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Hi there,

This is the 1st time I am posting query in this community and so please bear with me.  I will be travelling with my family to a few destinations in late Apr/early May, with global pass.  We are planning to travel between Paris > London > Brussel and I understand I have to make seat reservation in advance for taking the Eurostar.  My question is do I have to activate my pass (I have added passenger details into the app but have not activate) in order for me to make the reservation online?  As I have never try online seat reservation, plus I understand that there will be a fee incurred if there is a need to rescheulde my train timing after making seat reservation, hence I need to understand in depth instead of doing something silly.

Appreicate your guideline in this matter.

Thank you.

 

 

 

Then the pass should be good value. Eurostars to/from London are pretty much unavoidable, it’s a bottleneck. Book in advance.

Schiphol - Lyon : if you wish to save a bit of money + the station transfer in Paris (RER not included) you could take this route :

  • hourly IC Schiphol Airport - Brussels-Midi
  • TGV Brussels-Midi - Lyon Part-Dieu 20€ (very limited passholder quota though) → departures at 06:37, 08:17, 10:17, 13:17, 16:17 and 18:17

Another cheaper but slower option is :

  • IC Schiphol Airport - Antwerp-Centraal
  • IC Antwerp-Centraal - Kortrijk - Lille-Flandres
  • TGV Lille-Europe - Lyon Part-Dieu 10€ limited fare, then 20€

Book through https://www.raileurope.com/ to avoid fees (add rail pass). Have a look at https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm for general advice. Questions welcome too.

Hi there,

Thanks for the quick reply.  Yes I do have more other train journeys that these, such as from Schiphol>Lyon,  Lyon>Paris, and few other more on TGV/TER.  I am aware of the seat reservation fee for taking Eurostar between Paris>London & London>Brussel-Midi, I guess this is unavoidable, from the search result. Or is there somewhere I have missed out? 

And thanks for the answer pertaining to the seat reservation can be done prior to activate of the pass, I have a better picture now of what I should do next.  During my last used of the Eurail pass (in 2023), I have activated the pass when I took my 1st train, I will do so for my upcoming trip too. 

Thank you.

Are those your only train journeys ? Regular tickets are likely to be cheaper as you need to add a 30€ reservation fee on top of Eurail (otherwise included in your ticket).

To answer your question : no, you do not need to activate the pass. Better not to do it even as once the validity period or a pass day start, you cannot cancel it.

Eurostar trains are popular and there's a passholder quota (quite unique in Europe) so yes you have to book in advance which limits your flexibility.

Reservations are often non-refundable nor exchangeable but Eurostar is an exception : 15€ per person to change, only possible once and there must be passholder reservations left.

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