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Too early to book journey from Berlin to Prague

  • 21 July 2022
  • 7 replies
  • 171 views
R

 

Hi there,

I’ve just purchased a Eurorail global pass for 10 days in two months. I can’t seem to find a train on the euro rail app seat reservation from Berlin to Warsaw, Warsaw to Kraków, Kraków to Prague. They are extremely long journeys when I go to seat selection.
Would it be better if I were to book individually through operators instead of the Eurorail app? As according to the app they are only 4ish hours - these on the app are saying 23+ hours.

Some seats are not even available for purchase at this time. I don’t plan on travelling until October 12th, am I too early to book? Also, some of the places that I plan to go say that I “am good to go and seat reservation is not mandatory” do I need to even reserve a seat for extra money? Any advice would be so helpful. Thank you

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Best answer by mcadv 21 July 2022, 04:32

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M
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Yes, way too early. INland PL from 30 days advance, INTern. to/fro PL from 60 d/2 Moth advance. 2 month is in fact the classic advance term-though in ohter systems a bit longer now.

Plus that it about impossible to book online this (do not worry, these trains are not booked solid so long advance). Do not use app to plan-follow advice of annaB that she posts/links to daily dozens of times: always best, cheaper too, IF possible, via railway concerned. For PL this often means, old-fashioned classic: go to counter and let a human being do the work.

BTW-these trips usually take around 6hrs., except W→ Krakowa. Kr→ Prahy is also overnite.

R

Ok thanks. 
who is annaB

also I’d prefer not to take overnight trains 

is this a good journey ? When I should I look at booking it and with what company would you suggest ?

 

A
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Here is the information that @mcadv is referring to. 

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.

Please note that I don't work for Interrail/Eurail and that I don't reply to personal messages.
R

Ok thanks for the advice. I’ve activated my pass already and linked my journey - I know exactly what countries I’m traveling too on what dates do it’s set it stone. Should I deactivate it then? 
I’m leaving from Germany, to Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, stop in Austria for a night and back to Germany. 

A
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Ok thanks for the advice. I’ve activated my pass already and linked my journey - I know exactly what countries I’m traveling too on what dates do it’s set it stone. Should I deactivate it then? 
 

Yes, the advice is not to activate the pass before boarding the first train of your travel. If you activate it in advance and something unexpected happens on your departure day that prevents you from travelling, then you can't deactivate the pass anymore.

Please note that I don't work for Interrail/Eurail and that I don't reply to personal messages.
R

Okay do you know how to deactivate it? I have deleted my journeys out of it but it still says 8/10 days used - however it’s not valid until October 12 through to December 

R
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Okay do you know how to deactivate it? I have deleted my journeys out of it but it still says 8/10 days used - however it’s not valid until October 12 through to December 

Go to My Pass, select an active travel day and then tap on "Cancel travel day”. Do that for all active travel days. When you cancel the last travel day, the app wil ask whether you want to deactivate the pass; then choose Yes.

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.

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