Honestly I'd go via Lyon : there are 160 seats left right now so the train won't fill up by then. I'm pretty confident. You might not all sit together but right now most carriages are empty. Really not a busy day as said by Brendan! Staff is used to selling them on the platform, Lyon is also the departure station so you'll have enough time to speak to them! I just wanted to report back on this.We arrived at Lyon Part Dieu with 25 mins before the train to Barcelona was scheduled to depart. We easily found the platform and then waited for the train to arrive. When the train arrived, the staff exited the train, and we asked one of them about tickets for Eurail pass holders. They were very kind and very helpful! And, as you suspected, there were plenty of seats. We had plenty of room to all sit together, and there was a lot of room for our luggage. Everything worked out great! Thanks so much for everyone’s useful advice!
So, to be clear, if I am to purchase the seat reservations at Lyon, I just go straight to the platform itself and purchase them there -- and not at the ticket office? I just tell them that I have a eurail pass and need a seat reservation?
@thicab thanks for the suggestion! We will only have 30 mins between our arrival and scheduled departure in Lyon. That makes me a little nervous. Also, a family member just stopped by the ticket office in Lyon, and they told her that they only have 5 or 6 seats for passholders on a given train. Does that sound right?
Thanks! I’m looking into this now and will report back. I also need to see if I can exchange the seat reservations I already purchased for TGV between Bruxelles-Midi and Lyon 🙄
Thanks for the help! Ultimately, it just needs to be: Amsterdam → … → BarcelonaBut I have been looking at doing the following because we can use IC trains between Amsterdam and Bruxelles-Midi without seat reservations:Amsterdam → Bruxelles-MidiBruxelles-Midi → … → BarcelonaThe connections between Bruxelles-Midi and Barcelona don’t really matter, except that we’re trying to avoid having to travel across the city (e.g., in Paris) because we’ll have a lot of luggage with us. Oh, and there are six of us :)The eurail.com site says, with regard to calling Renfe, “Pre-reserving a seat is possible. You will receive a PNR code which you must use to pick up and pay for your reservation at a local station ticket office, making sure to show your Eurail Pass.” But based on my phone call, that doesn’t seem to be a thing.
We don’t have to go through Lyon; that just seemed to look like the best option at the time, based on price and timing.
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