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Reservations or Tickets? TGV Paris-Milan

  • February 20, 2023
  • 1 reply
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T

Hi there,

I am in the process of planning my 3 month Eurail trip this summer. I am going to be in Paris June 25-31st, and hope to leave for my next destination (Milan). I have found this trip on the Eurail Planner, where it says reservations are mandatory:

I am given no option to book the reservation, but also no notice that the tickets are sold out. 

Using some info from this forum I then went to sncf-connect.com, where I found the trip I wanted again:

My questions regarding this are:

  1.  Is the Eurail quota already met or is this a technical error booking through the Eurail site? I get no message about price or availability (as seen in screenshot)
  2. So if I have to book through SNCF, is the displayed price for a ticket or reservation?  I understand that reservations come with the ticket, but is there some way to buy just the reservation, or is my Eurail pass basically useless for this trip and I have to buy a full fare anyways?
  3. That being said, if I have to buy the full fare, can I buy that 49 Euro first class since technically my Eurail pass would have nothing to do with it? (I purchased a 2nd class Eurail ticket) 


I am not that interested in doing connections, as I would like to get down to Milan quickly. It is very concerning to me that all Eurail reservations for this train would be sold out this early (February - 4+ months in advance!)

 

Best answer by Schelte

Ttraiiin wrote:

Hi there,

I am in the process of planning my 3 month Eurail trip this summer. I am going to be in Paris June 25-31st, and hope to leave for my next destination (Milan). I have found this trip on the Eurail Planner, where it says reservations are mandatory:

I am given no option to book the reservation, but also no notice that the tickets are sold out. 

Using some info from this forum I then went to sncf-connect.com, where I found the trip I wanted again:

My questions regarding this are:

  1.  Is the Eurail quota already met or is this a technical error booking through the Eurail site? I get no message about price or availability (as seen in screenshot)

My guess is that the Eurail/Interrail quotas are not available that far ahead. The last day I see them available is the 20th of May, so my guess would be that passholder reservations become available exactly 3 months ahead.

 

Ttraiiin wrote:
  1. So if I have to book through SNCF, is the displayed price for a ticket or reservation?  I understand that reservations come with the ticket, but is there some way to buy just the reservation, or is my Eurail pass basically useless for this trip and I have to buy a full fare anyways?

The price you see on SNCF is indeed the full ticket+reservation price. You can also book passholder reservations from SNCF themselves, but not on their website - either on the phone or at a French ticket office, they might have a wider horizon than the Eurail portal. 

However, reservation fees are arbitrary values and sometimes tickets are sold below what the railway claim are the cost of reservations.

 

Ttraiiin wrote:
  1. That being said, if I have to buy the full fare, can I buy that 49 Euro first class since technically my Eurail pass would have nothing to do with it? (I purchased a 2nd class Eurail ticket)

Sure! As your Eurail pass has indeed nothing to do with it you can just book a 1st class ticket. Since a reservation would cost you €31 (+€2 booking fee) this is not that much more. Do note however those prices are not flexible. 

You seem to have a continuous pass, which means that you're not really benefitting from this. With a flexi pass (eg 10 travel days in two months) this would enable you to save a travel day.

Trenitalia runs a service on this route as well, which are not accessible to pass holders anyway. They don't seem to be bookable yet, but they do generally also offer decent prices and I did the same with them (book a full ticket for a Milan-Paris journey even though I had a pass).

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  • February 20, 2023
Ttraiiin wrote:

Hi there,

I am in the process of planning my 3 month Eurail trip this summer. I am going to be in Paris June 25-31st, and hope to leave for my next destination (Milan). I have found this trip on the Eurail Planner, where it says reservations are mandatory:

I am given no option to book the reservation, but also no notice that the tickets are sold out. 

Using some info from this forum I then went to sncf-connect.com, where I found the trip I wanted again:

My questions regarding this are:

  1.  Is the Eurail quota already met or is this a technical error booking through the Eurail site? I get no message about price or availability (as seen in screenshot)

My guess is that the Eurail/Interrail quotas are not available that far ahead. The last day I see them available is the 20th of May, so my guess would be that passholder reservations become available exactly 3 months ahead.

 

Ttraiiin wrote:
  1. So if I have to book through SNCF, is the displayed price for a ticket or reservation?  I understand that reservations come with the ticket, but is there some way to buy just the reservation, or is my Eurail pass basically useless for this trip and I have to buy a full fare anyways?

The price you see on SNCF is indeed the full ticket+reservation price. You can also book passholder reservations from SNCF themselves, but not on their website - either on the phone or at a French ticket office, they might have a wider horizon than the Eurail portal. 

However, reservation fees are arbitrary values and sometimes tickets are sold below what the railway claim are the cost of reservations.

 

Ttraiiin wrote:
  1. That being said, if I have to buy the full fare, can I buy that 49 Euro first class since technically my Eurail pass would have nothing to do with it? (I purchased a 2nd class Eurail ticket)

Sure! As your Eurail pass has indeed nothing to do with it you can just book a 1st class ticket. Since a reservation would cost you €31 (+€2 booking fee) this is not that much more. Do note however those prices are not flexible. 

You seem to have a continuous pass, which means that you're not really benefitting from this. With a flexi pass (eg 10 travel days in two months) this would enable you to save a travel day.

Trenitalia runs a service on this route as well, which are not accessible to pass holders anyway. They don't seem to be bookable yet, but they do generally also offer decent prices and I did the same with them (book a full ticket for a Milan-Paris journey even though I had a pass).

Interrailing seems difficult at first sight, but it's pretty amazing.

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