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Change request of seat reservation for Thalys

  • 4 December 2022
  • 5 replies
  • 436 views

Hi, we just made a seat reservation for Thalys on 5/1 and want to change tot 6/1. It seems that this should be possible. Eurrail says response time can be up to 2 weeks. Is this really the case? In two weeks time the alternative seats are most likely already taken. 

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Best answer by Camilo. 7 December 2022, 15:43

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Response times are very variable. To be safe book new reservations and apply for a refund on the unwanted one. Please note we do not work for Eurail and can only offer advice

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Thalys reservations can be changed once before departure, free of charge, if booked through Belgian railways and probably also if booked through NS.

I'm not sure though if Interrail do reservation exchanges. They don't say anything about that on their refund and exchange page, where it seems they only do refunds (with costs):

https://www.interrail.eu/en/interrail-passes/ordering-info/refund-exchange-policy

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Thalys reservations can be changed once before departure, free of charge, if booked through Belgian railways and probably also if booked through NS.

I'm not sure though if Interrail do reservation exchanges. They don't say anything about that on their refund and exchange page, where it seems they only do refunds (with costs):

https://www.interrail.eu/en/interrail-passes/ordering-info/refund-exchange-policy

This is one more reason for not making reservations through Interrail/Eurail unless absolutely necessary.

 

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 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.

Thank you for your helpful replies!

Userlevel 6
Badge +3

Hi @Rosja 

We can modify for free the time and date only once for reservations made with Eurail for Thalys. Please keep in mind that the start point and destination must be the same. 

If you are travelling anytime soon, please send me a PM here or contact customer service. 

Have a lovely day!

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