Has anyone with a wheelchair managed to make Interrail/Eurrail work with trains which require reservations? I have sent a help question to the laughable “help” service but I just get replies about accessibility and not about how to actually use the pass. There is an extra complexity regarding reservations, for example the following:
Eurostar: When you travel by wheelchair with Eurostar there is a system with a special ticket and then that organises the wheelchair space and the train ramp. They also place wheelchairs in a different class, so if I went onto the app and paid for a reservation in standard class do I then have to contact Eurostar to arrange everything else? I don’t know if my Interrail pass is going to be valid without making a reservation for a seat I won’t be using.
Thalys does a similar thing, they usually charge a special fare (but they don't organise the ramp) so again, do I have to go on the Interrail pass and add a reservation (and pay for it) and then do something else, or do I just buy a new ticket from Thalys where this is cheaper?
DB has yet another system where according to the actual rules (which some don’t adhere to, that’s another story!) the reservation has to be made in a ticket office or you can email 20 departments which refer you in a giant circle to the department you already spoke to, and unless you are a German citizen you have to pay for the wheelchair reservation. So I would have to pay for the reservation on the Interrail travel app to validate my ticket and pay for the wheelchair reservation in the office, or is there a way to make my ticket valid when I have bought a reservation at the office?
UK is a similar issue again, wheelchair spaces are reserved via a third party app called Passenger Assist which makes my LNER reservation, so how do I validate my travel and make the app generate a ticket if I have not bought the reservation through the app?
These are the countries I already know about the issues with, I am likely to run into new and different unknown issues in each country, and sometimes the issues are very hard to sort out when you are not already in the country you are going to. DB could not seem to grasp how I would need to sort out an issue with a Brussels to Koln ticket as part of a journey from Edinburgh to Wuppertal without being able to just pop into my local DB office…
Has anyone done this and know how to generate tickets when your reservation isn’t as straightforward as “put me in a seat”?
Best answer by BrendanDB
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