How to get Reservations :)



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Reservations for TGVs Paris-Barcelona

 

The TGVs between Paris and Barcelona can be booked:

  • Via www.raileurope.com. No booking fees, delivery via e-mail.
  • Via Interrail.eu/eurail.com (2€ booking fee per person and train, from 90 days in advance, delivery via e-mail).
  • Via French railways (SNCF) ticket office or by phone (press #85 for English, no booking fee, delivery via e-mail).
  • Via a Luxembourg (CFL) international ticket office or by phone. Booking fee €5, reservation can be sent via email.
  • Via a Dutch (NS) international ticket office or by phone. No booking fee (because reservations are not available on the NS website and ticket machines), reservation is sent via email.
  • Via a Belgian (NMBS/SNCB) international ticket office or by phone. No booking fee, reservation is sent via email but phone number is not cheap.
  • Via a Swiss (SBB/CFF/FSS) ticket office or by phone (scroll down to Switzerland). Unknown if reservations can be sent via e-mail. Send me a message if you find out.
  • Not anymore via RENFE (Spanish railways).
  • Not anymore via Deutsche Bahn (German railways).
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Reservations for Spanish domestic trains

 

Reservations for Spanish domestic trains can be booked in the following ways:

  • At a RENFE (Spanish railways) ticket office
  • At an SNCF (French railways) ticket office.
  • At a ČD (Czech railways) ticket office.
  • At a Deutsche Bahn ticket office. You may need to provide the train number. Some DB staff claim they can't book Spanish reservations but they're wrong. They need to use the train number search.
  • Via Deutsche Bahn by phone (+49 30 2970 or directly to the English line +49 30 311682904). Collect at a DB ticket machine or receive via post (€5.90 per order). You may need to provide the train number.
  • Via RENFE by phone, with limitations, see this page (scroll down to Spain; when calling, press 1 for English). Reservation must be collected in Spain.
  • Via the Interrail and Eurail websites, currently only for AVE, Alvia and Euromed trains. Booking fee €2 per person and train. If booking multiple trains doesn't work, then book one train at a time.
  • Not anymore at a Swiss ticket office.

The good thing is that these reservations are not quota-controlled, so you can book seats until the train is full.
Train numbers can be looked up via www.raileurope.com or in the DB planner, but not too long in advance, since RENFE don't always publish their timetables a long time in advance.

Before trying to book pass reservations, it's a good idea to check on renfe.com whether your trains can already be booked. If normal tickets are sold, then pass reservations can also be booked.

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Additional method; IN FRance for all trains that require a REServation beside the pass: (ONLY domestic trains):

can also do at any machine of SNCF-these are in any major station (mostly purple/grey-the smaller blue are for regional trains only).

Set up trip, choose ´anon´ and no passenger account-then there are endless pages to see if you are fit enough and have no dogs/bikes etc. Then comes REDUCTION: click on ´more´ and then the EUrl and IR appear-choose class. Then it takes a while but there will be a side with all trains/connections (MAX 1 change) from A to B and what it will cost you. Trains that are really ´complet´ will not show up. Works for the TGV, the IC, the overnight trains and ALSO the NoMAD trains (these cost just 1,50 to REServe).

A couchette in the nighttrains cost 21,50 plus an awful lot of extra info: name, full adress, fonenr, mail etc.

Then pay-cards only, cash has been banned since many years (can do at counter if wished-expect to know/ speak FRench and exact details of what you want). You now get mostly a soft paper slip with QR-code and this can be used to pass gates at such stations. In this month (may) it is very well possible to even find seats in TGV for 10€ for the next day, this may not hold for summer or days of great movements (start/end of major holidays etc.)

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Do you know why It says “Ticket not available”. I can’t book a reservation.
17 Aug 18:10 train from rome to florence? what do I do?

Please follow the instructions; seats are available for 10€. If you still have problems, please do NOT post in this topic but open your own one.

