Issue reserving seats

  • 22 October 2021
  • 10 replies
  • 258 views
C

Hi there! 

I have already purchased my pass and I am having an issue with the online booking system. I am trying  to book the Paris to Bayeux route on Nov 5th. It’s showing that reservations are required, but in the area where a price is supposed to be, there is a grey exclamation mark. I’ve noticed that many of the other smaller routes in France are having the same issue. I’ve gone through the website trying to find any other way to reserve a seat, but I am having no luck. Has anyone else had this issue in general? Is there anything that I am doing wrong? Any advice would be appreciated. 

10 replies

R
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Userlevel 7
Badge +9

French railways are a pain currently for reservations. They themselves discontinued selling pass reservations via their website and phone service. And they made it more difficult, it seems, for other systems to connect for those reservations. The result is that many people have problems.

There are still a few possibilities though:

Please ask questions in the community and not via a private message. That's the quickest way to get a response. I don't work for Eurail/Interrail.
C

Thank you for your reply! This definitely seems to be the issue. I went to both of the sites you linked, but they aren’t even showing that trains are available. Was hoping to avoid calling, but that might end up being what I have to do. Would it be possible for me to go to the ticket counter at the station day-of and try to reserve seats? Or would that also be difficult? 

R
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Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Thank you for your reply! This definitely seems to be the issue. I went to both of the sites you linked, but they aren’t even showing that trains are available. Was hoping to avoid calling, but that might end up being what I have to do. Would it be possible for me to go to the ticket counter at the station day-of and try to reserve seats? Or would that also be difficult? 

You can try to book on the day but price may have gone up to 20 instead of 10 EUR.

What trains exactly and on what date would you like to use? I also see that most trains from Paris to Bayeux are regional trains for which reservation is neither required nor possible.

Please ask questions in the community and not via a private message. That's the quickest way to get a response. I don't work for Eurail/Interrail.
C

Looking a bit more closely, it looks like the trains that I would need to take are the regional TER trains that shouldn’t require reservations (like you stated). For some reason, the Eurail reservation system marking it as needing a reservation (R in a green circle). That’s what has been causing me to be confused. Maybe it’s an issue on their end? I have no clue I guess I am just going to ignore what the system is saying and assume a reservation isn’t necessary. Thank you for your help! 

S
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@camille_g 

 

I have contacted TER Normandy and they confirm that you must make a reservation for this connection!

R
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Userlevel 7
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@camille_g

I have contacted TER Normandy and they confirm that you must make a reservation for this connection!

Is that still a COVID measure? Did they also care to say how you can make a reservation?

Please ask questions in the community and not via a private message. That's the quickest way to get a response. I don't work for Eurail/Interrail.
R
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I just talked with a friend who recently interrailed there. They didn't make any reservations, the staff on the trains didn't ask for them but you can get Interrail/Eurail reservations for EUR 1.50 at the ticket machines and presumably also at the ticket offices.

Please ask questions in the community and not via a private message. That's the quickest way to get a response. I don't work for Eurail/Interrail.
S
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Userlevel 4
Badge +8

@camille_g

I have contacted TER Normandy and they confirm that you must make a reservation for this connection!

Is that still a COVID measure? Did they also care to say how you can make a reservation?

 

Now they come back to their answer. 

It is not necessary to make a reservation for this connection, but apparently it is possible.

 

No, I didn't ask where you can make a reservation.

R
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +9

@camille_g

I have contacted TER Normandy and they confirm that you must make a reservation for this connection!

Is that still a COVID measure? Did they also care to say how you can make a reservation?

Now they come back to their answer. 

It is not necessary to make a reservation for this connection, but apparently it is possible.

I that case, the information about mandatory reservations the SNCF sends to the European Timetable Centre is incorrect. I've also seen the DB planner mention mandatory reservations and they don't make that up themselves.

Please ask questions in the community and not via a private message. That's the quickest way to get a response. I don't work for Eurail/Interrail.
C

@rvdborgt @Sven 

Wow! Thank you so much for your guy’s help! I really appreciate it. They really don’t make things simple haha. Hopefully, this will help someone else trying to figure out what’s going on. I’m guessing that the reason that this is such a mess is covid-19. I think my question is answered? 

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