Booking Reservations when using Eurail / Interrail

 Eurail and InterRail passes aren't and never have been, hop on any train in Europe passes, some European rail services have always had mandatory reservations, which pass users can opt to book or avoid.

So it's also correct to state that's it never been easier to use Eurail and Interrail passes, thanks to the expansion of the DIY methods of booking the mandatory and optional reservations.    

When I took my first InterRail trip back in the 90s, I had to spend an afternoon making a tour of multiple booking offices in central London, to make the mandatory reservations for a night train to Austria and the TGV high speed trains in France etc

So today it's possible to plan a rail pass trip with comparatively little effort and have the peace of mind, of all of the the journeys you need or want to take, already secured before you set off..

It's also possible to buy a pass and then experience a sinking feeling, on discovering that a train that's essential to your plans, is sold out.
Hence it's a very good idea not to assume that you can activate your pass and then book reservations as you go.
Because when you take the step to add the next day's travel to your pass, you can discover that the easiest / cheapest trains and routes are no longer possible.

Dealing with mandatory reservations

On some of Europe's day time express trains and on all night trains, ticket purchasers have reservations included with their booking.
Therefore to travel by these trains, Eurail and Interrail users need to pay for a booking step, so that they too have a reservation.

However, mandatory reservations = a limit on the number of assigned places per departure, so these trains can sell out.
Or there's an annoying scenario in which pass users can't book reservations despite tickets being available.
That typically occurs when the price of booking tickets for a return / two way journey, costs more than the cost of a 4 day pass + the mandatory rail pass reservation - yep ticket prices on the most popular routes can be that expensive!

Hence it can be a very good idea to book before starting your trip!
If you want to know whether you can take a preferred or essential train, take these steps:

1. Look up your journeys on the services listed below. Pre-purchase of a pass, the Eurail and InterRail journey planners will only indicate when reservations are required and not whether they can actually be booked.
2. Then if you want go ahead, buy a pass and then start booking the reservations.

When Booking Ahead is particularly recommended

In these scenarios, there may not be a viable alternative to the unavailability of a rail pass reservation:

• Taking a Eurostar from / to London; particularly if you also want to make connections in Brussels, Lille or Paris
• Taking a chain of trains to reach a destination by the end of day, when one or more of the departures has mandatory reservations.
• Travelling by a night train, particularly on routes when the night trains provides the only direct service.

Also if you would much prefer to pay the reservation fee to take a direct train, be aware that trains can be prone to selling out more than a day or two ahead of the the travel date, in these scenarios:

• Routes to coastal locations, particularly on Fridays to Sundays in June to August
• On the days either side of Easter and Christmas
• On the days either side of other national holidays.
• On routes to / from French ski resort areas during the winter sports season.
• Routes on which trains are comparatively infrequent; particularly when the above scenarios are also in play.

Hence these lists of some of the routes, on which at least some departures with mandatory reservations, are more likely to be sold out for Eurail and Interrail users.
Note that this cannot be exact, all or most departures on these routes can still be available on your travel date(s).
Also some departures can sell out, on any route with mandatory reservations.

*= routes which only have mandatory reservations during June - August.

Routes on which 1st and 2nd class can sell out

Routes on which 2nd class can sell out

Night train routes which can sell out

How do I know this?
These lists are based on the six InterRail trips I have taken, plus the many Eurail and Interrail itineraries I have planned for users of my Concierge Travel Service.

Why it may not matter

On many routes, other longer and more awkward journey options, than taking the direct trains with mandatory reservations are available - And the Eurail and Interrail journey planning tools will typically automatically string together chains of alternative trains.

It's also often possible to avoid the more expensive mandatory reservations, by taking indirect, but comparatively simple, train combos.

Booking the mandatory reservations online

Once you have purchased a pass and therefore have a pass number you can begin to book the reservations.
As detailed above, it's usually best to do this in advance, but it isn't essential - On my recent trip I used the Rail Europe app to book a reservation for the next train to Venice, while I was on the concourse at Milano Centrale station.

