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Hey guys. 

 

I have an interrail trip starting tomorrow, from UK to Norway. I had all the sections planned out etc a month ago, and checked every so often, but this morning I read someone on reddit say that they had problems on the German sections especially Hamburg to Copenhagen regarding reservations absolutely required when the interrail info says you don’t need a reservation. Many others commented the same.

I WAS going to travel from Brussels to Koln, then to Hamburg, then Copenhagen, on the 13th July. Seemed easy and was looking forward to it. Now I’m just really annoyed and confused that the information was wrong. Good job I saw the reddit post!   

So the Interrail app and planner states no reservation required, but apparently it is? Now I cannot reserve the train/time that I require, as it is not possible. This interrail is kind of ridiculous. The app and the website don’t seem very good, and the seemingly low cost of the interrail pass now seems expensive as all the reservations add up and is chaotic as all the train journeys add up. I regret buying the pass, thinking it was going to be an easy and enjoyable experience. I’m faffing about trying to figure different routes out but I don’t know if they will work. Will the pass actually work? I have huge doubts about it and it may completely ruin the vacation. However, It is improving my geography knowledge, which is nice. It is fun trying to figure stuff out, but the information has to be up to date or correct, or something. I don’t think it’s good enough. 

 

So now I have got to travel Hamburg to Flensburg, to Fredericia, to Copenhagen. I will spend money (more money) on reservations because I don’t trust the interrail info. 

 

I do need recommended routes for Copenhagen to Hamburg as the initial trains I was looking to travel on have the same issue - reservation needed, already full. Apparently. And no longer on the planner.

Could I just reverse the previous route? Cope - Fred - Flen - Ham? 

 

Sorry for waffling on. How do I contact Interrail? 

If you want to complain to Interrail you can use the form in the link below. If you want advice regarding your travel, please ask here in the community. 

https://eurail.zendesk.com/hc/en-001/requests/new

You can reverse the route but you can't travel on the IC trains between Denmark and Germany without reservation during the summer. It is a pity that this info not is in the Interrail planner.

I'll post some advice from the experienced travellers in the community in a new reply.

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 ticket 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

If you look at the train company that runs the trains, you will get sure information. Railplanner app is not reliable, because the data comes from the rail companies that often forget to give all the data. 

In Denmark only the IC Hamburg-Kopenhagen have compulsory reservation, SJ Highspeed and the Snälltåget Stockholm-Malmö-Hamburg-Berlin.

The IC trains that go from Flensburg to Denmark have only optional reservation, same for the IC trains in Denmark. 

The RE Hamburg-Flensburg is not even possible to reserve a seat. 

Cheers for the responses and info, people. 

It’s been a crazy morning re-jigging the Brussels to Copenhagen route! The Koln to Hamburg was full so it’s Brus - Frankfurt (reserved) and Frankfurt to Hamburg (reserved), Hamburg to Flensburg (not reserved), Flensburg to Fred (reserved just in case) and then to Copenhagen - hopefully.

 

I already had Eurostar reserved for tomorrow ages in advance, and then Copenhagen to Gothenburg for the 14th was reserved in good time (Goth - Oslo is part bus replacement and VY.no told me no reservation required but I may get that anyway). 

Just need to re-plan the return bit now >_< 

I appreciate the info. 

 

I already had Eurostar reserved for tomorrow ages in advance, and then Copenhagen to Gothenburg for the 14th was reserved in good time (Goth - Oslo is part bus replacement and VY.no told me no reservation required but I may get that anyway). 

Just need to re-plan the return bit now >_< 

I appreciate the info. 

Regarding the Goth-Oslo leg, since it is bus replacement so I wonder can you still use interrail pass for that ?

I already had Eurostar reserved for tomorrow ages in advance, and then Copenhagen to Gothenburg for the 14th was reserved in good time (Goth - Oslo is part bus replacement and VY.no told me no reservation required but I may get that anyway). 

Just need to re-plan the return bit now >_< 

I appreciate the info. 

Regarding the Goth-Oslo leg, since it is bus replacement so I wonder can you still use interrail pass for that ?


Yes. Rail replacement buses are valid. Regular bus/coach routes that some national planners will give as alternatives are not.

Between Gothenburg and Oslo both ways, there are only maybe 2 services each day with the R20 Train from GBurg to Rygge, then R20 (Bus replacement) to Oslo. 

The rest are all bus direct. 

 

I’m actually doing that leg a couple of times (separate from interrail) for a Maiden gig in Gothenburg. 

But I think I got things in order now for the German/Denmark bit (going and returning), I just hope it all goes okay. 

 

The advice to use the actual train company sites for reservations was really helpful, and they are cheaper. That’s awesome. Cheers for your help and advice. 

I just did Copenhagen to Flensburg on 13 July without any reservations. Train was pretty full but got a seat.

At Fredericia anyone without a reserved seat on the train to Flensburg were directed to a coach outside which did the same journey as the train but took 20 minutes longer.

 

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