Seat reservations on websites VS Eurail

The Eurail system does its best to allocate seats together. Other websites may offer a seat map.

Eurail indeed has a 2€ fee per person per train so it quickly adds up. Follow this guide: https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm

Depends on the route/travel date. A peak July Saturday on Amsterdam - Paris - Barcelona will be long sold out a month in advance. These are extremely popular mainlines with infrequent (expensive) trains.

On these trains there might be a few seats left but you'd be seated in different carriages.

Connections with a change in Brussels/Lille or Perpignan + reservation-free regional trains should be available with more capacity.

Then,what’s the latest time to book them in order to be safe. I’m aware they open reservations 6 months in advance but what’s a reasonable time frame to book that isn’t too early but able for a group of 5 to be seated together. Also, could you elaborate more on the change in brussels/Lille?. As for one of my friend he can only book in June in his case. 

I don't have a crystal ball so I'm not giving out estimates. The bigger the group the earlier you should book.

From Amsterdam you can do:

- Amsterdam Zuid - Antwerp - Kortrijk - Lille-Flandres -> all hourly and reservation-free

- frequent Lille-Flandres - Paris-Nord high-speed train. Always availability (10-20€).

It takes 3h longer than the direct trains.

Or you can take the hourly Eurocity to Brussels (reservation-free) and Eurostar from there (27€). There's usually more availability than from Amsterdam (train every 30 min). The Eurostar passholder quota still applies though. 1h longer.

Plenty of alternatives like that but they usually take much longer than direct services. :)

Just to be complete, for about the same amount of money as a Eurostar Interrail/Eurail reservation (possibly even less) you can get a normal ticket for the direct OuiGo (low cost train) service from Brussels to Paris. Its prices start from €10.

Not as fast as the Eurostar, but more time efficient and a good alternative, not needing you to go via Lille .

If you really want to be sure, book as early as possible.

If one of your friedns isn’t sure yet, just get all the necessary seats already. On raileurope, you pay no fees and you can cancel up to 30min after (!) departure (for French domestic TGVs Lille-Paris). You would then just cancel one of your seats if your friend can’t travel with you.

Not sure on the cancellation policy if you book a Eurostar (Amsterdam-Paris or Brussels-Paris) but you should also be able to cancel them at short notice. Maybe someone else can confirm this for Eurostar.

Eurostar reservations cannot be cancelled, only changed.

Then do you if OuiGo offers cancellation on their seat reservation?. Also if I book eurostar seat reservations tickets from Amsterdam to Paris direct using raileurope can I get a refund if my friend cancels them?. (Also which website can I go buy seat seservations from for eurocity trains?)

Passes are not valid on Ouigo and Ouigo tickets cannot be cancelled, only changed for a fee.

As I wrote, Eurostar reservations cannot be cancelled, only changed.

Passes are not valid on Ouigo trains. You can book tickets on b-europe.com and www.ouigo.com.

(Edit: I misread Eurocity...)

So, Can I book the train line TGV INOUI and eurocity on b-europe?

Pass reservations for TGV are best booked on www.raileurope.com.

The EuroCity doesn't have reservations.

But in the rail planner app train from budapest to vienna says its eurocity and seats are optional. Where would I book seat there?

Up until now, only routes between the Netherlands, Paris and Barcelona were discussed and then there's only 1 EC.

In general, for reservation questions, first check the page that was mentioned in the first response:

https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm

If that doesn't work for you, then always mention route, date and departure time.

For Budapest to Vienna, you can book on tickets.oebb.at.

Will trains from Berlin to Amsterdam be sold out in June too for trains in August?

Booking this train 2 months in advance shouldn't be a problem.

Sorry to throw this extra info, but could someone help me in saying which routes/trains I have to book the earilest and which I can leave till June to book seat reservations. This will help me alot thanks

Lastly, booking seat reservations for groups on raileurope do they make the seating together?

As long as you book the whole group in one transaction, they will.

What does D-7 mean here?. Also if I’m buying for the whole group how exactly is it gonna turn out when boarding the train?. Cause the seat reservations aren’t in the interail app is it fine if I show the interail ticket and then show rail Europe seat reservations?. Of course I’m aware the seat reservation has to match the train ride in the rail planner. Also raileurope offers to change my seat reservation dates only but not refund right?

Day-7 before departure. So Free exchange/refund until a week before departure, if you want to exchange in the week before your departure, there’s a cost of 19 EUR.

Yes, it works like that: showing your seat reservations+ interrail pass to the ticket inspector.

That depends on the train. Please mention route, date and departure time if you want details.

In the screenshot you're showing, both refund and exchange are possible. Although it looks more like a normal ticket instead of a pass reservation.