I’m unable to make seats reservations even if there is still place in the train.
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Great! Has it also crossed your mind you are not nr 1 in this and that this forum is full of allthesame questions-and often answers too-which differ per country-railway?
Passes are mostly meant for spontaneous travel and not monthes advance in to the last minute fixed schedules with eternal fears that things go wrong-they will go at some moment-and well over 90% of all trains here in EUR are without any RES. But you all want just those that are so pesky to get.
What route, time and date are you looking at?
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, when you choose the start day of the validity of the pass, the first day of the validity period is automatically made a travel day, even if you don't enter a journey, the advice is therefore not to activate the pass before the first travel day as you only can deactivate the pass before 00.00 on the day the validity starts. If your travel plans change in the last moment you will loose travel days if you have activated the pass in advance.
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, 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.
Thanks for all these details. I have a 1st class pass. I already started to use it, so I’m now familiar with it. I want to do two things :
1st, going from Paris to Oslo, next week. Between August 15th to August 17th. For one of the train I must take, Paris Est to Mannheim at 13h10, there is no possibility to get seats reservations (in fact… every schedule of the afternoon)!!! I faced that reality last week, coming from Amsterdam to Paris -Unable to get a direct train-, so I took Amsterdam-Bruxelle, I had to sleep there, then Bruxelle to Paris in the morning… But I realised when I got in the train to bruxelle, that it was completing it’s way to Paris that night!!!! … And the train was half empty!!! They told me they had « technical problems that week »… But the thing is that I had to pay a hotel for no reason and lost a full traveling day on my pass for no reason!!! And before I booked, I went to a train station on a face-to-face basis to make sure it was really full end they told me it was (and they were wrong). Now, I do no have more time to lose. And I know that the train is not full actually on my next way to Oslo… I would just like to make reservation and pay my seat!
2nd, My other trip goes from Oslo to Istanbul from September 2nd, to September 7th : I’m unable to make a reservation seat (and probably with a bed) from Videle to Halkali… Not possible for every date!!! I also tried to reserve seats for the places I could in between Oslo and Videle, but it « crashes » each time when I’m at the payment.
If you have any Idea or options (other than going to a train station), I would take it!
Paris-Mannheim at 13:10 on 17/8 most likely doesn't have any pass holder seats left. I can book it a week later but not on the 17th.
Remember that for some trains, especially the international high speed trains from/to France, pass holder seats are quota-controlled and sell out before the train is fully booked.
What train(s) are you catching from Mannheim? You could e.g. take a TGV from Paris to Strasbourg, then a regional train to Offenburg and then continue in northern direction. Domestic TGVs in France can be booked until they are really full, also by pass holders.
Videle to Halkali can be booked:
- at a ticket office in Romania
- at a ticket office in Germany
- by phone via Deutsche Bahn. You'll have to pick it up at a DB ticket machine in Germany.
A few days in advance should be enough though, once August is over.
For any other reservation between Oslo and Halkali, please specify per train: route, date, departure time.
Videle to Halkali can be booked:
- at a ticket office in Romania
- at a ticket office in Germany
- by phone via Deutsche Bahn. You'll have to pick it up at a DB ticket machine in Germany.
A few days in advance should be enough though, once August is over.
For any other reservation between Oslo and Halkali, please specify per train: route, date, departure time.
Hi,
Have you booked a reservation through DB Ticket Office? Or from who do you the information?
At the ticket office they said to me that Dimitrovgrad to Istanbul is not possible.
Thanks for this first recommandation. It gives me ideas and I finaly found a route by Bruxelle, and it’s related to your comment! Thanks.
Videle to Halkali can be booked:
- at a ticket office in Romania
- at a ticket office in Germany
- by phone via Deutsche Bahn. You'll have to pick it up at a DB ticket machine in Germany.
A few days in advance should be enough though, once August is over.
Have you booked a reservation through DB Ticket Office? Or from who do you the information?
At the ticket office they said to me that Dimitrovgrad to Istanbul is not possible.
Unfortunately, some of DB staff don't know how to do it. This train cannot be booked based on the timetable. They have to use the manual train number search and then book it from there (like for Spanish trains). That works in any case with an origin in Romania (such as Videle). I don't know if i also works with an origin in Bulgaria (such as Dimitrovgrad). It does not work with an origin in Turkey: the return journey must be booked in Turkey.
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