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Italian daytrains via oebb.at 🙂 Thanks to @rvdborgt  for notifying me about the new possibilty to reserve Italian daytrains via Oebb.at

 

First select your Route and your traveldate/time
Even if you wanna just reserve a seat please click the option One Way tickets and day tickets
You will get first results please note that this are Standard prices please click in the red marked box top right on change.
Yet you can add as much travelers as needed and add on each traveler the discount Interrail / Eurail Globalpass (at the end of the list) and click on “Confirm”
You get some results for example the 13.48 direct Highspeedtrain for 10€ :)

Please note that on the 14.26 depature only the first train will be reserved.
It looks like OBB can reserve just direct routes if you wanna use the 14.26 depature you have to search first Venice - Bolgona and afterwards Bologna - Milano.

Kind Regards

from @seewulf  & @rvdborgt 

Do you know why It says “Ticket not available”. I can’t book a reservation.
17 Aug 18:10 train from rome to florence? what do I do?

@seewulf  @rvdborgt 

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I just have a short question

Please open you own topic, so this one doesn't get overloaded with questions.

Hey, thank your for this great Thread. I just have a short question regarding reservations in Italy: Is it not possible to select a specific seat when doing a reservation? So you basically book a reservation and they will automatically assign a seat?

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Hi, thanks for the instructions! I have a problem with ÖBB,

Please open your own topic, mentioning the exact trains you'd like to book (origin, destination, date, departure time per train).

Hi, thanks for the instructions! I have a problem with ÖBB, I want to make a reservation for NightTrain from Maribor to Split on July. When I just look the tickets, ÖBB is showing the offers, but when I add the Eurail discount ÖBB shows “tickets are not available.”

Can you help me, what is the problem? I guess there is still space in the train, but I can’t make the reservation in the internet..

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As Frenchrail (SNCF) stopped to sell Reservations online and via phone 😕 We wanna show you some other options how you get Reservations for Trains within France 🙂 (Links provided by @rvdborgt )

  1. Eurails own reservation service via App or Website (2 EUR fee per seat)
  2. Belgian railways (4 EUR fee per order). You need to request a pass cover number first.
  3. ACP rail (also with a fee, but it doesn't seem to work right now)

You can also call Belgian railways (no fee but you'll have to pay phone charges; no pass cover number required; reservation will be emailed).

Can Belgian railways only book within France? Because I was looking from Munich -> Paris and Paris -> Geneva, but could not search it on b-europe website

The b-europe website mentioned above will only book domestic trains in France. You can book Munich - Paris and Paris - Geneva via the Eurail website (whenever it gets back online - I suppose soon) or by phone via French railways (they sell reservations again via phone, press #85 for English) or Belgian railways. The French number should be cheaper to call.

If you have more questions, please ask them in a new topic, so as not to overload this one.

As Frenchrail (SNCF) stopped to sell Reservations online and via phone 😕 We wanna show you some other options how you get Reservations for Trains within France 🙂 (Links provided by @rvdborgt )

  1. Eurails own reservation service via App or Website (2 EUR fee per seat)
  2. Belgian railways (4 EUR fee per order). You need to request a pass cover number first.
  3. ACP rail (also with a fee, but it doesn't seem to work right now)

You can also call Belgian railways (no fee but you'll have to pay phone charges; no pass cover number required; reservation will be emailed).

 

Can Belgian railways only book within France? Because I was looking from Munich -> Paris and Paris -> Geneva, but could not search it on b-europe website

Its dificult reserv in the moment i am in the estation ? 

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Booking accommodation in the Caledonian sleeper

Services:

  • London - Inverness / Aberdeen / Fort William
  • London - Glasgow / Edinburgh

Procedure:

  1. Go to the Caledonian Sleeper website and fill in From and To and other journey details.
  2. Check "Room supplement Only”.
  3. A pop-up will appear, check the "I understand” box and click on Done.
  4. Click on "Get times & tickets”.
  5. Select the accommodation you want and click on "Next step: GUEST DETAILS”.
  6. Fill in your details and click on “Next step: REVIEW ORDER".
  7. Review your order and click on “Next step: PAYMENT”.
  8. Fill in your details and click on "Next step: PAY WITH CARD”.
  9. Fill in your payment details and click on "Pay”.

