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Selecting specific seats in France +

  • 15 August 2022
  • 6 replies
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  • Right on track
  • 3 replies

Hi all,

 

I am considering purchasing an Inter-rail pass for an upcoming trip to Europe.

 

I have a couple of questions:

 

  1. Is it  possible to select your seat when booking via the Inter-rail/Eurail site  - rather than have the system do this automatically?

I suspect it may well depend on the country? The specific train I am interested in is the Paris  - Hendaye TGV.

I can see on the French Railway website that there are individual seats available in first class. The question is, can I chose these seats when booking via the interail/Eurail Website?
 

  1. The same question as above but Re the B-Europe site
     
  2. What is the latest you can reserve seats via the Inter-rail/Eurail site? i read on another thread somebody tried to do this the day before but they were unable to.

 

Any help or answers would be very much appreciated.

 

Cheers

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Best answer by rvdborgt 15 August 2022, 21:11

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6 replies

And sorry I have a further two questions having just read a couple of other threads.

 

  1. Is it possible to know if there are still passholder tickets available for a specific train before I purchase my pass? 
  2. How can I find out if my booking will be an E-ticket or a paper ticket ? (I have just seen another thread where it seems the ticket in question could only be sent by post….)

Thanks again!

Userlevel 7
Badge +5

@1+2. AFAIK not-except the usual aisle/window. 

Maybe-perhaps at a SNCF booking office. I am not very much interesetd in that-others may know more.

@3: untill all seats booked-but IN FR there is a quota for cheaper RES-if that is taken (it is very small and I suspect it is 0 in very populair trains), then its 20€. BUT app cannot handle that-for those you have to use other ways to RES.

For OVERborder it is far more difficult.

@4.for some trains-the SNCF TGV and €* mostly quite easily via b-europe, which you seem to know.

But about all passholder-smaller quota are for SNCF trains (€* is in fact also owned by SNCF)

Next major hurdle for complaints is ESpana/RENFE: you will only know when there as you have to visit counter anyway to do

@5: daft easy-do NOT use via app-but via the ALT ways listed in the seewulf overveiw-cheaper too.

anna fra sverige links to that in all her welcoming answers

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

@3: untill all seats booked-but IN FR there is a quota for cheaper RES-if that is taken (it is very small and I suspect it is 0 in very populair trains), then its 20€. BUT app cannot handle that-for those you have to use other ways to RES.

As a regular contributor, I'd expect you to know that:

  1. The app can't book reservations.
  2. The Interrail website has been able to book domestic French 20€ reservations for some time now.

Thank you for taking the time to respond mcadv.

This is very helpful.

 

Re Spain, I think I read that pass holder seats do not  sell out, until the train sells out.

As such I’ve been checking availability on the Spanish websites - and all seems fine.

 

Can anyone confirm whether this info is correct re Spain?

Seems the easy days of 20-30 years ago are long gone! If it is all do much of a faff (which is seems it may be) - I may  scrap the inter-rail idea and go with individual fares - and begrudgingly cough up the extra wonga.

 

Cheers again.

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Re Spain, I think I read that pass holder seats do not  sell out, until the train sells out.

That is correct for domestic Spanish trains. However, pass holder seats in the international TGV/AVEs between France and Spain do sell out well before the train is full.

Thanks both. Thats good to know.

 

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