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Hi Interrailers (and hopefully Interrail customer service)

Not a happy bunny – been planning a trip starting in May (10 days, theoretically over 2 months) and most of the planning hinges on the Nightjet from Paris to Berlin (or Vienna).

The Eurail/Interrail app clearly states, in red letters, “Prices for this journey will start to be available 90 days before departure”.

OK, so i checked out the departure on 27 April, to see what changed when the date came within that 90-day window. At midnight plus one nanosecond, then every few minutes.

No prices available.

So i checked on the ÖBB Nightjet website and what do i see? “Seats can usually be booked 180 days in advance”. And indeed when you try their booking engine, it allows you to specify any date 180 days from now.

Result: there is zero availability from May onwards. Zero.

If it weren’t for the notice in red letters on the Eurail/Interrail app i might have had a chance of getting a Nightjet reservation to somewhere. As it stands, hours and hours of planning for nothing. Looks like we’ll waste our 10 days on short domestic journeys that would have cost less than a third of our Interrail passes. If it were an unlimited pass, it wouldn’t be so bad, but we can’t change it.

So which is it? 90 days in advance or 180? And if the latter, what is that message doing on the Eurail site?

Badger

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interrail enforces a strict 90 days policy for reservations without valid reason. Hopefully it will change one day.

Now Nightjet/ÖBB in theory open bookings 6 months/180 days in advance but it is rarely the case, mainly due to engineering works during the night. These are often planned far in advance but timetables are released to the public a lot later.

This is what's happening here. There are plenty of works on the Paris - Strasbourg stretch and on most nights the train is diverted via Metz, Mulhouse or elsewhere. Nightjet/ÖBB basically have to wait until SNCF Réseau deigns to publish its data...

At the moment trains until the end of March are on sale. For later dates you can only check regularly on nightjet.com.

Thanks Thibcabe. I did notice some availability in March, but very sparse. I assumed it just meant there wasn’t as much demand for March as there is for the warmer months. There’s nothing in April - and that’s within the 90-day window.

As you suggest, i’ll keep checking, but this is taking all the pleasure out of planning.

 

Update: i was using the Interrail booking site and ÖBB.at. On nightjet.com, things do indeed seem rosier until 21 March (for the time being).

Many thanks again.

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