through the activation process before that date if you have flexipass and don't want the start date to be a travel day.

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