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Confused with no reservation needed tickets


I already added a “no reservation needed” ticket to my pass, it shows me a qr code. Is that all I need? Is my seat secured?

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Best answer by cdwatkins19 4 December 2022, 20:30

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That means you have a ticket. Not a reservation. Reservations are separate from the app and the app can't make reservations. It just informs you that (in this case) a reservation is not required.

A reservation may or may not be possible, depending on which train it is. If you want advice, please mention route, date and departure time.

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Your ticket is the QR code. Reservations are separate. As such you are not guaranteed a seat but you can get on unless it is a train with compulsory seat reservations. Where are you travelling to/from and when?

Thank you! Its route starts at the shiphol Airport to Anvers-Central to Courtrai to Lille Flanders to Amiens and finally to Paris Nord. Its leaves on December 19, 2022 at 09:16

Your ticket is the QR code. Reservations are separate. As such you are not guaranteed a seat but you can get on unless it is a train with compulsory seat reservations. Where are you travelling to/from and when?

ahh thank you! Its from the Schiphol Airport to Paris Nord (with a bunch of internal stops). So basically show up early and hope for the best?

That means you have a ticket. Not a reservation. Reservations are separate from the app and the app can't make reservations. It just informs you that (in this case) a reservation is not required.

A reservation may or may not be possible, depending on which train it is. If you want advice, please mention route, date and departure time.

Thank you! Its route starts at the shiphol Airport to Anvers-Central to Courtrai to Lille Flanders to Amiens and finally to Paris Nord. Its leaves on December 19, 2022 at 09:16

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You can’t reserve seats in any of those trains. Enjoy your travels! 

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The advice from the experienced travellers is never to activate a travel day, that is to create the QR code, in advance. 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, 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.

You can’t reserve seats in any of those trains. Enjoy your travels! 

Thank you yes i know! sorry for being annoying but my question is that the only thing i have to do is show my qr code? The train wont run out of seats?

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You can’t reserve seats in any of those trains. Enjoy your travels! 

Thank you yes i know! sorry for being annoying but my question is that the only thing i have to do is show my qr code? The train wont run out of seats?

Yes sure it can run out of seats if the train is to full, but most of the time will this not happen. If there are no seats left you have to stand. 

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I always seek up the complete front or back of the train for a lot of places (as long as it isn't first class). But you probably dodge most of the rush hour, so no worries about your seat. There probably be plenty!

In Antwerp Central, be attentive where you'll be sitting. I think the direct connection Antwerp-Lille returns from 11 december. Although it's shown as two separate trains, your train from Antwerp will actually split up in Courtrai/Kortrijk. One part goes to Poperinge, the other to Lille (usually the last 3 carriages). Make sure you sit in the right part of the train. Poperinge is a dead end. 

Very normal for people like me, railing Belgians, but very confusing for foreigners, tourists or people who're not used to taking trains. They probably gonna announce the numbers of the train going to Lille(Rijsel) in Dutch a bit before arriving in Kortrijk (because of stupid strict language rules, always forgetting the tourists), maybe French. Never heard it in English though. 

Usually the destination is shown on the screens in the train and at the train doors in Antwerp. Ask the ticket inspector where to sit if you're not sure!

If you'lld be sitting wrong, no worries. You usually have about 10 minutes in Courtrai/Kortrijk to switch to the right set, before the train leaves again. Before Kortrijk you can (usually) walk through the train. But do try to avoid going to Poperinge, it'll cost you a lot of time 😬

The train Courtrai-Lille is usually a bit short, only 3 carriages. But it's only a short stretch. But you almost always find seats! Especially since you'll be on it from Antwerp on! 

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Trenes are no aeroplenes-no assigned seats. More like the autobuses, but bigger. In fact I even think  the tiny tren in CR also works like that-but its hardly known.

I´ve done all those rides-untill LIlle as recent a few weeks ago and could always sit.

YOu have likely set your planner to ´No RES´ and then you get a very long cumbersome ride like this. Flying direct to Paris would have saved all that. UNless you really plan to stay f.e. in Arras or Amiens-for 10€ extra-mostly you can also use the hourly direct superfast TGV-the pride of FRance-Lille-Paris-in 1 hr.

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Why would you fly between Amsterdam and Paris? That’s ridiculous, wasteful and ecological nonsense. You’re on a railforum. It’s not even faster compared to Thalys 🙄

TGV’s from Lille do not have an hourly interval (France has usually no logic clock-faced scheduling). There are big gaps in the train service outside rush hours. It does make sense to go for the TER, if the alternative is to wait for a long time in Lille. The TERs are really not that slow. And you’ll get to see plenty of the north of France, much nicer landscapes than the boring high-speed line next to the motorway and you’ll be able to stop in smaller, but quite nice towns.

@Ariana Amiens is really nice small city, and in Arras you’ll have the possibility to visit a branch of the Louvre that is not infested by tourists if you’lld want to stretch your legs :)

 

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TGV’s from Lille do not have an hourly interval.

They used to have, at one point, instigated by RFF, the infrastructure manager at the time, but SNCF have watered it down since :(

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