Global Rail Pass +/-

I find that the best deal, if one's primary concern is money, otherwise, forget it, getting a Senior Global Pass 10days or 15 days /2 months is the best, even better if a promo is offered if most of your traveling is in Germany taking ICE/IC trains, the TGV in France, and night trains plus going to Sweden. Re: the high speed trains I almost always go to the station to get my seat reservation, which gives the flexibility of "negotiating" and info gathering with the staff member, etc.

It's all a matter of travel style or preference, what you are willing to cope / put up with, etc, ie your own level of luxury. That means on a night train getting the sleeper or couchette is not an option. If you intend to take ferries going between Poland, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Finland, etc the Pass entitles you to a discount.

Any potential problems I settle that in the ticket office, eg, reservations, discounts, etc....never had a problem, once only in 1989 in West Germany.

Keep in mind that the rail network in France in contrast to that in Germany is very different, to put it mildly, as were the original reasons for their construction, historically.

No problems with the names.... Is it St. Pölten or Sankt Pölten? Both are fine.

the other common complaint about passes seems to be that on the desirable high speed routes there are only so many seats set aside for them even though you're paying a supplement

Glad it works out for you!
The passes are still able to save money when you have not been able or willing to buy tickets in advance; I've used Interrail passes a few times in the 2010s for that reason - but never in reservation-mandatory countries. I am still very surprised at the 1:2.5 cost ratio that you quote; you must have been travelling very fast over long distances to make that happen! My experiences point to savings in the 25-30% range at best, maybe 40% with a youth pass.

The main issue to me is the reservation requirement in some countries. Queuing at a station to make reservations once you arrive in the country would really be too stressful to make it worth it. I like to have all my ducks in a row beforehand! Everytime I go to the mainline train stations in Paris, the ticket office has dozens of people in the queue...

Reservations :
Yeah its a hassle. Supposedly you can do them online (at a slightly higher fee) or at a ticket machine but I have never been successful when I tried these. If you are going to be in a city 3 days, make your reservation to leave as soon as you arrive. Or better yet, if you arrive in France, Italy or Spain, immediately book all your high speed trains in advance at that point.

Seat Allocations :
I did not fully understand this last year and it lead to a bad situation. I was in a small town in Alsace at 10 pm when I learned that France was closing the country to leave to UK in 24 hours. The morning TGV's to Paris were all booked (or possibly the allotted pass seats were booked), and all the Eurostars to UK were also booked. We waited in Paris 3 days for our regularly scheduled Eurostar, and when we went to the station Gare du Nord, we were refused exit because of their political BS. They would not allow us to leave their country and we were at day 88 of a 90 day visa. Later when I booked another TGV from Brussels to London, I learned that there has been Eurostar tickets that first day, but not seats allocated for rail pass. Had we known, we could have paid full price and escaped. As it was, we had to train to Belgium and fly to London.

The App :
In the past week, there have been 4 times that the conductor comes to see our pass and it won't show the ticket properly. Luckily they have been easy going - don't try this in Switzerland.

Searches :
In one case, the app found a route that the other apps did not. We were going from Sion to Como on 4 trains, and one of them was an off brand train company with panoramic views. But I discovered a weird thing another time. I did a search and found 4 trains. The train office told me there was another one that was not showing. I then changed the app to only show trains that do not require reservations, and then it showed up. But it should have showed up either way.

Value :
Some of the reservations are of questionable value. You pay 10 eu on a ticket that would cost 27 eu full price, so you are only saving 17. But in Germany you might say 100 eu a day at times.

Very true about France having a pass quota re: reservations (totally unlike in Germany), when you are using a Pass that includes France. Of course, I have run into that when making reservations a day or two before the ride, only a matter of the odds. Even more so, when traveling high season , which is when I'm over there. I don't book reservations on-line in France, much less resort to an app.

Disappointing when you're told, yes. Certainly no big deal. In spite of this news, I have never had to change the date of that ride, much less change the hour of departure/ One just works around it.

I have had several trips disrupted by French rail strikes. And then this political nonsense. I also had to pay hotels I could not get to. I once had to drive to Paris from Avignon and back to pick someone up and got sick and was out 200 eu in fuel and tolls. I had an entire month in France that got turned into a trip to Spain and Sicily on the fly. And yet any discussion of rail strikes with French people makes them laugh and gush with pride how great the strikes are.

Here is a rough calculation. Last time we spent about $900+ for a 90 day pass. So that averages $10/day. You kinda break even if you take a $5 dollar commute and back (say Avignon to Nimes and back), or if every three days you do a $30 trip (e.g. Milan to Venice), or every week you do a $100 trip.

Even at that, suppose you miss a train and you have to buy another ticket,... the pass helps with that. Every time I am in the Vienna airport and buy a ticket into the main Hbf, I find it confusing to find which train and track to take. So I have missed trains at least twice. Without the pass, I bought a new ticket. With the pass, I just tweaked it in the app.

My method of travel is different with a rail pass than without. The pass kinda encourages you to use it more. We tend to get a base home city, and then commute out and back daily. For example we stayed in Hamburg, then made day trips to Lübeck, Luneberg, and Bremen, You can also sneak an extra city each day by leaving early, and going half-way to your destination, having lunch, then taking another train the rest of the way.

Another tip ... at places like the train station in Marseilles, France, you have to scan your ticket QR code yourself to get through the security gate on the actual train track. But when you turn the iPhone upside down, it seems to pull open the wallet app instead. Perhaps someone knows a way to actually stop that? What I did was to do a screen shot of the QR code (which involves clicking two buttons simultaneously on the iPhone but might vary depending on which model you have). Then open the screen shot in the photos app, and that worked fine. Otherwise you won't even get to the train.