Train connections & reservations

Following my question asking why the Railplanner app tells you you need to buy a reservation at a cost of €6 for UK train travel I received the following answer: Trains in UK (apart from sleepers and Eurostar) do not require any reservations. You can just yous the pass and sit on unreserved seats just as you would with any ordinary unreserved ticket. All you need do is fill in the trains you use on your pass and you are free to board. If you wish you can get free reservations at ticket offices by showing your pass. By making an account on the GWR.com website you can also use their free seat reservation tool.My question again is:  In that case, WHY does the app suggest a fee is payable?

I made a seat reservation for the TGV train from Barcelona to Paris using Railplanner. The seat I have been allocated is downstairs but I would prefer to sit upstairs on the train. Is there any way of changing this? 

I want to travel from Kopenhagen to Oslo in August, but the times are mostly more than 16 hours at that time with a lot of stops. At the other side, when I would travel today, there would be trains that make it in 8 hours. So my question is, will faster trains to Oslo be uploaded later or is the August somehow special ?

Hello. I have been attempting to book a couchette for a night on the Paris to Nice night train in May. It was suggested to me that it was too early to make a reservation but that the booking opportunities for the spring would become available today (Jan. 25). I just tried again and there are still no night trains available for booking. Does anyone know when this will be available? Thanks.

When I try to plan a journey on the Railplanner app from my home station of Lancaster (UK) to the UK border at Harwich International, using one of the two days of “domestic” availability allowed, I am told that a €6 “reservation fee” is payable on the Lancaster to London leg of the journey.  As there is not usually any charge for reservations in the UK why is this?  And what happens if I just get on the train without one?

Me and my partner bought two Interrail Global Passes back this summer. We started travelling early september 2022. The day before departure a train strike was announced which kept us from making our outbound trip using the Eurostar from Rotterdam to London. We arranged ferry tickets ourselves (not using the Interrail).Since then we’ve been unable to have our Eurostar supplement (the extra you have to pay while booking the Eurostar via Interrail) refunded. In total this amounts to €75,42.We’ve been unable to have it refunded. We used the form on the website asking for a refund but to no avail. There is no phone line to call to or there is no e-mailadres for complaints. I am resorting to this forum to get my money back for a train strike I should be compensated for. My request: Can you please refund €75,42? If you need further detail, please let me know. Regards, Mieke

I’m looking to book a trip with another adult and child. We’d like to see several cities (Barcelona, Paris, Milan, Rome, Athens, etc) but not positive how the passes work. How do we get tickets to travel but able to stay in the cities for a couple nights between traveling?

I tried booking seat reservations from Paris to Amsterdam but it isn't working it keeps popping up with  Prices unavailable No price results were found. Pass holder reservations may be sold out for this connection, but there are other ways to check for available seats—more info below our timetable But this has been the same for all trains i have searched. doesn’t matter the country, filters, trains or times none are letting me book any seat reservations. 

Hi guys! I need an help. I can't buy a night train ticket from Bern to Amsterdam. The site gives error: "Sorry, something went wrong. Please try again later or find another connection. This connection will be removed from your cart." What to do? Thank you all!

I am trying to book Paris to Luxembourg on Sunday 28-May. All the times naturally say reservation required but when I click on them they all turn red and say “seat reservation unavailable” with the blip saying that seats may be sold out. I have checked every train that connects from Saarbruecken to Luxembourg across numerous days of the week and different months and they all say “seat reservation unavailable”. Other connecting trains are giving me the same issue. So I can get out of Paris but the final train to Luxembourg always gives the red unavailable box. Is it really this challenging to get to Luxembourg by train as I haven’t had issues with any of my other routes. Starting to think we might just remove Luxembourg from our trip.

Dear all!It is unfortunate that there are extra costs for purchasing reservations generally - but that by itself is at least somewhat understandable. I honestly struggle though to understand why I am supposed to pay 2€ extra for each reservation I make through the internal portal. Whenever possible I change to the website of the national carrier: But that doesn't always even work, i.e. with Trenitalia or SNCF.Would someone here know why Interrail wants all of us to pay 2€ extra for every reservation made through their portal?

I’m travelling late at night, planning to arrive either shortly before or after 12 a.m. in the night.InterRail regulations claim: “If the Pass holder makes an overnight trip pastmidnight and boards a second train after midnight, it is necessary to use two traveldays.“But what if the trains are getting delayed, so I won’t make it in time?This is a question particularly important for the last day of my trip, when all pass rides have been spent.Will I always have to buy an “extra” ride day for my pass, just in case trains are getting delayed? Or is there a regulation in place, relaxing time constaints when trains are getting delayed?