You can click on the "VIEW MORE DATES” button to see an overview per month, with for each date, per compartment type, how many are still available.

Note: also check normal fares. Some advance fares are cheaper than a pass reservation (room supplement).

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Seat reservations in Great Britain via GWR

 

Reservations for day trains in Great Britain are optional, regardless of what the rail planner app says. You can get them free of charge from a ticket office in Great Britain or via myaccount.gwr.com:

  1. Create an account. (It weirdly doesn't accept spaces in the surname.)
  2. Sign in, and click Bookings at the top.
  3. Click on the “Make a seat/bike reservation“ box, and in the appearing pop-up, click on Next.
  4. Fill in the form and select the desired train.
  5. Select a fare. You can select any, as long as it is in the correct class (Standard=2nd class).
  6. Click on Continue and select “I would like to reserve a seat”.
  7. Choose your preferences and click on "Add reservation”.
  8. It says you won't be charged, and indeed you get the free stand-alone seat reservation without needing to enter any payment details.

Even though it's the GWR website, this works for any route in Great Britain where seat reservations are available.

For reservations in the Caledonian Sleeper services between London and Scotland, see below.

Hello, I wanted to know, how through the website of the German train company, the route will be linked to my pass (just with a reservation of seats)?

It won't. Reservations are completely separate, regardless of where and how you make them. This also means that you always have to add a journey to My Trip and then (shortly before boarding) to My Pass.

Thanks again, I got it! 

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Hello, I wanted to know, how through the website of the German train company, the route will be linked to my pass (just with a reservation of seats)?

It won't. Reservations are completely separate, regardless of where and how you make them. This also means that you always have to add a journey to My Trip and then (shortly before boarding) to My Pass.

Reservations for trains in Germany and many in and out to Germany :)

If you visit bahn.de you can select the Seat only option 🙂 But note doesn´t work for Thalys, TGV to France and OBB Nightjet trains.

Just click on this link and the Seat Only option that is marked above 🙂 https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml

Hello, I wanted to know, how through the website of the German train company, the route will be linked to my pass (just with a reservation of seats)?
 

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Ah, I see my original post has turned up (so you’ve already seen me say the two things above elsewhere...) Apologies!

 

  1. Some places can’t be booked from. For instance, OEBB can now book the SBB train to Zurich from Genova, but it can’t book the identical one from Bologna for some reason. Also the daily Ligurian coastal IC to Roma can be booked from Ventimiglia or San Remo, but not Imperia.

Have you already asked ÖBB about it or should we maybe all complain to get it higher on their priority list? :)

I didn’t bother because they never replied to my other (probably now solved) question about the carriage seating class. But I certainly could do :-)

I think with the Ventimiglia IC you can book from pretty much any other station on the route, the only reason I found out about the problem with booking from Imperia was because that precise journey factors into my own plans this summer, and Imperia was where I found the cheapest hotel along the coast.

But after then doing a bit of research, I realised the reason the OEBB site was having trouble with that particular stop is because it’s only been a few years since FS rerouted that line away from the coastline and into a succession of very long tunnels (a bit of a shame tbh, the old line looks like it was incredibly scenic). There’s now only one Imperia station, which is the new one titled simply “Imperia”, but the OEBB search engine still displays a choice of Imperia Oneglia and Imperia Wharf, both of which are now closed. OEBB’s timetable hasn’t been updated to reflect this.

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I note there are a couple of irregularities which I trust OEBB will gradually iron out:

  1. Even when the 1st Class box is ticked, the system suggests under Reservation Details that the reserved seat will be Sitzplatzreservierung 2. Klasse. This appears to apply to all bookable non-OEBB trains in Italy. Hopefully once bought, the seat reservation received will be a 1st class one, but the only way of finding out is to go ahead with the purchase.

