Upcoming trip to Europe

2. If you mention travel date, then we can check what is going on there.

Thank you for replying… 

We do not have any fixed date yet, will get back to you after I have the itinerary. 

For saver ticket, can we have the private compartment for 4 beds couchette? Or valid only for non private/sharing couchette? I think there is a limitation in sleeper cabin also, if we pick saver ticket and/or interrail/eurail global pass discount.

If I search for June-July 2023 overnight train, it said “ticket not available”. Is it because the reservation can be done only 180 days in advance?

For example, on 31 May 2023, from Zurich to Berlin, 2 adults and 1 youth, we have to pay 259 Euro, the same amount for 4 beds couchette private compartment between ‘sparschiene incl reservation’ and “comfort incl reservation”. Both using the Eurail discount. And if with no discount, 4 beds couchette private compartment, is also 259 Euro. So, it is better to buy regular ticket rather than Eurail global pass then.

Please advise, where did I do wrong?

Thanks again :)

It looks like the private couchette compartment is not available for a saver fare. For sleepers, saver tickets are available. If you're with 3, then you normally get a private compartment if you book one for 3 persons.

Either it's too far in advance or there are engineering works and the timetable is not final yet.

The 4-person private couchette compartment is indeed €259 (normal ticket, no pass needed). AFAIK there is no pass reservation for a private couchette compartment, so that's why the price doesn't change with the Interrail/Eurail discount.

3 pass reservations in a 4-person couchette compartment cost €132.

3 pass reservations in a 3-person sleeper compartment cost €222.

Selamat hari dari disini, mas/tuan. Saya orang dari Belanda, sekarang di Bangkok.

Take pass for 22 days-your plans are really ambitious, I count 17 places to visit in 21 days- and as most are fairly close by, the sectors are too short for overnighttrains in most cases. The difference in cost between 22 D and f.e. 15 days in 2 M is so small, it makes no sense to check for local karcis2 for short sectors.

Minimise the time sitting in trains/finding HTL etc-make some daytrips out of nearby places.

Visit to both Swiss and Austria makes the routing more difficult. In Swiss the pass is not valid (but with diskaun) in trains south of Interlaken into the mountains.

Lucky thing is that once you have left ITalia (and with even more kereta/jam you will find place-but last minute perhaps not all so close together) you do not really need RES-but it may be wise for busy times/busy days, in DE easy to do yourself via bahn.com-seat only. Except the Overnite trains of course.

@2: there is also a internal DB-ICE seat only train München-HH=Hamburg, even without need to RES(But will be very wise to do). 23.00-or around, from M. Nothing to pay extra! Same for München-Köln.

But if you want tempat tidur, then you must use the NJ. NJ is often many hours late next morning-even more as PerUmKa->KAI is/was.

There are reported many probs with booking NJ after 11/12= when in EUR all timetables change.

Selamat jalan, yah!

Thank you so much for all your answers, I will take all into consideration as our schedule is not fixed yet. Perhaps I will eliminate some cities this time and save them for our next Europe visit as this time the highlight would be Italy and Germany. 

And one more thing, which website should I use for train booking? Obb or Eurail? It think the result is different between those two websites when searching. 

Have a good weekend, everyone!

For most trains in Germany,Italy and Austria you can use the dbahn and OBB sites. For French domestic try the beurope sites. Others will post current links for you if you need them

@MAC Never trust the Eurail/interrail website or rail planner app. Always use local operators website or apps, and trust the local app if result should differ. You always get the latest real time information. There always can be engineering works, altering the schedule, especially in summer :) 

For Italy = Trenitalia

For Switzerland = SBB CFF FFS

Austria = ÖBB (Also use it to book seat reservations in Italy, Austria and Germany) 

Germany = Deutsche Bahn (Easiest way to book your seats for German trains) 

-Although it might be a bit too early to book your seats, a lot of trains might not be open for booking yet. 

Hello again, 

Appreciate all the responses I got. Thank you.

I checked the Trenitalia website and found SPECIAL ARROWS rate. Is anyone here happened to know what that is? Is it a promotion rate/saver rate offered by Trenitalia? I am afraid that there are some limitations, terms and conditions. 

I asked them directly by email though. 

Cheers, 

Mer.

This may refer to the SPECIAL ARROWS fare.

https://www.thetrainline.com/en/train-companies/frecciarossa

@yorkie, yes, it is.. thank you :)

My reading is that this is similar to the low cost airline and saver train tickets - Very cheap against full fare but needs paying on purchase, non refundable and non-exchangeable, on quota and probably only on off-peak trains.

When you consider that a global pass offers full flexibility from about £30 to £50 a day on all trains (plus reservations at 10 euro on Freccia and 3 euro on IC, readily available on the day for almost all Freccia and IC in Italy) I would be going down that route. If you are adding days to a flexi ticket the extra days are reasonably cheap.