The simplest method is to use the Eurail or InterRail reservation services, which are built into their respective journey planners - Note that you can book reservations before you activate a mobile pass.
Pretty much all European trains with mandatory reservations can be booked, the key exceptions are the trains in Bulgaria and Portugal.

However, these services charge a booking fee of €2 per reservation, per person.

Though Eurail and Interrail pass users cannot book the mandatory reservations required to travel by these train services; Italo in Italy, Ouigo in France, Ouigo in Spain, avlo in Spain and the Frecce trains on the Paris ↔ Turin - Milan route.

The alternative booking services:

Two reasons for using these alternative booking platforms:
1 - They don't charge booking fees
2 - Checking availability - rail pass reservations can still be available on one booking platform, including Eurail / Interrrail, but show as sold out / unavailable on others.

Rail Europe

Rail Europe sells the following mandatory reservations:
- Eurostar
- Belgium ↔ France by TGV trains
- Paris ↔ Frankfurt / Stuttgart and Munich by TGV trains
- Paris ↔ Turin - Milan by TGV trains
- Domestic journeys in France
- TGV Lyria services; Paris ↔ Switzerland
- EC services ; Switzerland ↔ Italy
- The Bernina Express
- Frecce and IC trains in Italy
- AVE, Alvia and Euromed trains in Spain
- France ↔ Spain by TGV trains and AVE trains (it can be possible for reservations to only be available on the TGVs for Paris ↔ Barcelona journeys)

Note that on some routes Rail Europe will default to 2nd class reservations, regardless of selecting a 1st class pass; Therefore to see 1st class reservations, you may need to click to reveal them.

HappyRail sells the following mandatory reservations:
- Avant, AVE, Alvia, Euromed and IC trains in Spain
- France ↔ Spain by AVE trains
- Frecce and IC trains in Italy
- EIP, EIC and IC trains in Poland; if you buy the pass with Happyrail
- Germany ↔ Poland
- Domestic journeys in Hungary
- Germany ↔  Austria, Belgium Czechia, Denmark, Hungary, Netherlands (mandatory June to August)

OBB, the Austrian national rail operator, sells the following mandatory reservations:
- Night trains to and from Austria
- Night trains on domestic routes
- Night trains between locations on routes which cross Austria
- Other Nightjet routes
- Austria  ↔ Italy by Railjet (and EC) trains
- Switzerland ↔ Italy by EC trains
- Frecce and IC trains in Italy
Germany ↔ Austria, Belgium Czechia, Denmark, Hungary, Netherlands (mandatory June to August)

The path to take when using OBB to book rail pass reservations is on this guide, though the key two steps to take are;
1 - ignore the reservation only feature on the home page - it's there for those who have already booked tickets and now want to add a reservation
2 - you need to 'Add A Discount' before you look up a journey  - and Eurail/Interrail is one of the discount options.

What's also good to know, is that it doesn't matter whether you will be travelling with 1st or 2nd class passes when booking night train reservations with OBB.  

CD, the Czech national rail operator, sells the following mandatory reservations:
- Night trains from and to Czechia
- Czechia ↔ Poland by EC train
- EIP, EIC and IC trains in Poland
- Germany ↔ Austria, Belgium Czechia, Denmark, Hungary, Netherlands (mandatory June to August)

B-Europe:
B-Europe, which is managed by the Belgian national rail operator, sells rail pass reservations on multiple routes, including Eurostar, but it in effect charages a €4 booking fee per reservation

National booking services

Some of the booking platforms managed by national rail operators also enable Eurail and Interrail users to make reservations:
- Entur - night trains in Norway
- SJ - Snabbtag trains in Sweden and its night trains including Stockholm ↔ Hamburg - Berlin
- Polrail - day trains in Poland and trains from/to Poland
- DB - Germany ↔ Austria, Belgium Czechia, Denmark, Hungary, Netherlands (mandatory June to August)
- DB  - Germany ↔ France and Italy; (Leave ‘Book seat only’ switched off)

Note that rail pass reservations cannot be booked with Oui-SNCF, Renfe or Trenitalia.

