How to plan/create an Eurail journey

  • 2 March 2023
  • 4 replies
  • 131 views

We are planning a two-month trip through Europe for this summer. We’ve activated our Global passes because we know our first date of train travel. However, we can’t add actual trips yet (for some mysterious  reason), so we’re adding them manually. But how do those manually entered trips turn into trips that will be honored once we start using the passes?

This system is extremely confusing, and we’re hoping for some really helpful guidance.

Kate Sibley


4 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +9
  1. What is stopping you to add journeys from the planner? Where do you get stuck and could you post a screenshot of that?
  2. Have you updated your app to the latest version, 28.3.0? (Check under More, scroll to the bottom.)
  3. Manual journeys work the same as journeys entered via from the planner. Please see this page on how to add journeys to your pass (and create a ticket: the QR code), under the heading "Getting ready to board the train”.
  4. It is generally a bad idea to activate a pass (or a travel day) in advance. There is no advantage, only a possible disadvantage. Cancelling activation is only possible until 23:59 CET before validity starts. If something unexpected happens after that (e.g. you wake up ill), then it will be too late to cancel. After you've found out how the app works, please deactivate your passes until shortly before you board your first train.
  5. Please don't use the rail planner app to plan. It is unreliable and often out of date. It's better to use national planners or apps; for international planning, the DB website or the DB Navigator app is a good choice. It has the same coverage as the rail planner app but is much more up to date and more reliable.
Userlevel 7
Badge +5

You should buy the reservation on the company operating the train... but there are dozens of exceptions.

For example IC and Frecciarossa trains within Italy should be bought on ÖBB website (Austrian Railways).

There is a very good thread here "how to get reservations" 

Almost everything is explained.

Let me know if you've got any questions.

PS : The Interrail planner is not reliable and you should not buy reservations on Interrail website (there are extra booking fees)

Thank you for your advice. Strangely, when I went back to the planner this evening, it worked just fine, so that problem seems to have disappeared, at least for the moment. Now I’m trying to figure out how to reserve seats on a specific rail line. How does that work in conjunction with the Global Pass?

And thank you for suggesting the DB Navigator. 

Thank you! I’ll check out that thread. 

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