First time Eurail pass user, and I can’t seem to grasp why the reservations don’t all show up in the same place. I have read 0n many forums that reservations won’t show up on the app, and I understand that and how you can add it to the planner. What I don’t understand is with one particular leg of the trip. We have a trip taking the train from Paris to Venice in mid June of 2023, that we purchased through the Eurail app. We have a 7 day pass and this trip is the only one that is marked as a day used on the pass. We have access to the tickets by clicking “Show My Ticket” and we have a scannable QR code and all of our information for the trip. What is confusing is that this is the only part of our trip we haven’t seen a charge for on our credit card (we had to pay extra for the reservation). Every other reservation we’ve had to make we were charged already (shows on our statement), we were sent an email, and we have printable tickets. These trips include Amsterdam to Paris, Venice to Florence, and Milan to Paris. All of these trips we see on our account but not on the app (I understand they can be added in the planner). What is confusing is, why does the trip we can only access on the app not show up on our account (Eurail website login) where all of our other reservations show up? How can I have a scannable QR ticket if the reservation has no indication that it was paid for?
Some reservations are only on the app and some are only on the Eurail account
Best answer by thibcabe
The website and the app are indeed completely separate. You need to add all trains you’ll take (whether they require seat reservations or not) to the app before boarding, you’ll then get a QR-code which is your ticket. You can alter which trains you take as you go.
For trains requiring seat reservations : you show both the reservation (PDF or printed version) and the pass on the app whenever a ticket inspector comes. To cross barriers in big stations the reservation is usually enough
I don’t understand : have you booked Paris - Milan (and then Milan - Venice) and not gotten a seat reservation ? It is not possible to book seat reservations through Rail Planner app, only through eurail.com or other websites. Btw it is advised to avoid eurail.com to book seats as they add 2€ booking fee per person per train. You can usually use the companies websites to book seats or other options (with less or no booking fee), see :
For example within Italy use tickets.oebb.at (Austrian Railways) : no booking fees at all.
Btw for Paris - Venice, the TGV into Milan does not arrive at the same station than the train to Venice. You need to transfer between Milano Porta Garibaldi and Milano Centrale : subway or 20-min walk. Allow at least an hour between trains. For example :
- TGV Paris Gare de Lyon - Milano Porta Garibaldi 12:46 - 19:49
- Frecciarossa Milano Centrale - Venezia S. Lucia 20:45 - 23:15
OR
- TGV Paris Gare de Lyon - Milano Porta Garibaldi 06:46 - 13:49
- Frecciarossa Milano Centrale - Venezia S. Lucia 14:45 - 17:12
The website and the app are indeed completely separate. You need to add all trains you’ll take (whether they require seat reservations or not) to the app before boarding, you’ll then get a QR-code which is your ticket. You can alter which trains you take as you go.
For trains requiring seat reservations : you show both the reservation (PDF or printed version) and the pass on the app whenever a ticket inspector comes. To cross barriers in big stations the reservation is usually enough
I don’t understand : have you booked Paris - Milan (and then Milan - Venice) and not gotten a seat reservation ? It is not possible to book seat reservations through Rail Planner app, only through eurail.com or other websites. Btw it is advised to avoid eurail.com to book seats as they add 2€ booking fee per person per train. You can usually use the companies websites to book seats or other options (with less or no booking fee), see :
For example within Italy use tickets.oebb.at (Austrian Railways) : no booking fees at all.
Btw for Paris - Venice, the TGV into Milan does not arrive at the same station than the train to Venice. You need to transfer between Milano Porta Garibaldi and Milano Centrale : subway or 20-min walk. Allow at least an hour between trains. For example :
- TGV Paris Gare de Lyon - Milano Porta Garibaldi 12:46 - 19:49
- Frecciarossa Milano Centrale - Venezia S. Lucia 20:45 - 23:15
OR
- TGV Paris Gare de Lyon - Milano Porta Garibaldi 06:46 - 13:49
- Frecciarossa Milano Centrale - Venezia S. Lucia 14:45 - 17:12
Thank you so much for your reply and the useful information. The link is a great help as well. This is all making sense now.
Cheers!
The recommendation from the experienced travellers in the community is to only make reservations through the Eurail website if no other options are available. You are also advised not to activate your pass until just before boarding the first train of your travel.
Please read more about that below.
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 you choose the start day of the validity of the pass. Once the validity has started it can't be changed even if you haven't travelled. The advice is therefore to wait with activating the pass and starting the validity until the first day of your travel as you only can deactivate the pass no later than 23.59 CET on the day before the validity starts. If your travel plans change in the last moment you can't deactivate the pass and change the validity.
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.
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