I started to recreate my trip in the Eurail web account. I was shocked that the seat reservation from CDG to Lyon Part Dieu is €45.15 versus €20 for 2 people in the app.
When I proceed to buy the seats for 2, I got this message:
Urgent message regarding TER trains in Southern France
Dear travelers,
It has come to our attention that the transport regional authority in the “Sud PACA” region of France (Sud Provence- Alpes- Côte D’Azur) is not accepting Interrail/Eurail Passes on board TER trains.
We are currently investigating the matter directly with SNCF (France's national state-owned railway carrier and Eurail B.V. shareholder) to understand what this means for you as a traveler.
We thank you for your patience and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
This is turning out to be a nightmare. No real help from Eurail. No real customer support.
You should specify what you are trying to book. Think of: it’s possible, you’re just not doing it the best way.
General rules for France:
There is a (small) contingent of passholder seats on long distance trains for 10 € per person.
If these seats are sold out, you may buy seat reservations for 20 € per person. If you create your trip in the app, it doesn’t check concrete availabilty - that’s why you get different (or no) prices. If these aren’t available, it means that the train is fully booked and you won’t even get a normal ticket. Use the official website of SNCF to check if a connection is possible / completely sold out or not.
It’s no good idea to buy at the eurail website itself. Seems it can’t sell all possible reservations and it takes an additional fee, so it is more expensive. Check b-europe for availability and online booking (needs pass cover number) or call SNCF by phone. You’ll find guides for all of this here in the community.
The “urgent message” can’t be for your specific reservation. TER trains are regional trains that normally can’t be reserved at all - you just hop on. So I think this is just a general message that should tell you that there was a recent change (see yesterdays message here in the community). It does not restricting your booking possibilities.
Easiest way (if you have a pass cover number) is to use b-europe (can reserve everything online except night trains). Easiest way without pass cover number is to call SNCF by phone and let them do all of it (but there may be a problem that they won’t accept all US credit cards). In France, you may just use a ticket machine to do all of your resevations (but for sure, availabilty will be restricted as it’s high summer season).
Thanks Hector.
The message I received was when I was trying to buy TGV 1st class seats (2nd class are sold out) on Eurail website, from CDG to Lyon Part Dieu for 20 € per person (10 € per person appears in the app but can’t be booked. Also, the Eurail web site only shows 20 € per person option) + fees. It can’t complete the purchase process and just showed me the message as posted on my first post.
Being from North America, calling to make rail reservation is just too costly. For now, I am intended to just have my Eurail passes refunded (still waiting for the process to complete) and book my rail directly with SNCF-connect.
This has been the worst rail booking experience. First time using the France rail for 2.5 weeks, may be our last time. Very disappointed and cost so much time and wasted money.
