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Seat Reservations France

T

Hi, I am new to Eurail and having a problem with booking some trains through France. 

We are a group of 6 travelling from Barcelona to Avignon, Avignon to Nice and Nice to Lyon in mid-June. All of the trains we want are ‘seat reservation required’. We are able to add the trains to our cart, but then we get the ‘one of the legs of your journey cannot be booked’ error message each time. I have tried booking for less passengers because I read there may be a 5 person limit for booking, but the same error message still comes up. 

Can someone please explain why this may be happening and how we can get the booking to work?

Thank you in advance!!

 

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Best answer by rvdborgt 15 April 2023, 13:06

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R
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French railways only allow booking of 5 passengers in one booking this way.

To book French domestic trains, you can also use:

https://travel.b-europe.com/Eurail-GE/en/booking-tgv#TravelWish

It's also cheaper in your case because Eurail charge a booking fee of €2 per person and train, whereas B-Europe charge €4 per order, with up to 9 persons.

You'll be asked to enter a pass cover number, which is on the cover of the paper pass, or if you have a mobile pass, you can generate one here:

You can use the same number for everyone. It does not appear on the reservation.

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.
T

Thank you, we used that website and were able to book the train from Avignon to Nice, and Nice to Lyon.

However, we cannot use that website to book Barcelona to Avignon. Is this because it is an international train? Is there a different website I can use to book this train reservation instead?

I tried booking on Eurail the Barcelona to Avignon train for only 4 people instead of all 6 of us, and I still get the error message “One of the legs of your journey is not available anymore. Please try searching for another connection”. 

Is this because you can only make Spanish train reservations in Spain? I though this was a French trainline though. Still very confused!

Thanks again!!

T
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What is the connection you're looking at ? If it's a TGV seat reservations should be possible for 4 on eurail.com (not on b-europe as it's an international train yes)

This other itinerary is available reservation-free (trains every 2 hours from Portbou) :

- Barcelona-Sants (or Passeig de Gracia in the city center) - Portbou - Avignon Centre

I'd recommend it, yes it's longer but you can enjoy the coastal scenery and you don't lose 6 x 27€ for the international TGV !

T

It is a TGV train, seat reservation required between Barcelona and Nimes. 

Even when I try with 4 people, I still get the same error message. I cannot understand why it will not let me book it. Is there another way I can book this seat reservation? Can we do it in person at the station?

Going the Portbou route is too long for us unfortunately, we do not mind paying for the reservation as it is the quickest train. 

T

Also we are trying to book for 20 June, perhaps we are too early to book yet?

T
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It works for me so it's a mystery ! Maybe because I'm on Interrail and you on Eurail but it shouldn't be a problem anyway...

Yes you can call SNCF :

"Via French railways (SNCF) ticket office or by phone (press #85 for English, no booking fee, delivery via e-mail)."

(from How to get reservations thread)

R
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Also we are trying to book for 20 June, perhaps we are too early to book yet?

No it's not too early. I just tested with 4 people and I can get to the payment page.

Unfortunately, the Eurail booking website is not the most reliable one. I have no clue what the problem is here.

You can also book by phone. SNCF operates this train and would be the obvious place to book but they have a weird credit card policy and will probably only accept American Express cards. However, you can also book via NS (available 24/7 and not so picky about credit cards), see information in this post:

 

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.
T

Oh very frustrating that it is working for other people and not for us!

Okay my last thought on perhaps why it is not working, I am booking on behalf of friends and had to add their passes to a trip on my account. Could there be a problem with how I have done this?

Maybe I will get a friend to try creating a trip with our passes and try it on their account instead. 

I do not have an AMEX to book over the phone but we will be in Paris in May so if needed I will go to an SNCF ticket office in person. 

If somehow it is an error specific to me and we have done everything else right, is there a way I can contact someone at Eurail to assist?

Thank you so much everyone for your help!

R
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Badge +9

Okay my last thought on perhaps why it is not working, I am booking on behalf of friends and had to add their passes to a trip on my account. Could there be a problem with how I have done this?

I don't think so. That's the normal way to do it.

I do not have an AMEX to book over the phone but we will be in Paris in May so if needed I will go to an SNCF ticket office in person.

That's also a possibility. This train doesn't have pass holder quota and 20 June is a normal Tuesday so that should work. It will also be cheaper than via Eurail since they add a €2 booking fee per person and train.

If somehow it is an error specific to me and we have done everything else right, is there a way I can contact someone at Eurail to assist?

You can ask customer support here:

https://eurail.zendesk.com/hc/en-001/requests/new

Edit: what may help is to delete the cookies for eurail.com, clear the browser cache, log out and log in again:

https://eurail.zendesk.com/hc/en-001/articles/5806059162909-Reservations-payment-cannot-be-finalised

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.
T

Thank you again so much everyone for your suggestions on how I can resolve this problem!

Through a frustrating process of elimination, I have now realised there is something wrong with the pass of one of the traveller’s in our trip- it will not let us make any seat reservation on any train for her and always results in the same error message. I am in touch with Eurail Support to now get this resolved!

I appreciate everyone’s help!!

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