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Making Seat Reservations directly with rail companies

  • May 6, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 96 views
K

Hi everyone,

I am planning for our first trip to Europe, and I have a few questions around seat reservations that I haven’t been able to find the answers for so far. I hope someone can assist me on this.

1.    Apart from Eurostar, what other trains have limited seats available for pass holder? I will be travelling on the following trains:

  • IC
  • ICE
  • EC
  • RJX

2.    When I book my seat reservations directly with the rail companies (e.g. OBB, DB, CD etc), do I have to explicitly specify that I will be using a Eurail pass? For DB and CD (Czech), I don’t see where I can select Eurail pass during the seat reservation process. As for OBB, I can only see I can add “Interrail/Eurail – Globalpass” as a “discount” during the process but I don’t know whether that is necessary/relevant.

 

I am trying avoid surprises as much as possible, thanks for any assistance in advance. 😀

Thanks

Jackson

Best answer by ralderton

1 None of those have limited passholder availability. If there’s a seat available to reserve, you can buy it. (Although DB, for example, does keep some seats back for its best Bahn Bonus customers, and so it’s not available to regular ticketholders or Interrail).

Apart from Eurostar, I know the TGVs to Belgium have an Interrail quota. I don’t know which other trains do.

 

2 If you’re just booking a regular seat reservation, you don’t need to tell them you’re using Interrail. The best source of info is the Seat61 reservations guide. https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm

3 replies

ralderton
Railmaster
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  • ralderton
  • Railmaster
  • Answer
  • May 6, 2025

1 None of those have limited passholder availability. If there’s a seat available to reserve, you can buy it. (Although DB, for example, does keep some seats back for its best Bahn Bonus customers, and so it’s not available to regular ticketholders or Interrail).

Apart from Eurostar, I know the TGVs to Belgium have an Interrail quota. I don’t know which other trains do.

 

2 If you’re just booking a regular seat reservation, you don’t need to tell them you’re using Interrail. The best source of info is the Seat61 reservations guide. https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm

K
R
Railmaster
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  • rvdborgt
  • Railmaster
  • May 6, 2025
  1. Limited places for pass holders are also in TGV from/to Brussels and in Nightjet trains.
  2. How to book depends on the website. On the DB website, you just choose "Seat only”. The ÖBB and ČD websites have both "Reservation only” and the discount method. It depends on the train which method(s) work. Check this website for where and how to book:
    https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm
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.
ralderton
K
K
  • katonz
  • Author
  • Rail rookie
  • May 7, 2025

​@ralderton ​@rvdborgt Thanks for the response and the link to the seat61 websites, I will follow their instructions. 😃

ralderton
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