New release

[expired] You are all invited to test our NEW reservation timetable [beta version] now!

[expired] You are all invited to test our NEW reservation timetable [beta version] now!
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Dear Eurail and Interrail-ers (to be)

We need YOUR help to test and play around with our new reservation timetable [beta version] :arrow_right:
[expired] https://www.interrail.eu/en/book-reservations/new-reservation-timetable
[expired] https://www.eurail.com/en/book-reservations/new-reservation-timetable

It fully operates like the old reservation timetable so you can go ahead and book your reservation tickets via the tool. 

Note: There is a bug in the BETA version tool: the add to cart button is not working. We are looking into it. 

Please share your feedback in the comments below :point_down_tone2: or via a private message.
 

Note: Thank you for all of your valuable input! The new reservation timetable is now live and can be found here:
https://www.interrail.eu/en/book-reservations#/
https://www.eurail.com/en/book-reservations#/



 


44 replies

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Booking a reservation for 6 people in France seems to be impossible:

Looks like a bug to me.

I am happy to report thet the performance issue of the timetable has been fixed (by increasing the capacity and doing some optimization) and it should be fine now. We are monitoring the volumes closely. 

The timeout of the login is still to be fixed, but we had to fix the performance first.

Thank you very much! I have now tried directly after login and was then able to reserve. Probably this has not worked in the last few days due to the very long loading times.

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The reservation module has a shorter session timeout than the rest of the website. I understand this will be fixed in the near future. You're not logged in to the reservation module, as you can see from "Anmelden und deine Sitzplätze reservieren".

Thanks for the quick reply! I think the problem is somehow related to the login, but I think am logged in at this moment (via Google). On this screenshot on the top right it says "Hi Marcel", so I am logged in or? I was able to make reservations this way about a week ago with no problems.

 

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The screenshot suggests you are not logged in: the prices do not include the booking fee and you can't select a fare to book.

Hello, I had the same problems described here the last few days (page loads long and then crashes). In the meantime, I am shown reservation options (see screenshot), but I cannot make a reservation even though I am logged in. Do others also have this problem? Is there any information about this?

 

Is there a timeline on a fix for this issue?

The new reservation module keeps asking me to log in, also when I'm already logged in on the Interrail website. Is it supposed to do that? It's a bit annoying IMO.

This is a bug and we try to solve it in the next sprint (next 2 weeks)

It seems the new reservation module can't cope with demand. It often happend that it doesn't return any results. E.g. you enter a query and then the screen looks ike:
 

You wait for some time and then the screen reduces to:

And it will stay like this "forever”.

Reloading the page sometimes helps, but usually you need to wait an hour or so before it works again.

This is really frustrating, since you can't count on it to work.

We are getting a lot of feedback and complaints form customers about this. The volumes of request just increased over night and it is getting more and more. We see 17 times as much traffic on our new Reservation timetable in comparison with 2 weeks ago. Our team is working on it with high priority.

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It seems the new reservation module can't cope with demand. It often happend that it doesn't return any results. E.g. you enter a query and then the screen looks ike:
 

You wait for some time and then the screen reduces to:

And it will stay like this "forever”.

Reloading the page sometimes helps, but usually you need to wait an hour or so before it works again.

This is really frustrating, since you can't count on it to work.

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I noted you comment down. You are right we might can add to the message that there is the possibility that all pass holder seats are sold out already. Unfortunatelly we can not clearly identify this via the integrations we have with the different reservation providers and carriers. Basically we just don’t receive a price for that train from the bookingsystems. If this is due to a (temporary) technical error or because they're sold out is not clear. We would love to show this information but it is not provided.

I understand that (the problem is the same at the ticket office) and therefore the most common causes should be mentioned, number 1 being "no passholder seats available’. I see in the forum that the current messages are causing confusion.

I hope you also saw my previous message about the reservation module: about what people are led to believe when they're not logged in, and about the desirability to see availability without buying a pass. I see various people in the forum really want to know before buying a pass.

Dear rvdborgt, 
I noted you comment down. You are right we might can add to the message that there is the possibility that all pass holder seats are sold out already. Unfortunatelly we can not clearly identify this via the integrations we have with the different reservation providers and carriers. Basically we just don’t receive a price for that train from the bookingsystems. If this is due to a (temporary) technical error or because they're sold out is not clear. We would love to show this information but it is not provided.

