Rail Pass and Reservations

1. You can reserve online through Rail Europe, in the same spot where you say you tested fares. It's often a good idea, especially for international TGVs. Domestic trains are less restrictive.

2. Advance-purchase discount fares are cheaper, which is why point-to-point tickets are often suggested for people ready to book ahead. Unless your tested trips were quite short, prices are likely to go higher as the advance rates sell out.

3. With a pass, most trains in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland don't require reservations. See more about seat reservations and pass coverage on our pages for each country of travel. For booking regular tickets, you can use each country's own web site, or Rail Europe offers more one-stop shopping in advance. Since Geneva is a shared station, you can book a connection on either the Swiss or the French site.

1. Yes you can.
2. Yep. Rail Europe is a middle man. If you buy direct with the owners of the railroad the tickets tend to be cheaper.
3. For Germany to France I would use DBahn. France to Switzerland OUISNCF,
   

For Lyon to Interlaken OST (this is the stop you want), I see that you can buy directly from Trainline (they are a middleman like RailEurope but the markup on the tickets is lower from my experience) :

https://www.thetrainline.com/en/train-times/lyon-to-interlaken-ost

Just take your time. You may find the passes are a better option for you but I never have.

I have never found a need to use RailEurope, and when I've looked, their pricing is higher. I first try to use the country specific website. If that doesn't work, I'll look at DBahn or trainline. I used to use loco2, but they've merged with RailEurope which tends to be a pricey source for tickets. I would really do some comparisons to determine if a rail pass is your best option. Also, I personally would be frustrated to have to make and pay for a reservation on top of the rail pass. If you have to do additional work to use the pass, it seems to me one might as well look at purchasing tickets individually.

This site should be helpful - https://www.seat61.com/Europe-train-travel.htm

Réservation systems of neighboring countries are increasingly connected, so for instance :
- both DB (Germany) and SNCF (France) can sell tickets from Paris to large German cities and baxk
- DB is cheapest for tickets between Germany and Switzerland
- SNCF works fine between France and any Swiss town served by SBB (but not always by other Swiss railway operators, é.g. Interlaken will work but Lauterbrunnen won't)
- SNCB (Belgium) will sell tickets from Paris to "any Belgian station" and back
-etc.

I use a rail pass. When I feel I need the reservation or that it's mandatory, I do that upon arrival in the Reisezentrum or the ticket counter in France to take the TGV

Thank you everyone.

I have tried searching the same trains on RailEurope and some national lines (e.g. tren Italia, etc.). I have found that RailEurope does not always include all the trains. They don't include trips that involve several stops. The reservation fees (with pass) are almost the price of the cheapest rate without a pass - but the pass will give you that same low rate at other times of day when the train will be higher. Also RailEurope's site gets hung up at times and shows nothing, so you have to come back later.