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Linking reservations to Interrail Pass if seat reservations are made on the national rail company

  • 20 October 2022
  • 9 replies
  • 125 views

Hello everyone,

 

I’m new to Interrail and I’m planning my trip. I’m thinking about booking through national rail companies website to book. I was wondering if I have to do something for my Pass, because my trip will not be available on my Rail Planner app. Do I have to link my reservations to my Pass on the app ?

I will also be using ferries websites to book thanks to the promo code. Do you know If that’s counting as a travel day or if any of the seat reservations not made on Interrail ?

 

Thanks a lot for helping !

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Best answer by Angelo 20 October 2022, 11:05

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Hi, you don’t have to link the reservations with the railplanner app. 

On the railplanner app you add the trip/train to get a QR-Code → your Ticket.

And the reservations are extra. As PDF or as print out. 

For the ferries, it counts as travel day, if you don’t pay for the ferry (except reservations and port fees), if you get only a discount you don’t need a travel day. 

Thank you for answering ! 

So I only have to find my trip on the Rail Planner app and to add it as a travel day to get a ticket ?

I don’t really understand sorry... If I want to book for a ferry, I use the interrail discount as a promo code and I don’t need to register it as a travel day ? 

But if the website requires my pass number I need to registrate as a trip on my app ?

Thank you in advance !!

 

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So I only have to find my trip on the Rail Planner app and to add it as a travel day to get a ticket ?

Correct.

I don’t really understand sorry... If I want to book for a ferry, I use the interrail discount as a promo code and I don’t need to register it as a travel day ? 

Correct.

But if the website requires my pass number I need to registrate as a trip on my app ?

You only need to enter your journey shortly before you board the train. Also, there is no need to activate your pass in advance. It's best to wait with activation until your first travel day, because you never know what will happen. Cancelling the activation or a travel day is inly possible until 23:59 CET on the day before validity starts.

Thank you very much for this answer !

 

My pass is already activated due a problem... but I will remember that I can register a journey shortly before getting on the train/ferry

 

Does that mean that I can travel without using travel day when I'm on a ferry ? I only have to add a journey on the app but not turning it as a QR code ?

I have my pass but I'm going to get an other one for the person travelling with me. Maybe I don't have to take one with 7 travel days as mine if the ferries are not counting as travel days. That's why I was asking

 

I hope I'm being clear enough... thank you guys for helping me

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My pass is already activated due a problem... but I will remember that I can register a journey shortly before getting on the train/ferry

You can deactivate the pass as long as the validity hasn't started.

Does that mean that I can travel without using travel day when I'm on a ferry ? I only have to add a journey on the app but not turning it as a QR code ?

Correct, for any journey with a bus/train/ferry etc. where you only get a discount.

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As @rvdborgt says it is recommended that you deactivate your pass now and then activate it just before boarding the first train of your travel. 

 

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 and create the ticket (QR code), 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.

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Take a step back to understand the processes involved:

First to clarify reservations and tickets:

Your interrail pass allows you to freely travel on any train operated by a partner operator - normally the national operator and some private companies.  

Some trains require a mandatory reservation which is not included in your pass. You need both your activated pass and a copy of the reservation on these trains.

There are a multitude of ways to get a reservation and there are guides on this forum. Some trains have optional reservations which will guarantee you a seat.

A reservation is never associated with your pass, although if you buy them from the IR reservation tool they will show in your account, but that is separate to your pass.

The Rail Planner app is your complete tool for using your pass. It has 4 main sections, The planner, the reservation tool, your trip and your pass. 

The planner is where you check for available trains and you can easily transfer from here to your trip. You can use this at any time from getting your pass to just before you board a train.

The reservation tool is simply that - just one of many ways to get those reservations and, although integrated to the planner, it is in no way linked to your journey management in the app.

The next journey management tool is your trip. Each pass has only one trip attached to it. You add all the trains you intend to travel to your trip. Think of it as a diary - you can add or remove trains at any time before boarding.

Note - if you cannot find the intended train in the IR planner you can add it manually. Ask for instructions if you need to.

Finally we get to the pass section. This is the “Ticket to Ride” part of your Interrail journeys.  Before you board the train you transfer the info from “your trip” section of the app. If this is your first train of the day it will ask you if you want to create a travel day.  Then it shows a “create ticket” button. Operation of this creates a QR code for the day and a listing of all the trains you have added for the day. This is what train inspectors will check on all trains and expect to see their train in the list. This is where you may also have to show your reservation info.

It sounds complicated but in practice it is quite easy once you have the sequence clear in your mind.

Thank you all very much for your replies !

My pass is indeed already activated and the validity has already started due to a mistake of mine… But thanks to a nice lady from the support, I was able not to lose my whole pass.

I didn’t know that we could add manually trains, for now I did found all my trains on the app so that will not be a problem I think.

Now I understand better the app and how to use it properly !

Now I know what to do, thank you !!!

Userlevel 7
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Thank you all very much for your replies !

My pass is indeed already activated and the validity has already started due to a mistake of mine… But thanks to a nice lady from the support, I was able not to lose my whole pass.

I didn’t know that we could add manually trains, for now I did found all my trains on the app so that will not be a problem I think.

Now I understand better the app and how to use it properly !

Now I know what to do, thank you !!!

Manual entry is very useful if you are in a station and see a train you fancy due shortly and it doesn’t show in the planner for any reason.

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