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hi - it looks like if i havent activated my pass yet then it will be simple to get a refund. but the boioking platform then offers choice of additional refund protection for 23 euros. Do I need to get this extra protection or is an unactivated pass still ok to get full refund? Im worried that i might book my pass and then find that i cant get the seat  reservations i need (espesh for eurostar) -am travelling in october o hoping its long enough away but in cae I wanted to have the back up of a refund..thoughts welcome! thanks! :)

You can just make the reservations before you buy the pass. Then you're on the safe side. 

To get a full refund you need to buy Plus. If you don't have Plus the fee for the refund will be 15% of the price of the pass. 


A quick check on the interrail reservation tool shows plenty of E* availability for October, You can put in your planned journey and date and check specific trains, and if happy, buy.


I didnt know you could buy reservations before buying the pass!?


If you don't buy the reservations through the Interrail website you can buy all reservations without a pass. You can 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, 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.


At the end of the reply below there is information about how you make reservations pass holder seats for the Eurostar before you buy your pass.

https://community.eurail.com/eurail-interrail-passes-41/urgent-exchange-second-class-pass-for-first-class-pass-6893?postid=31084#post31084

 


Hello, thanks so much for all your help.

 

Ive tried to find a site on those links from which i can book overnight Paris -  LAtour de carol, and also from barcelona to malaga, but I cant manage to reserve them. Looking on the direct train coimpanies website (eg intercities de nuit) , I could only see how to book full ticket, not just reservations...


Hello, thanks so much for all your help.

 

Ive tried to find a site on those links from which i can book overnight Paris -  LAtour de carol, and also from barcelona to malaga, but I cant manage to reserve them. Looking on the direct train coimpanies website (eg intercities de nuit) , I could only see how to book full ticket, not just reservations...

If you make a new topic just asking about those reservations you will get help from the reservation experts in the community. 


READing seems hard; it is IMpossible to RES only seats on those RENFE AVE trenes.

For SNCF best way is to call them.


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