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Reservations or Tickets? TGV Paris-Milan

  • 20 February 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!)

 

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Best answer by Schelte 20 February 2023, 09:01

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Schelte
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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.

 

  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.

 

  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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