Hello, IC 147 (1300 departure) (Amsterdam to Berlin) train was cancelled today for which I had a seat reservation through Eurail. Thankfully they had another train at 1500 which I booked another reservation for on Eurail. However, I would like to get a refund for my 1300 train. When I attempted to cancel the reservation in my account (as per instructions on the website) it stated that I was entitled to no refund.  Anyone know how to request a refund when the train was cancelled? Thank you 

Hi, I bought a pass for 1 month in May and I tried to make some arrangements for my trip in September which appeared in the section “my trip” of Railplanner. However, I have never booked any tickets nor I have made the journey. Yet, now my pass seems to be expired as it said that it was activated the 31th August and ended on the 30th September. As I already said this never happened. What can I do?

I reserved seats and tryed online booking, but they told me I was unable to receive the ticket before the date of departure. So I guess offline booking at the station is my only option now. I would like to know if my reservations are safe till I pay at the station on the date of daparture.

Hi,I have no seen a proper answer to my question. When a train says "reservation required" what does it exactly mean?Can I get the train without reservation and see if there is an empty seat? Or if the train is fully can I still take the train and stand in the wagon? Sorry but it's not clear at all what that really means. Because I've seen trains that specified "reservation required" and are not fully booked at all so in fact if you have the eurail pass you don't need the reservation because there are many empty seats.Do we really really need to do a reservation when it says "reservation required" or just qe need to select the train and show the QR code?I've two examples.1. London to Paris2. Paris to strasbourg (I know there are trains that has no sitting required specifications)Thank you in advance people.

We would like to do a day trip from Vienna to Bratislava with my first class interrail pass. I can see that no reservation is needed from Vienna to Bratislava. Is it also the case that we do not need a reservation to go from Bratislava to Vienna? This is probably a silly question but I’d like to be sure.

Hi all, Recently I’ve bought the global pass to travel between London, Paris, Belgium and Amsterdam. It was nice buying the pass and through the app, I’ve selected the timing that’s desired and saved it. However, it stated that seats reservations are required but I’m not able to buy the seats reservations in the app. So i’ve headed over to Eurail website to try and book the seats reservations. But I couldn’t find the timing that i wanted on the website and when i choose another timing from the website and head back to the app, i can’t find the timing. So if i want the seats reservations, i’ve to book from the website but if i do, i can’t show the QR code as it’s a mobile pass and i can’t find the same timing on the web and the app.  Will appreciate if someone can tell me: Can i make my seats reservations only on the website? What happens if i can’t select the same timing on my app as the website as i’ll need the QR code to scan on the app so

HiCan you still travel by interrail from London via Paris Zurich to Istanbul with a 15-day ticket? And how good is the Belgrade-Sofia connection? ..does this go directly? and in which trains do I have to make reservations? Does the train also stop in Ljubljana? and how about changing money does it all work locally in the respective countries?Thanks in advance if anyone can answer this.Maybe someone has already made this trip. I want to drive the red route. See picture 

Hallo,ist es richtig, dass ich den Globale Mobile pass kaufe in der Eurail app die Reservierungen mache und die Aktivierung des Passes erst mit tatsächlichem ReisebeginnsSilke

Help for a newbie please :) I am trying to book reservations for our upcoming trip and have got to the 'Place of issue - city' box on the interrail reservation system. On my passport, this is listed as IPS, and my partners says HMPO. I understand this is standard on UK passports. Should we enter this despite it not being a city, or try and find out which office issued them?

If anyone could assist me in booking train travel that would be superb!  I have the trip in the Eurail App Planner but cannot finalize and pay for the reservations in the planner.

On January 11, 2023, with a friend in Eurail pass, I took the train 1. from visp to milano centrale (08:33 -> 10:40) and 2. from Milano Centrale to Firenze S.M.N (11:10 -> 13:04). reserved a seat. I want to change the time of the first train and get a refund for the second train. I checked trenitalia's refund policy and they have rules that allow refunds and changes.

Hello all, I plan to travel form Bucarest to Istanbul with the Bosphorus Express the 5th of may And then from Istanbul to Bucarest the 10th of may. Do you know if the train will be running at those dates ? Seems like yes based on this :https://www.bdz.bg/en/a/sofia-istanbul-sofiaBut i would like a confirmation :) Thanks,Marc

We’re travelling from the UK to Italy this year. We used to be able to select our seats with Senior Global Passes but have now discovered this has all changed. We can’t use SNCF or Trenitalia to do this anymore. Why is this? Does anyone have any suggestions how to get round this? Thanks