Booking a ticket

Thanks for the reply. That is very helpful.

We are planning on booking his ticket this evening. Just so I am clear ahead of booking, are you advising that he pre-plans his route now, detailing and booking each stage of the journey?

Thanks in advance. 

Claire

Would be the advise for Spain, in particularly.

France is manageable without reservations, but you’ll need to fall back on slower and a bit infrequent regional trains (TER), but it’s a great way to see a lot of landscapes and lesser known regions and towns.

He just needs to be aware of that, either you go very fast with TGV which needs to be reserved in advanced or on the go with the TER :)

Best to read the country specific pages of the website of the man in seat 61, lots of good information, tips and routes.

Thanks again. Final question - I promise - in what order does he reserve a seat on specific trains? In particular, the Eurostar. For instance, he aims to depart on either the 14th or 15th March. How does he know whether there will be availability ahead of booking his Interail global pass? 

I hope that makes sense?

Oei, that’s already very close. Book it asap, it’s very popular and it can sell out.

You don’t need a pass to make reservations via www.raileurope.com (desktop version), add rail pass. You don’t need to buy a pass before making the reservations in most cases. Give a shout when it doesn’t work, there are other ways to book reservations.

Checking availability on 13 en 14 march, get back to you soon. London to Paris? Luckily wednesday and thursday aren’t very popular days on the Eurostar.

Thanks. We will look at doing this today.

Really appreciate the support.

Claire

Still quite some trains reservable in the afternoon on the 13th of march:

On the  14th is also quite okay in the afternoon, with some option with a change in Lille:

Sometimes these trains sell out weeks in advance on popular periods (long weekends, holidays like Christmas, the Olympics,...)

Thanks again. I have entered the website you suggested, however I am not sure how I reserve seats without paying for them at checkout (as I would if I was just paying as a normal Eurostar customer.

My son and his friend will be available to book this after they finish work this evening, so I will get them to buy their Global Pass ticket and use confirmation of the pass to reserve their Eurostar ticket. They do have some flexibility on dates, so should be able to reserve an available ticket (thank goodness!) 

Is there anything else you would advise prior to booking?

Also, would there be anyone available this evening to provide chat support to them, should they need it during the booking process?

You can only reserve seats by paying them (30 EUR for Eurostar London-Paris) ;)

There usually quite some activity in the evening, I don’t think you will have to wait long for an answer.

I tested out the process of reserving a eurostar seat but it offered me seats for around £168. How do I access seats for the 30 euro option?

By adding a rail pass (Interrail Global Pass, 2nd class), in the search window on the desktop version of www.raileurope.com.

I have booked EuroStar seat reservations with Interrail Pass twice in the last few weeks (last time yesterday) in the desktop version and both times I needed to enter my Interrail Pass number to let me complete the booking

Ah! Brilliant. Thanks. Will check that out now.

Good old B-Europe, with pass cover number I1111111 will work too https://www.b-europe.com/EN/Booking/Pass#TravelWish (4 EUR booking fee).

But as they will buy a pass later today, and a random midweek day in March won’t be especially busy, I can guess you can wait until tonight until buying an Interrail pass first, and book the Eurostar reservations on www.raileurope.com after buying the pass to save you the 4 EUR. :)

Yes, will encourage them to do it asap though! Thanks for all your help.