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Seat booking in group with separate starting points but common journey

  • July 4, 2025
  • 6 replies
  • 76 views
I

Hello there,

We are planning a travel with a group of friends, and we're wondering what was the best way to proceed in our scenario.

We are pretty much all living in different cities in the same country, and will therefore start out journeys with different itineraries.

On our first day of travel we will then take different trains in the morning, then progressively gather in 2 different points until we all travel together for the 2nd half of the day. Then we will travel together for two weeks, and again progressively divide the group on our way back home in the last days.

What would be the best way to proceed for seats booking ? We would like to seat together whenever possible for the common journey, but we are unsure how to do this with the limiting number of pass transfer between devices (only 1 time ?).

Has someone experience with a similar travel ?

Thanks in advance !

 

Edit : just to be precise, we need to book seats for the separate parts of the travel (first and last day of the journey) and for the common part where we would like to seat together.

Best answer by ralderton

You can make reservations for the TGV within France and for the France > Germany TGV or ICE on https://www.raileurope.com - website only, not the app. Add the railpass in the search box. One person can make the reservations for everyone. You just need to know the pass number for all the passengers

You don’t need to move the passes to anyone’s phone - the reservations are completely separate.

There is also the possibility to get a free reservation to reach the border - the parcours d’approche - for French residents. You have to get this at a guichet in France, and not every SNCF employee knows how to do it! Details here: https://www.railee.com/en/blog/parcours-approche-interrail

6 replies

ralderton
Railmaster
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  • ralderton
  • Railmaster
  • July 4, 2025

You'll need to mention the routes involved to get useful advice.

But in general, book each leg separately, but in a single transaction for all the people who are on that leg. Seat reservations are not linked to your pass, so one person can make a reservation for all of you.

Sometimes you can pick from a seat map, sometimes you just get allocated seats. Sometimes you can change the seats after booking.
 

I
  • ItsMoiNotMe
  • Author
  • Rail rookie
  • July 4, 2025

Thank you for the answer !

So for the routes, we are leaving from France, where seat booking is required, and meeting up in Germany. Then we continue out trop to Copenhague and then Norway.

But until now it seemed that to book several seats we needed to charge several passes on the phone who does the booking. But so once the common booking is done, we can split the passes on several phones to do the separate bookings ?

E
Railly clever
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  • eurocity101
  • Railly clever
  • July 4, 2025

For TGV, no seat choice possible but you can see your seat number(s) before payment if you use www.raileurope.com. If they don’t match, redo your booking.

Edit: DB (German Railways) usually offers a seat map when buying a standalone seat reservation through their website.

I'm NOT working for Interrail/Eurail.
ralderton
Railmaster
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  • ralderton
  • Railmaster
  • Answer
  • July 4, 2025

You can make reservations for the TGV within France and for the France > Germany TGV or ICE on https://www.raileurope.com - website only, not the app. Add the railpass in the search box. One person can make the reservations for everyone. You just need to know the pass number for all the passengers

You don’t need to move the passes to anyone’s phone - the reservations are completely separate.

There is also the possibility to get a free reservation to reach the border - the parcours d’approche - for French residents. You have to get this at a guichet in France, and not every SNCF employee knows how to do it! Details here: https://www.railee.com/en/blog/parcours-approche-interrail

T
ralderton
Railmaster
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  • ralderton
  • Railmaster
  • July 4, 2025

The same is true for all your other reservations. Don’t buy them from Interrail, but on the website of the operator or another agency.

In Germany reservations are optional on domestic trains. In summer, they’re compulsory on the international trains to Denmark. You can book them on the ÖBB website for €3 each. Or on the DB website for €5.50 for a journey involving several trains. You don’t need your pass number for these reservations.

In Sweden, book on sj.se or snalltaget.se, in Norway - book on Entur.no. The option for a Interrail reservation is there on the main booking page. You'll need your pass number(s).

In general, here’s the guide for the best place to book reservations for each country and each operator.

https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm

R
Railmaster
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  • rvdborgt
  • Railmaster
  • July 4, 2025

You can make reservations for the TGV within France and for the France > Germany TGV or ICE on https://www.raileurope.com - website only, not the app. Add the railpass in the search box. One person can make the reservations for everyone. You just need to know the pass number for all the passengers

Not even that. You can use the same number for everyone on Rail Europe. They're not printed on the reservations.

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
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