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Eurail pass and seat selection on Trenitalia

I’m wondering if there is any way to select specific seats using a Eurail pass on Trenitalia.  From everything I read online here, it’s not possible on Trenitalia’s website, Trenitalia Kiosks, Eurail, or even OBB.   My travel companion for an upcoming trip has never been to Europe before and I was really hoping I could select seats, rather than have them preassigned.  

I’m wondering if we go to a Trenitalia agent at a station if they have flexibility of accommodating requests.   I’d prefer the one seat arrangements facing each other, but as long as we’re sitting together, that would be fine.  What I’m really hoping to prevent is being assigned in different cars or even in the same car not together.  

Is there a way to see the assigned seats before finalizing a booking?  I’m fine with us sitting side-by-side, across from each other, window or aisle, etc.  Just don’t want us separated.   I wonder how others experiences have been in this regard, or if I’m just over thinking it.  

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A
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@Angelo 

Please note that I don't work for Interrail/Eurail and that I don't reply to personal messages.
R
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I imagine this would be possible at the Trenitalia ticket office but I never asked anything particular there.

Please ask questions in the community and not via a private message. That's the quickest way to get a response. I don't work for Eurail/Interrail.
J

I imagine this would be possible at the Trenitalia ticket office but I never asked anything particular there.

 

Thanks!  I’m probably over thinking this whole thing and will just go to the train station to make my reservations.   Thanks again!  

A
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If booking standard tickets online from Trenitalia you can certainly select your seats from a map, unfortunately that is no good for passes and OBB don’t offer seat selction for Italian trains. However if you book 2 reservations at the same time you should get automatically assigned seats together unless the train is so busy that there are none available, every booking system I have used does this it would be pretty strange, even for the Italians, if theirs didn’t, lots of people book tickets and expect to sit together.

 

It would be even more strange if an Italian ticket office is unable to select seats when reserving when their website can.

 

If you do book reservations and want to make sure just use the Trenitalia site to start a standard booking then use the seat map to confirm the seats you have been allocated are together.

J

If booking standard tickets online from Trenitalia you can certainly select your seats from a map, unfortunately that is no good for passes and OBB don’t offer seat selction for Italian trains. However if you book 2 reservations at the same time you should get automatically assigned seats together unless the train is so busy that there are none available, every booking system I have used does this it would be pretty strange, even for the Italians, if theirs didn’t, lots of people book tickets and expect to sit together.

 

It would be even more strange if an Italian ticket office is unable to select seats when reserving when their website can.

 

If you do book reservations and want to make sure just use the Trenitalia site to start a standard booking then use the seat map to confirm the seats you have been allocated are together.

 

Thanks AI_G!  This is a huge help.  

Angelo
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Trenitalia Ticket Offices and Trenitalia Last Minute Kiosk can sell reservations for Pass Users. They call them Global Pass. 

Also ticket offices outside Italy like ÖBB in Austria (and also online), SNCB/NMBS Belgium, DB Germany, NS Netherlands or SBB CFF FFS in Switzerland can sell reservations of Trenitalia trains. 

Do you have any questions? Feel free to ask in the community! Known languages: Deutsch, Italiano, English.
Brian Hall
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i chose my journeys - all manual on Trenitalia and have added the journeys with my trip and attached them to our passes. But how do I know what seats I have on these trains that I have chosen. When we get to the station how do we know which car we are on? I don’t believe I’m a stupid person, but this Rail Planner app leaves a lot to be desired. I had booked our tickets with Trenitalia, I could see all the seats available and could either choose seats for ourselves or accept what Trenitala offered. And if I had to pay for the seats thats fine. How come Eurail doesn’t have this capability using the Rail Planner app? (we are travelling in 1st class - Italy flexipass 8 days in 1 month).

I speak English only

Y
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Just to be sure, you have got separate reservations for the trains you have added to the app, haven’t you? They are not allocated within your pass.

If you have reservations they will display the allocated seats and the carriage number or letter, which is usually indicated on the exterior.

Brian Hall
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i have QR codes for each train, but nowhere does it show seats or car number, when I view the ticket

A
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The QR codes in the app are no reservations, those are just your tickets. Reservations are made separately. Have you made reservations for the trains that need reservations?

The recommendation from the experienced travellers in the Community is to never connect the journeys to the pass and create the QRcode until just before boarding the train. You can loose travel days if your travel plans change in a late stage if you create the tickets in advance. Please read more about that in my next reply below.  

Please note that I don't work for Interrail/Eurail and that I don't reply to personal messages.
A
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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 allowing you to create the QR code (your ticket), 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.

Please note that I don't work for Interrail/Eurail and that I don't reply to personal messages.
Brian Hall
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I’m not quite sure whether to not add journeys from my trip to our passes. I know when we want to travel and where. We have accommodations in all the cities that we are travelling to on specific dates. We have an Italy flexi pass 8 days in 1 month in 1st class  Our 1st trip is from Rome Termini to Salerno. I know Trenitalia assigns seats for this train. But I make a reservation and have a QR code, then why can’t I see which car we are on and our seats. Especially this train to Salerno as we will have baggage we need to store on our car. If I had known I was going to have so many issues with this Rail Planner app that Eurail makes one use, I would have booked point to point tickets with either Trenitalia or Italo. Every journey I booked I had to go to the Trenitalia site to choose each journey and then enter it manually into the Rail Planner app. It has been a pain in the you know what. Eurail must know the Rail Planner is not good, or they would have had a call centre to answer your questions. 

