When will my pass get activated?

  • 28 October 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 431 views
R

Hi Guys,

I am looking to buy a 5 Days in 1 month pass, I want to book first train from Paris to London on 26th December, second train from London to Zurich on 31st December, Third Train from Zurich to Interlaken on 2 January and fourth train from Zurich to Brussels on 6th January. 

If I buy my 5 days in 1 month pass now will my 1 month start from 26th December i.e the first train booking from eurail pass and I will be allowed to book further tickets of leftover days till 26th January?       OR, will my 1 month start from today i.e 28th October that will be my pass activation date and I will not be allowed to book any train after 28th November? 

Please someone let me know I would really appreciate it!

3 replies

A
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +9

First of all, you don't need to activate your pass to make reservations.

When you activate your pass you select a start date of the validity of the pass. You can read more about that in my next reply.

 

As you plan to travel with the Eurostar on the 26th and 31st of December I recommend you to make those reservations ASAP. 

There is a limited number of pass holder seats on the Eurostar and on popular departures and during high season those sell out weeks, and sometimes months in advance.

The best place to see the availability of passholder seats and make reservations on the Eurostar is 

https://www.b-europe.com/EN/Booking/Pass#TravelWish

Press "later trains" and eventually you will find the next available connection. 

If you have a mobile pass you need to generate a Pass Cover Number in order to make the reservation at b-europe. You do that here in the PCN generator:

 

https://community.eurail.com/news-and-announcements-39/pass-cover-number-generator-is-live-5653

Please note that I don't work for Interrail/Eurail and that I don't reply to personal messages.
A
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +9

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.

Please note that I don't work for Interrail/Eurail and that I don't reply to personal messages.
Y
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +10

Just a note - Dec 26th and 27th are national holidays in the UK so many places will be closed and limited trains on the 26th. 27th may be operating a reduced service as well. Again 31st December is New Years Eve so some later services may be reduced and very busy as revellers travel into London for the festival.

Reply


Terms and Conditions & Privacy PolicyCookie settings