My friend and I are thinking about getting a first class interrail pass for our trip. However, it seems like the majority of the train connections we will go on require a seat reservation where we can choose between first and second class. If that is the case for us, does it even make a difference whether we have a first or a second class interrail pass?
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With a 1st class pass you can travel in both 1st and 2nd class, with a 2nd class pass only in 2nd class.
Some trains have mandatory reservation, some trains have optional reservation and some trains can't be reserved at all.
Where do you plan to travel?
Hi AnnaB
We are travelling from Denmark through Switzerland, France, Belgium and Netherlands.
Ok.
When do you plan to travel?
In Denmark, Germany and Switzerland reservations are optional, apart from the direct trains between Denmark and Germany during the summer. In the summer it might be good to make reservations in Germany on popular departures even if it not is mandatory. In Switzerland you need a reservation to travel in the panoramic coaches of the scenic trains. There are also reservation free trains on the scenic routes.
For domestic trains in Belgium and the Netherlands I think that reservations not even are possible. Am I correct?
For domestic trains in Belgium and the Netherlands I think that reservations not even are possible. Am I correct?
Correct. Just board and relax.
Thank you very much, I have gotten the answers I needed! We are travelling from August 7th to August 22nd. Regarding seat reservations, it shows up clearly in the time table section so it should be no issue navigating from here.
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, 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.
Note that 1st on the superfast ICE IN DE: as normal ticketed people get the RES for free with the ticket-and this is very often done very last minute-even when train is already moving-most seats are labelled as ´can be RES´ and this will mean that sooner or later someone turns up and chases you away. Which about erodes the advantages of 1st-plus that the seats are exactly the same as in 2nd-they are only wider apart. IN DE you also will be refused to enter the lounges in all big cities.
In the normal trains in NL 1st is a joke-there are never controls so all braven teenagers wanting to try out forbidden things enter and try to be as nasty as can be.
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