I also tried to book regular tickets for Brussels → Lille (EUR 19 instead of EUR 22) through the NMBS app, but repeatedly got an “unexpected error” for Dec 30th. I could see the trains and prices if I looked in November though.
Ah. Angelo, just to disambiguate, I already got tickets by splitting at Lille (instead of CDG as you suggest) and paying the fee twice. I continue this discussion just by curiosity, to understand how broken the seat reservation system is for TGVs, in particular the ones crossing the belgian border.
I pressed #85 to get the English service, then asked to speak French saying I had asked for English by mistake, which the person on the other side (French speaker) did happily. In this scenario, what are the odds to get someone that can book reservations, and that will not lie about it? They said something about seeing a “zero” on their UI, so that no reservations could be given. They even went so far as to say that passholder reservations were “forbidden” on that train. But not on the 06:30AMish train. They told me that if I could bypass this restriction by leg-splitting, then I should do it because they could not help me more, and the regular tickets are a bit more than EUR 150 a piece.
I called SNCF and they said Bruxelles → Marseille for passholders was sold-out on their side. And they cannot do the Bruxelles → Lille passholder reservations either. And sncf-connect is crashing all the time. Maybe NMBS would have been able to help me, who knows. I gave up on hustling trying to get the cheapest deal. Just paid the fee twice by splitting at Lille with interrail.eu and got the tickets. Luckily got seats in the same carriage. Switching with luggage will not be too much of a hassle.
You seem to be right. I can book passholder reservations for Lille → Marseille, and even Brussels → Lille (at a price of EUR 22, higher than regular tickets). But not Brussels → Marseille. I will try to call them.
The route I am interested in is Dec 30th Bruxelles 13:17 → Marseille 18:44. It seems I can buy the regular tickets for Bruxelles → Marseille, Bruxelles → Lille, or Lille → Marseille on this train. But I cannot buy the seat reservation from Bruxelles to Marseille through interrail.eu.
Same problem but I am currently in Sweden so cannot go to a ticket office in Belgium. I have a lot of problems with double-checking seat availability information from sncf-connect, but on thetrainline.com I can see all days have seats left in second class. Interrail seat reservations only shows availability on one day. It shows the trains for the other days, but claims no seats are left for reservation. I am booking for two people simultaneously if that matters.
I did that leg less than a week ago. Booked on DSB Udland. Could only book Padborg → Copenhagen. Hamburg → Padborg impossible to book. In Hamburg I asked the train employees whether that reservation was enough and they said yes. The train was fully-packed. A lot of people standing between the cars. I was lucky to have a seat for the entire route. I talked with other people with normal tickets that said they were unable to book any seats. However almost all seats indicated reservation for Hamburg → Copenhagen. My seat display indicated Hamburg → Padborg, and once in Padborg, Padborg → Copenhagen.I had booked two other routes just in case.
... many are full the coming 2-3 weeks-all those Svenskarna going home and not flying. I am sure you mean well but I want to spell it out that the blame is not to be put on the people that refuse to fly. The blame is to be put on the various causes other than demand that have reduced train availability. The general cause is a massive redirection of investment, investment that should have gone to train transportation, to more “convenient” but environment-destroying plane transportation.
Can avoid it by using multiple local trains-change Flensburg-Padborg-Fredericia. Check if your date has a few seats left-do it on dsb.dk-cost 30DKK Flensburg -> Fredericia + Fredericia -> Copenhagen costs 60DKK or am I not understanding something?
Given the current COVID-related rules regarding restricted seat reservations with BAHN, and given that the Hamburg-Padborg leg has mandatory reservation (which effectively makes it impossible to book 1/3 to ½ of the seats for that leg), would it be reasonable to assume a seat reservation for the rest of the route (Padborg to Copenhagen) to be sufficient to guarantee boarding the train in Hamburg? PS: Can the reason why the seats cannot be booked be different? Are there a lot of people riding only the Hamburg -> Padborg leg? Since seat reservation is mandatory during summer (I also remember being asked by a DSB employee to get a reservation outside of the summer, while I was already on the train), are they checking tickets before boarding the train?
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