Pass holder seats on popular departures on the Eurostar sell out months in advance and most pass holder seats on the Eurostar are sold out weeks in advance during the summer. Also popular night trains sell out many weeks in advance during the summer.

I will be travelling next week from Sweden to Gemany and I bought my tickets for the night train in the beginning of May, before I bought my Interrail pass.

You couldnt catch a Nighttrain Prague - Venice because there is none You can catch one from Munich or Vienna/Linz to Venice.
Sorry but you have to do atleast a bit of research before you book something and there are several informations either on the Websites of Interrail and Eurail that sometrains need reservation and even some quite expensive ones. Just to take note Milan - Paris would be atleast 32€ and Eurostar would be 30€ aswell with Interrail. You must notice that some Countries are not “real Railpass friendly” Number 1 one is Spain followed by France & Italy.
Finally the Nighttrain Venice - Milan to Paris is already since 2020 history.

 

I bought my ticket two years ago before Covid so planning kinda went out the window as I wasn’t sure I would even use it. Having put it off for so long as we couldn’t travel it was a last min decision to go.  I mainly used it in Italy, 4 days, in total but the whole experience of being able to go here and there on the fly is a bit of an illusion if you have to book months in advance. That’s the idea they are selling. I couldn’t even get from my starting point to Italy without booking a flight.  There are plenty of Eurostar seats available at about €200+ euro so why more are not available for pass holders is pretty disappointing. I’ve enjoyed using it for getting around Italy but not sure I would buy a pass again, certainly not during the summer. Having to plan and structure that months ahead and not have the freedom to change or move as I wish is not what I thought I was buying. The extra charges on reservations all add up too, if you can actually get them! Overall pretty disappointed and heading home with a half filled pass. 

The world has moved on from a time when you could just turn up to a rail station and hop on any train you please without any notice. Some European countries still offer this form of travel but you went to places and tried to travel on trains that don’t.

High speed trains compete with low cost airlines so many of the operators have switched to use the same sorts of advance booking ticketing regimes as the airlines, the consequence for those expecting to travel with no forward planning is often disappointment.

Why do Eurostar prefer to sell seats for €200+ rather than for €30 to interrailers, well take a guess.

@seewulf yes I am fully aware of no night train direct from Prague. I tried many connections through Vienna and Linz etc and all booked out. That was back in April. I figured I would just fly and start in Venice as flight was cheap. I have done quite a lot of research actually. I understand Eurostar and high speed trains can be up to €30 for reservations and some even higher than that. I don’t mind paying that but to have to pay €90 is a bit much. I’ve looked at many options to get to London instead, like getting train to Calais and take ferry,  Eurostar from Brussels, FlixBus from Paris. All not really useable with pass and long hours traveling. Basically the last from Milan going west is pretty useless!! But if France Italy and Spain are not exactly “pass friendly” then that’s pretty poor and something interail eu should be working to resolve. Sadly I’m not a fan. 

@Al_G well thank god for lost cost airlines because I booked a flight today out of Paris in two days time that was cheaper than the Eurostar ticket. just pointing out some very valid flaws in the interrail pass system. if they want people to travel more by train then they have to make it more accessible. I love travelling by train, it’s better for environment, relaxing, get to see the sights and really a wonderful way to travel. However like you said they are competing with low cost airlines so think they could offer a better service and more trains particularly in high season. 

The problem is that Eurail doesnt operate the trains by themself They just have aggreements with the railcompanies that operate these trains. And some like Eurostar doesnt want to much Interrailer on their trains. Why take a Passenger with Railpass that pay just 40€ for a reservation if they could sell the seat for a “normal” Railpassenger for more than 200€. In my view flights are to cheap and have tpo much benefits.  There is no tax for the Fuel of planes in Europe Railcompanies have to pay the full taxes for that which for example in Germany is quite high Almost 85cents per Litre are taxes in Germany :/

Traveling in the summer high season, unfortunately, requires a bit of upfront research and planning with an Interrail pass. As other members have pointed out, most high-speed trains have limited seat availability for pass holders and trains like the Eurostar especially can be fully booked weeks in advance.