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Why is that?

I’m trying to book a ticket from Amsterdam to Paris which is in over 2 ½ Weeks. And Interrail does not allow me to use ANY of the reasonable thalys train times, despite me spending 250€ on this pass.

There is still plentiful options avaiable on thalys’s official website – but I would have to spend the full price to make use of it! Plus why would I even consider buying separate tickets if this website brags about their partnerships with thalys and after I spend this much money on a pass that doesn’t serve any use.

The fact that this company seriously expects me to spend 140€ on another seperate ticket, making the pass 100% useless is completly ridiculous and I am not recommending this do any of my friends after this trip is over.

They have quotas for passholders.

If you want alternatives to Thalys then ask.

There is a limited number of pass holder seats on the Thaly trains and on popular departures and during high season those sell out weeks, and sometimes months in advance.

The good place to see the availability of passholder seats on Thaly is 

https://www.b-europe.com/EN/Booking/Pass#TravelWish

Press "later trains" and eventually you will find the next available connection. 

 

If you have a mobile pass you need to generate a Pass Cover Number in order to make the reservation at b-europe. You do that here in the PCN generator:

https://community.eurail.com/news-and-announcements-39/pass-cover-number-generator-is-live-5653


Common alternatives are:

Thalys from Brussels (connect with intercity Amsterdam - Brussels). Availability is better from Brussels.

TGV from Lille (connect with IC Amsterdam - Antwerp, change to Lille).

Common alternatives are:

Thalys from Brussels (connect with intercity Amsterdam - Brussels). Availability is better from Brussels.

TGV from Lille (connect with IC Amsterdam - Antwerp, change to Lille).

Thanks this works. The only problem is that the times to switch trains is very thight (10 minutes max) and the App does not show where the trains are (at which train stations). The deutsche Bahn app for example shows this information.

Thanks this works. The only problem is that the times to switch trains is very thight (10 minutes max) and the App does not show where the trains are (at which train stations). The deutsche Bahn app for example shows this information.

If the connection is tight then just take the earlier or later train. You don't need a reservation for the IC train so you just have to adjust your travel plan according to the train where you need a reservation  (TGV/Thaly).

The app is not a good place to look for info. You better use the DB app for that.

Here is some useful information from the experienced travellers in the Community regarding both planning, reservations and activation of pass and travel days. 

 Planning

The rail planner is normally not up to date, as it only is updated once a month, so to be sure of the time table you better check the timetable and availability on the websites of the national railways. The bigger national railways, like DB (Germany) SBB (Switzerland) and ÖBB (Austria) cover several countries. 

 Reservations 

The advice from the experienced travellers in the community is to use other ways to make reservations than the Interrail/Eurail website.  You can look at the guide in the link:

https://community.eurail.com/train-connections-reservations-47/how-to-get-reservations-105

If you, after having looked at the guide, have questions about how to make specific reservation, please give your travel details (departure date, time and route) preferably in a new topic, and you will get advice.

Please note that Interrail/Eurail charges an extra fee of 2 EUR per person and train in addition to the fee for the seat reservation.

 Activation of pass

During the activation process, when you choose the start day of the validity of the pass, the first day of the validity period is automatically made a travel day, even if you don't enter a journey, the advice is therefore not to activate the pass before the first travel day as you only can deactivate the pass before 00.00 on the day the validity starts. If your travel plans change in the last moment you will loose travel days if you have activated the pass in advance.

It can be wise to make a test and activate the pass with a start date well in the future and then deactivate the pass immediately, just to see that everything works.

 Activation of travel day

The advice from the experienced travellers in the community is also never to activate a travel day, that is connect a journey to your pass, until just before boarding the train, otherwise you might loose a travel day if your travel plans change in a late stage  You can't delete a travel day in the past. A travel day can only be deleted until 23.59 CET the day before the travel day.

Thanks this works. The only problem is that the times to switch trains is very thight (10 minutes max) and the App does not show where the trains are (at which train stations). The deutsche Bahn app for example shows this information.

If the connection is tight then just take the earlier or later train. You don't need a reservation for the IC train so you just have to adjust your travel plan according to the train where you need a reservation  (TGV/Thaly).

The app is not a good place to look for info. You better use the DB app for that.

Deutsche Bahn is not operative in Belgium and the Netherlands or France. But for some reason they really have info regarding this. Thanks I’ll look into this.

Here is some useful information from the experienced travellers in the Community regarding both planning, reservations and activation of pass and travel days. 

 Planning

The rail planner is normally not up to date, as it only is updated once a month, so to be sure of the time table you better check the timetable and availability on the websites of the national railways. The bigger national railways, like DB (Germany) SBB (Switzerland) and ÖBB (Austria) cover several countries. 

 Reservations 

The advice from the experienced travellers in the community is to use other ways to make reservations than the Interrail/Eurail website.  You can look at the guide in the link:

https://community.eurail.com/train-connections-reservations-47/how-to-get-reservations-105

If you, after having looked at the guide, have questions about how to make specific reservation, please give your travel details (departure date, time and route) preferably in a new topic, and you will get advice.

Please note that Interrail/Eurail charges an extra fee of 2 EUR per person and train in addition to the fee for the seat reservation.

 Activation of pass

During the activation process, when you choose the start day of the validity of the pass, the first day of the validity period is automatically made a travel day, even if you don't enter a journey, the advice is therefore not to activate the pass before the first travel day as you only can deactivate the pass before 00.00 on the day the validity starts. If your travel plans change in the last moment you will loose travel days if you have activated the pass in advance.

It can be wise to make a test and activate the pass with a start date well in the future and then deactivate the pass immediately, just to see that everything works.

 Activation of travel day

The advice from the experienced travellers in the community is also never to activate a travel day, that is connect a journey to your pass, until just before boarding the train, otherwise you might loose a travel day if your travel plans change in a late stage  You can't delete a travel day in the past. A travel day can only be deleted until 23.59 CET the day before the travel day.

Look, I get you come in with good faith. And so do I. But there is no reason for you to try to defend interrail and waste your time by copy and pasting some random article.

Fact is, interrail is literally lying by saying that certain trains are “unavailable”. I can literally book the “unavailable” trains that are magically available on thalys´s official side for 90€. But my journey would then be cheaper without the 251€ pass.

This is no radom article but advice that is put together by many experienced travellers in the Community. And the advice is to avoid making  reservations through Interrail if possible.

 

Look, I get you come in with good faith. And so do I. But there is no reason for you to try to defend interrail and waste your time by copy and pasting some random article.

Fact is, interrail is literally lying by saying that certain trains are “unavailable”. I can literally book the “unavailable” trains that are magically available on thalys´s official side for 90€. But my journey would then be cheaper without the 251€ pass.

It has already been explained to you. Thalys limits the number of places they allow to interrail passholders as well as charging high reservation fees to the small quota. This is unusual across Europe, only Thalys, Eurostar and International TGV services have any limitation on passholder numbers, all these operations are majority controlled by French operator SNCF who also apply the highest charges on their domestic TGV services.

 

The interrail reservation tool gives interrail reservation information NOT standalone ticketing outside of interrail use, no-one is lying to you.

 

If you want to complain about the intentional lack of passholder spaces and high surcharges then, complain to SNCF, Thalys, etc. Go and complain about the way the French treat foreign tourists on tripadvisor etc. I’m sure they will give a ****.

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