Is a Ticket/Pass required to make Seat Reservation with SNCF Ticket Machine?

If I under this correctly, you'll have to stand in the ticket office.

I also use the Eurail Senior Global Pass, 2nd class, 15 days/2 months but only the paper one, never on the phone.

First of all, I would get the seat reservations in Amsterdam, both of you, assuming you want to sit together.

Allow time to do that, failing...not possible. Any questions you have re: the various rides, seat reservations, have them all answered in Amsterdam. Get all that done , ie all rides in Amsterdam.

How do you intend on going from Paris Est to St Lazare? Re: public transport you have the Metro, RER, and the bus. Most recently, in June, I did the ride by bus #26, which can be boarded in front of Paris Nord, if you want to walk over from Est to Nord. I don't like taking the Metro, maybe having to transfer too, encumbered with luggage.

Hi,

From Amsterdam to North Germany, which particular city, if I may ask?

Fred, Thank you so very much for your help.

My friend will be going to Hamburg, Hanover, Wolfsburg and possibly Berlin while I will be in Cologne and a small village that my family lived in for hundreds of years and then some castles on the Rhine.

If I understand this correctly, you'll have to stand in the ticket office.

First of all, I would get the seat reservations in Amsterdam, both of
you, assuming you want to sit together.

Allow time to do that, failing...not possible. Any questions you have
re: the various rides, seat reservations, have them all answered in
Amsterdam. Get all that done , ie all rides in Amsterdam.

I will be very happy if we can get all of the Seat Reservations for Mannheim to Caen and Caen to Stuttgart in Amsterdam. There is some question about us being required to use an SNCF Ticket Machine, in France, to get our Seat Reservations, especially for the St Lazare to Caen/Caen to St Lazare legs. Do you know for a fact that we will be able to get all of the seat reservations needed for France at theAmsterdam Centraal Station? That would be such a relief if we can.

If we can get our Seat Reservations for France at the Amsterdam Centraal Station, then the following is moot

If it turns out that we are unable to get our Seat Reservations for France, at the Amsterdam Station, I have a small window of time, just days before we leave Mannheim, to travel to Lauterburg France in order to use their SNCF Ticket Machine for Seat Reservations, but, at this time, I have no idea if it is even possible for me to purchase my friend's seat reservations when I purchase mine and we are in big trouble if no Seat Reservations are available. Can I purchase just the Seat Reservations without the tickets?

How do you intend on going from Paris Est to St Lazare? Re: public
transport you have the Metro, RER, and the bus. Most recently, in
June, I did the ride by bus #26, which can be boarded in front of
Paris Nord, if you want to walk over from Est to Nord. I don't like
taking the Metro, maybe having to transfer too, encumbered with
luggage.

We will have around 1 hour to get from Est to St Lazare

We are planning on taking a Taxi. We realize it will cost more, but when we consider the nightmare it will be if we miss our connecting Train and possibly arriving in Caen after the Rental Car Business closes, spending the equivalent of the cost of a meal to make sure we get there on time is insignificant after all that we have spent to get to Europe, lodging, Tours and such.

Reading that traveling in France both in May and on Friday's increases the chances of the trains we need being full, we are really concerned about having to wait until we have less than 2 weeks before we will even have a chance to make the much needed Seat Reservations for France.

Thank you for any help or information you can offer.
Ken

Hi,

You're welcome.

Going from Amsterdam to Hamburg requires a number of transfers. Normally, the straight shot easy way is to transfer in Osnabruck. I was in Osnabruck Hbf a few years ago, it hadn't changed much since my first time there in 1971.

Transferring in Osnabruck won't do it this time due to construction. Instead, there is still a way to avoid changing trains in Holland or Germany, ie, doing that only once in Duisburg Hbf., a major trunk line station.

Take the departure Amsterdam to Duisburg direct, then Duisburg to Hamburg Hbf. direct. You change only once rather than 2-3 times total. As a central station in Germany, I don't particular care for Duisburg Hbf, was there last ten years ago on the back from Amsterdam.

I would suggest seat reservations for both these 2 legs, more importantly Duisburg to Hamburg. on the ICE.

I don't understand why you don't get your seats to Caen in Paris. It is a Nomad so requires them but they should be trivial in either station that day. You will be walking past ticket machines - why go to all the hassle of making an unneeded trip into France just to get them?

Of course you can get 2 reservations, for both you and your travel partner, at the same time by one person. People do it all the time.

Yeah, you can't book those Paris to Caen reservations online, but buying them in Paris is no problem. No stress ☺️. What is your travel date?

Thank you Nigel

I don't understand why you don't get your seats to Caen in Paris. It
is a Nomad so requires them but they should be trivial in either
station that day. You will be walking past ticket machines - why go to
all the hassle of making an unneeded trip into France just to get
them?

I have read on Rick Steves and other sites, that Traveling in France on Fridays and also Traveling in May increases the chance that Seat Reservations will sell out early and reservations should be made as soon as possible.

We will be traveling on 2 Fridays, in May, in France, to and from Normandy and it seems to me (I have never ridden a train in France or anywhere else) that waiting until just a few minutes before we board a greatly required train (for us) to Caen will only increase the likelihood that there will be a full train and no Seat Reservations available.

Is the leg between St Lazare and Caen unpopular enough that there would be little or no chance of selling out on Fridays in May? I have no idea, but it will be a great relief to me if it is.

Of course you can get 2 reservations, for both you and your travel
partner, at the same time by one person. People do it all the time.

Thank you, I have never made a Seat Reservation and I was afraid that I would be required to have a Pass or Ticket in hand in order to make a Seat Reservation and my friend will be 5 hours away (by ICE Train) from where I will be.