Booking Optional / Recommended Reservations

On many of the daytime express train routes in Europe, seat reservations are optional for both Eurail / Interrail users and ticket purchasers.

So these trains can't sell out, but boarding without reservations and hoping to find a seat can be something of a lottery, particularly when travelling with a 2nd class pass.

Opting to reserve can be a particularly good decision when:

• travelling to routes to coastal locations on Fridays to Sundays in June to August
• taking trains on the days either side of Easter and Christmas and other national holidays
• travelling on routes with comparatively infrequent trains
• boarding at a smaller intermediate station
• taking longer journeys

Routes on which some departures can be fully reserved, particularly in summer - and especially in 2nd class, include:

The booking services:

The simplest method is to use the Eurail or InterRail reservation services, which are built into their respective journey planners - Not that you can book reservations before you activate a mobile pass.
However, these services charge a booking fee of €2 per reservation, per person.

This booking fee can be avoided if you use these services provided by the national rail operators:
- CD - national journeys in Czechia, Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland; plus Czechia ↔ Austria, Germany and Hungary.
- DB - national services in Germany by ICE and IC trains and Germany ↔ Switzerland.
- Entur - day trains in Norway.
- OBB - national services in Austria  and Germany; plus Austria ↔ Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Slovenia and Switzerland.
SBB - national services in Switzerland.

There is no charge for reserving British trains, on routes on which they are an option - but this guide explains how they can be booked in advance.

Note that reservations are mandatory and not optional on the express trains in France, Italy, Poland, Spain and Sweden.

Travelling with a reservation

The reservation will be scanned, either by a conductor on the train and / or a ticket gate, and what they will be 'reading' is the barcode.
A barcode which will be either attached to an email, or can be downloaded from an app.
Though what can be awkward is that the barcode may not have the details of the train you will be taking on it, as this info can only be included on the confirmation email.

So what I do is label the barcodes if need be and then save them to a folder on my phone, making sure that they will be visible.
Unless I have been given instructions on the email stating that the attachment must be printed - Though on my recent trip I also saved these reservation barcodes to my phone and only used the paper reservations when taking the Eurostars from and to London.

At ticket gates you will need to open them with the reservation barcode and on the trains show the reservation barcode to the conductor - and then show them the pass is they ask to see it too.

Booking at stations

If a station has an advance travel desk, use that instead of the ticket counters for today's travel; even if you do want to reserve for that day.
Though you will be charged booking fees at the stations in Belgium, Italy and Switzerland - and Swedish stations don't have ticket counters.
Also Eurail and Interrail reservations can no longer be booked on Trenitalia ticket machines at Italian stations.

The Reisezentrum booking desks at the major stations / hauptbahnhofs in Austria and Germany can be particularly useful, as they can sell Eurail and Interrail reservations on most European routes and don't charge booking fees.

Refunds and Exchanges

It can be a good idea to book reservations on the most popular routes before you have completed the planning of your entire trip, or activated your pass.
Particularly if a reservation can be refunded; Those that can be include:

(1) Nighjet trains:
Cancel at least 15 days before departure = full refund.
Cancel 14 days – 1 day before departure = 50% refund, though a minimum of €15 will be deducted.

(2) Railjet / EC trains; Austria ↔ Italy
(3) Belgium ↔ France by TGV trains
(4) Eurostar - Up to 7 days before departure, they can be exchanged to alternative departures without paying a fee, or can be refunded for a fee (£10/€15 for Eurostar Standard and £15/€20 for Eurostar Plus).
(5) France ↔ Spain by TGV train; refundable, but 10% will be deducted as an admin fee, a minimum of €10.
(6) France ↔ Spain by AVE train; refundable, but 10% will be deducted as an admin fee, a minimum of €10.
(7) TGV France ↔ Italy
(8) TGV / ICE France ↔ Germany
(9) Frecce trains in Italy; can be exchanged free of charge. but 20% cancellation charges will be deducted from refunds.
(10) Switzerland ↔ Italy by EC trains; can be exchanged free of charge. but 20% cancellation charges will be deducted from refunds.