I think it's just an error in the English text. If you put a 1st class seat in your basket, then you will indeed see "1st Class incl. seat reservation Sitzplatzreservierung 2. Klasse” in the details. However, if you then go to the German site and check your basket there, then it will say "1. Klasse mit Sitzplatzreservierung Sitzplatz 1. Klasse”.

  1. Some places can’t be booked from. For instance, OEBB can now book the SBB train to Zurich from Genova, but it can’t book the identical one from Bologna for some reason. Also the daily Ligurian coastal IC to Roma can be booked from Ventimiglia or San Remo, but not Imperia.

Have you already asked ÖBB about it or should we maybe all complain to get it higher on their priority list? :)

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I would add the warning, that if you book reservations for Italy via ÖBB, they are not refundable. But you can give it back if you make a mistake in the first 3 minutes after booking. 

Are they refundable when you book them elsewhere? Belgian railways basically say the same thing (NL/FR).

Userlevel 7
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I would add the warning, that if you book reservations for Italy via ÖBB, they are not refundable. But you can give it back if you make a mistake in the first 3 minutes after booking. 

Userlevel 5
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Italian daytrains via oebb.at 🙂 Thanks to @rvdborgt  for notifying me about the new possibilty to reserve Italian daytrains via Oebb.at

Very well found! This will be a great help to a great many travellers :-D

I note there are a couple of irregularities which I trust OEBB will gradually iron out:

  1. Even when the 1st Class box is ticked, the system suggests under Reservation Details that the reserved seat will be Sitzplatzreservierung 2. Klasse. This appears to apply to all bookable non-OEBB trains in Italy. Hopefully once bought, the seat reservation received will be a 1st class one, but the only way of finding out is to go ahead with the purchase.
  2. Some places can’t be booked from. For instance, OEBB can now book the SBB train to Zurich from Genova, but it can’t book the identical one from Bologna for some reason. Also the daily Ligurian coastal IC to Roma can be booked from Ventimiglia or San Remo, but not Imperia.
Userlevel 7
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Italian daytrains via oebb.at 🙂 Thanks to @rvdborgt  for notifying me about the new possibilty to reserve Italian daytrains via Oebb.at

 

First select your Route and your traveldate/time
Even if you wanna just reserve a seat please click the option One Way tickets and day tickets
You will get first results please note that this are Standard prices please click in the red marked box top right on change.
Yet you can add as much travelers as needed and add on each traveler the discount Interrail / Eurail Globalpass (at the end of the list) and click on “Confirm”
You get some results for example the 13.48 direct Highspeedtrain for 10€ :)

Please note that on the 14.26 depature only the first train will be reserved.
It looks like OBB can reserve just direct routes if you wanna use the 14.26 depature you have to search first Venice - Bolgona and afterwards Bologna - Milano.

Kind Regards

from @seewulf  & @rvdborgt 

Userlevel 7
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Okey i will try to create a list of Reservation pages arround Europe :)
German Rail for many trains within/arround Germany

Austrian Rail (A lot Nighttrains in middle Europe and ofcourse trains in/arround Austria)


Eurostar & Thalys Services (AMS/BRU/LON/PAR/CLG) PassCoverNumber needed

Domestic Trains within France (PassCoverNumber needed)

Trains within Poland (just select first the train and then in the Discount section NRT/Railpass/FIP

Trains in & arround Czech Republic

Trains within Hungary

Trains in Sweden (+ Routes to Oslo/Copenhagen/Narvik) PassCoverNumber needed

Trains in Denmark (and the IC´s Germany - Denmark)

Nighttrain Berlin - Hamburg - (Copenhagen) - Malmö - Stockholm (Discount Code Eurail / Interrail)

Bernina Express (the panoramic train)

Glacier Express (Panoramic Train)

 

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The tickets.oebb.at website is still the same and works same as shown by @seewulf in the screenshots, but the first page has now a new layout. You can look for a normal ticket and then when you get all the possible connection click on 1x adult and there you can add as discount Interrail/Eurail. 

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