Europass 7pm Rule

After reading Eurail's definitions (www.eurail.com), I believe that 15 consecutive days means travel on 15 calendar days. I don't think the 7 PM rule applies to consecutive day passes. I think the 7 PM rule only applies to Flexi passes. If you are still going to be on the night train on June 4, then you can't activate, or start using the pass, until May 21. The 7 PM rule is for those people with individual days on their passes, so an overnight trip will only count as one (the 2nd) day. "The Eurail Global Pass 15 days continuous is valid for train travel during a period of 15 consecutive days. "Example: if you activate your Pass on August 14th, it is valid until August 29th. You can travel on any day during this period." (Eurail website) But, best call your pass issuer.

My understanding of it is the same as Lee's. The 7pm rule applies to flexi pass holders using 5 unique travel days, but I do not believe it would apply to your situation. You will validate the first day you travel (whether it May 20, or a different day) and it will continue to be valid for 15 days.

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Thank you so much. I'm going to call EuroRail/RS to check. I just asked an AAA agent but seems she doesn't know. And she told me that a service fee of $15 will be applied for each seat reservation. Is this true ? One of my friends said w/ europass we can boarding, take any seat w/o name on, then a conductor will stamp our pass.

For some trains, you will not need a seat reservation or any kind of ticket. These will be the slower, regional trains, mostly. For many trains you will need a seat reservation. The cost of each varies--my prices last year were $6 to $12 or so. Some trains these are optional, some are mandatory. If you don't have it on the mandatory train, regardless of if you have a railpass, you will be forced to pay a large fine.

Generally, the normal trains of the countries, regional and intercity, can be used without reservations. If you want reservations, there is a nominal fee, €4,50 2nd class, €5,50 1st class, at least for German trains. However, some rail lines consider their high speed trains (Thalys, Italian Eurostar, etc) to be "Premium trains" and charge an additional surcharge in addition to the rail pass to use them. Because tickets for these trains always have reservations, paying this surcharge is still referred to as a reservation fee. There is a list of these surcharges in the rail pass section above.