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You say that you don't know what seats you have.

Where did you make your reservations? Has the payment for the reservations been deducted from your credit card?

Please note that I don't work for Interrail/Eurail and that I don't reply to personal messages.
Angelo
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Keep in mind, adding to the app the trip/train is not a seat reservation!,

Do you have any questions? Feel free to ask in the community! Known languages: Deutsch, Italiano, English.
Brian Hall
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I guess I’m not making myself clear. We have an Italy flexi pass 8 days in 1 month in 1st class. Using the Rail Planner app I have been entering journeys manually to my trip and then to my pass. I then get a QR code for that journey when I View Ticket. I know that Trenitalia assigns seats automatically. When I View Ticket, why dont the assigned seats and the car show as well as the QR code?

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Please read all answers above. The QR codes in the app are NO reservations!!!!! 

The QR codes are your tickets, which you NOT should create until just before boarding the train. 

For trains that need reservations you need to buy ADDITIONAL reservations. 

Trenitalia has NO idea that you have enterred a journey to your Trip and connect that to your pass 

All information is written in replies above. 

Please note that I don't work for Interrail/Eurail and that I don't reply to personal messages.
A
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I guess I’m not making myself clear. We have an Italy flexi pass 8 days in 1 month in 1st class. Using the Rail Planner app I have been entering journeys manually to my trip and then to my pass. I then get a QR code for that journey when I View Ticket. I know that Trenitalia assigns seats automatically. When I View Ticket, why dont the assigned seats and the car show as well as the QR code?


All the people on here who have been trying to help you have been clear. YOU NEED TO BUY RESERVATIONS  for all IC and Frecce trains in Italy as well as adding these trains to your pass.

Brian Hall
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 If I need to BUY seat reservations is not the issue. How to buy the seat reservations is my problem. You’re telling me the QR code is my ticket. If i have a ticket why dont i have a ticket number? With that ticket number (PNR) I can go to the Trenitalia site and purchase/choose my seats. Should it not be that easy?  What am I missing? Again, I have to choose the my journeys manually. In order to find the trains I want i use the Trenitalia site. When I’m on Trenitalia site I can choose seats and car. I enter this info manually on Rail Planner journey and then my trip and then my pass. NO WHERE does it allow me to choose car or seats. Rome Termini to Salerno 02 October lv 1820 arr 2005 train 8519  car 2 seats 5D 6D and no charge

Brian Hall
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Oh and just was on Rail Europe site and I was able to choose the train and seats and car. So please tell me what the issue is with Eurail

A
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There will always be a charge for the reservation in Italy.

 

Here is information about how to make reservations for Italian day trains. 

https://community.eurail.com/train-connections-reservations-47/how-to-get-reservations-105?postid=9551#post9551

 

Please note that I don't work for Interrail/Eurail and that I don't reply to personal messages.
Angelo
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You can't choose a seat via Interrail/Eurail. You get automaticly a seat assigned. Same via ÖBB online. 

Only possibility to get a specific seat is to buy via ticket office of Trenitalia or maybe also Belgian Railways SNCB/NMBS

Do you have any questions? Feel free to ask in the community! Known languages: Deutsch, Italiano, English.
Y
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PLEASE understand:

Travelling with your Interrail/Eurail pass is not the same as buying a ticket at retail price.

Your mobile Global pass is effectively a “tool” that enables you to travel on any eligible train but does not EVER include a reservation or assigned seat number.

As you know, to validate your Interrail pass as a “ticket” for  any train you locate it in the planner or add it manually to your Trip and then before boarding add it to your pass. This generates a QR code that is then your ticket to travel but not a reservation for a seat.

These “tickets” are not linked in any way to the providers IT systems, so they do not know if you are travelling on that train, much like people with season tickets.

Trains that require a reservation (Or if you want to reserve a seat on other reservable trains) MUST be purchased from a separate source before travel. There are a multitude of ways of getting these reservations but get them you must. 

Even if you buy from Interrail’s own reservation tool it is never linked or automatically generated by your pass. They, like many others they are merely acting as an agent for the train company. The only difference is if you use the train company direct (e.g. DB bahn for trains they operate). 

Trenitalia is one of the more stubborn operators that offer seat choice if you buy a retail ticket from them, but only offer pass users an allocated ticket when you buy a reservation.

G
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I’m in a not dissimilar situation.

We have two Global Eurail 1st class passes, and made reservations for Rome to Venice on Trenitalia via the Eurail website.

My issue is that I was allocated two seats (two opposite each other on a window, but in a four seat block).

I’d much prefer to switch to two seats facing each other with aisle access (either on the window one side or on the aisle in a group of four), but there doesn’t seem to be any way I can do it.

Any suggestions?

BrendanDB
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I’m in a not dissimilar situation.

We have two Global Eurail 1st class passes, and made reservations for Rome to Venice on Trenitalia via the Eurail website.

My issue is that I was allocated two seats (two opposite each other on a window, but in a four seat block).

I’d much prefer to switch to two seats facing each other with aisle access (either on the window one side or on the aisle in a group of four), but there doesn’t seem to be any way I can do it.

Any suggestions?

It’s not worth the effort to look into this to try to change this.

Just wait until you board to see if some of those seats are unoccupied for the duration of your trip.

If they are occupied by others, kindly ask the other passengers if you could switch because you’lld prefer to sit at the aisle sides of the bay of 4.

It’s a very common thing to ask and a lot of people ask it sponaneously ;)

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