I cannot even start describing how complicated it has been to plan my travel to Spain!
I wanted to book on the eurrail app 2 weeks in advance but I could not book the Spanish train from France to Spain because they only work with paper tickets (?!) and they assumed that 10 working days would not be enough for them to arrive. I the called Renfe, SNCF and in a desperate attempt even Deutsche Bahn to try to book these seat reservations. Nothing. Went to a train station in one of the major cities in Italy, they also couldn’t help. So basically there was no way that I could book the seat reservation even though there were places available. I had to leave it up to chance and hope that once in France I could book the seat reservation. Turns out that even though there were second class tickets available at full price, there were none to be reserved for interrail passes (are there quotas ?). Some hours later understanding how complicated it is to travel with the regional trains (2+ days of travel for Turin-Madrid) I decide but the full priced ticket. Sold out. I am starting a course in Madrid and will most likely be late for it (let alone broke by the time I get there). this has proven to be quite a horrible experience and to avoid it getting even worse I wanted to ask you: if you don’t have a seat reservation can you still board the train and pay a supplement on board ? Thank you in advance for getting back to me!
Awful experience with the seat reservation for spanish trains
Best answer by Julia Cova
For people with similar problems :
We ended up just getting on the train despite having been advised against it at all the ticket offices and asking the train conductor if he could sell us a seat reservation last minute - and he said YES 🤩
I don’t know if this will work every time because I think it could have gone the other way as well: he could have said that the train was full so that he couldn’t offer us seats. But definitely don’t give up before trying that ! We don’t have a seat but are super happy that it worked out 🎉
is there a way for interrail to pressure renfe into doing e-tickets for the seat reservations ? Would make the experience much better !
happy travels !
If you want advice then give details of the journey you now need and time and date and we will try and help.
There are disruptions due to French strikes in that region today https://www.interrail.eu/en/support/travel-disruptions
We warn about this about daily for ESpana. But-as also about every newbee tends to think s/he is the very 1st to hit a certain prob-only just the idea that it has been mentioned and answered does not seem to be able to think of.
Hi, thank you for getting back to me !
The train I would like to board is the valence-Barcelona at 15.12. Any train that brings me to Barcelona tonight would work. I found another fellow interrailer and we made a plan B: taking regional trains and splitting a room tonight in narbonne or Perpignan as there is no way for us to make it to Barcelona without the high speed trains we initially had planned on taking. If there is a way to get on the high speed trains that would be much better so we would lose the payments for the accommodation in Barcelona.
Thank you 🙏
For people with similar problems :
We ended up just getting on the train despite having been advised against it at all the ticket offices and asking the train conductor if he could sell us a seat reservation last minute - and he said YES 🤩
I don’t know if this will work every time because I think it could have gone the other way as well: he could have said that the train was full so that he couldn’t offer us seats. But definitely don’t give up before trying that ! We don’t have a seat but are super happy that it worked out 🎉
is there a way for interrail to pressure renfe into doing e-tickets for the seat reservations ? Would make the experience much better !
happy travels !
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