Is it true that I can make Seat Reservations for France at the Amsterdam Centraal International Ticket Office?

If this is true, it will greatly simplify the entire Reservation process. We only have a 3 hour window of time to get our Rental Car in Caen and if we get there late, it will be a long walk from Caen to a rental home near Omaha Beach.

Thanks again

Ken

Thank you balso,

Yeah, you can't book those Paris to Caen reservations online, but
buying them in Paris is no problem. No stress ☺️. What is your travel
date?

Travel Dates, Friday 03/05/2024 & Friday 10/05/2024

Do you know if Paris to Caen can be booked at Amsterdam Centraal International Ticket Office?

Thanks again

Ken

PROBLEM FOR ONLINE SEAT RESERVATIONS FROM PARIS ST LAZARE TO CHERBOURG IS SOLVED!

As of today, January 23 2024 you can make online seat reservations for Paris St Lazare to Cherbourg for as early as March 24,2024 on Raileurope.com

I'm glad it is solved. I wonder how much extra RailEurope put on the price, or is it the same cheap reservation you could make in person?

in person the reservation for the TER to Cherbourg is 1,50 iif I am not mistaken. I am sure that Rail Europe will add 10,- to that...

What I would do is: Reserve Mannheim to Paris either in Amsterdam, or in Germany (should be possible at any major German station). Reserver Paris to Cherbourg in Paris.

I'm glad it is solved. I wonder how much extra RailEurope put on the
price, or is it the same cheap reservation you could make in person?

in person the reservation for the TER to Cherbourg is 1,50 iif I am
not mistaken. I am sure that Rail Europe will add 10,- to that...

What I would do is: Reserve Mannheim to Paris either in Amsterdam, or
in Germany (should be possible at any major German station). Reserver
Paris to Cherbourg in Paris.

I really want to thank you for your help and information with all of this.

The week I will be in Normandy is a holiday week and just a few weeks before the 80th Anniversary for D-Day and both travel days will be on Fridays, all of which increase the chances of me not being able to get the much needed Seat Reservations just a few minutes before the train leaves.

Cost for Reservations from Mannheim to Caen is $22.00 USD. $1.10 USD per 1 euro, so 20,00 euro for 1st class reservations Mannheim to Paris est on ICE and 1st Class on TER from St Lazare to Caen.

I did read somewhere, possibly The Man in Seat 61, that there is a basket fee in which you put all of the reservations you are wanting to buy. It is either $6.95 usd or 6,95 euro, I forget which, but for me being able to know a couple months before I travel 5,000 miles and spend thousands of dollars, $6.95 is a bargain for the piece of mind it brings. If we couldn't get on that train, the money we would have to spend in order to get to Caen in less than 3 hours, before the car rental place closed and the hotel we would need to rent in Caen if we were late. We would need to get our car the next morning so that we could drive to the house we rented near Omaha Beach.

The recommendation was to book all of the reservations you would be needing or think you might need, (You can make 10-20 reservations for the price of 1 meal) because the $6.95 is the total charge for all of the reservations that you put in the basket, not for each reservation.

EDIT: UPDATE: On 24/01/2024 seat reservations opened up through May.

There was no $10 extra fee and there was no $6.95 Basket fee.

The Total cost per person for Raileurope.com Seat Reservations from Mannheim to Caen was $22,00 in USD (Exchange rate at this time aprox. $1.10 per 1 euro) so 20 euro per person and bill says $2.00 from St Lazare to Caen. If my math is correct, I paid 0,35 euro extra from St Lazare to Caen by purchasing online, which, for me, is a bargain when compared to the original situation of needing to travel over 5,000 miles and needing to wait until a few minutes before my train to Caen would be leaving St Lazare before I would even know if I could get a seat reservation and get on the train I need.

Thanks again for all of your help
Ken

On the issue of arriving at the calculations only, I would suggest doing all of that computing ie, expenses, costs, and so on in Euro after knowing the current exchange rate.

What is good about the paper copy of the Eurail Pass is that the prices are indicated in $ (which you have to pay when ordering on-line, and more importantly , in Euro, which I go by afterwards during the trip.

Bottom line....think in Euro, forget the $ aspect.

On the issue of arriving at the calculations only, I would suggest
doing all of that computing ie, expenses, costs, and so on in Euro
after knowing the current exchange rate.

What is good about the paper copy of the Eurail Pass is that the
prices are indicated in $ (which you have to pay when ordering
on-line, and more importantly , in Euro, which I go by afterwards
during the trip.

Bottom line....think in Euro, forget the $ aspect.

Sorry, I did the best I could.

For the Seat Reservations, the posted prices was in US Dollars, I was charged in US Dollars, the receipt from RailEurope.com is in US Dollars and the exchange rate between Euros and US Dollars does change.

This morning it is $1.081 dollars per euro, a few days ago a little over $1.09 per Euro and just a few months ago it was $0.97 US Dollars per Euro. This makes it hard to post exactly how many Euro I was charged, but very easy to post exactly what I was charged in US Dollars. To make it simple for me, I just use $1.10 per Euro, $11.00 for 10 Euro, $110.00 for 100 Euro, etc. If the difference between $1.10 and $1.08 per Euro makes a difference in whether I can buy something or not, then I made a mistake in choosing a European vacation, because it is expensive. The difference between $22.00 and $21.80 for Seat Reservations isn't worth worrying about ;-)

For the house I rented in Bayeux, I was charged in Euro, but I had no idea of what I actually paid in US Dollars until the Credit Card posted the actual amount a few days later. It's a moving target and the same goes for buying something in USD and trying to figure out what I actually paid in Euro.