You might also have noticed that we don't show an “availability indication” anymore (we used to do this in the old tool). First off all we don’t get this information from all booking systems / carriers and if we get it it seems to be a very inaccurate indication. Even if we got a price offer and the indication is “availability high or medium” it still turns out to be not available when we try to book it in the checkout step. 
The only way to know for sure if it is available is to try to book it.😥
However if we get the indication “availability low” it is usually accurate. So we plan to add this information soon, so travellers know they need to book quickly. 

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I've noticed that the grey "!” from the old reservation module seems to have been replaced with this:

However, this does not say that the most likely cause of this message is that there no more pass holder seats available (this is for tomorrow morning, so that's a safe assumption). Instead, it suggests to try to book elsewhere or to come back later and try again. That creates the idea that there are still seats available.

I'd think that there is enough room to summarise the most likely causes, such as no more passholder seats, no connection to the operator's reservation system, etc.

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If you use this page without logging in, it will now show the price of the supplements and that's a good thing. However, it does not do an availability check. This means you can only check availability after you've bought a pass, whereas I'd sometimes like to check availability before buying a pass, since buying the pass sometimes only makes sense if pass holder seats are available.

Are there any plans to make the availability check available for people who have not bought a pass yet?

The timetabel without login will only show you indication prices (so no real prices requested by a booking system). This is possible becasue the pass holder reservation prices don't change very often.

@Nicole I've noticed that people think that the new reservation module does show availability without logging in. On closer inspection, that is to be expected, since there is no warning about that. Moreover, this assumption is even reinforced by the remark "The amount shown is not final and may change slightly during booking based on availability.”. That just confirms that you're looking at real, bookable reservations and creates expectations. It looks like at least 2 users were very disappointed when they found out that they had been fooled:

It would be wise to add a very clear warning or else we're going to see many more rightly disappointed people.

We can only request the real price from a booking system if the user is logged-in and the data of all travellers is available. Our new tool also checks if you are allowed to travel on a certain route or on a specific date based on your pass data.

[...]

There is no technical solution for us at the moment.
And yes this means you cannot check availability before you have a pass.

We all know that it is possible to check pass holder seat availability without buying a pass (see e.g. Belgian railways). You show availability after buying a pass (with a remark that the real availability is only check while booking, but that's OK), so you can also show it without buying a pass but making a few assumptions and choices instead, e.g. only for global pass and a choice between 1st/2nd class and with indicating the number of passengers

People (not just me) really want to know about availability before buying a pass. So please think about a way to implement such a simple availability check. Possibly only after logging in, but please without having to buying a pass first.

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Thanks for flagging. This is indeed the current behavior. The login in the Reservation Timetable times out faster than the main login on the website. It is planned to be changed before second week of May (latest).

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The new reservation module keeps asking me to log in, also when I'm already logged in on the Interrail website. Is it supposed to do that? It's a bit annoying IMO.

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Hi rvdborgt, it is linking to the new tool as far as I can see. If this is not the case for you, please provide a screenshot. 

I tried again and it looks like somebody has now put in place an automatic forward from the old to the new URL :)

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Hi rvdborgt, it is linking to the new tool as far as I can see. If this is not the case for you, please provide a screenshot. 

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Please also check pages that still refer to the old URL of the reservation module, such as:

https://www.interrail.eu/en/plan-your-trip/reservations/how-do-i-book-my-reservations

The old URL should either forward to the new location, or the pages containing the old URL should be changed.

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Now it’s working, yesterday evening it was not working.

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Thank you for all of your valuable input! The new reservation timetable is now live and can be found here:
https://www.interrail.eu/en/book-reservations#/
https://www.eurail.com/en/book-reservations#/

@Nanja  the website says:

Not Found

The requested URL was not found on this server.

Same when I go via interrail.eu to book reservations. 

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Thank you for all of your valuable input! The new reservation timetable is now live and can be found here:
https://www.interrail.eu/en/book-reservations#/
https://www.eurail.com/en/book-reservations#/

 If I try to make a seat reservation from Göteborg to Oslo, I get this error message. Trains from Göteborg to Oslo, which are not direct trains, can be booked, but not direct connections. Same problem at the “old” reservation tool.

 

Idea: Link directly to the webpage (being interrail.eu, bahn.de etc) where seat reservation booking is possible, by clicking on the price shown in searches.

We actually show alternative ways to book (if available) under the link "How and when to book” below each leg. You can check it out.

When logged in and if you have a valid pass (in your screen I see you where not logged in and used the normal timetable without the reservation function) you see real prices incl. booking fee and seating options and can selecting an option and add the train to cart and book it.
 

 

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