Well, after all my vacillating, all my planning, all my indecision, once I've finally decided on a particular train and date, I can't remember how to book a sleeper if I already have my Eurailpass, which I do. I went to bahn.de and chose "book a seat without a ticket" and it won't let me book international w/o also buying a ticket. I want a sleeper, not a couchette, on EN477 from Dresden lv 21:08 pm Tuesday April 10 to Budapest arr 8:35 am. I have a 1st class Eurail Global Pass and I'd prefer a compartment that only would have at most one other traveler. I don't want to pay for all of it to myself and I don't want to have three of us in the compartment. I know I could use Rail Europe but I'd much rather not. Sorry to ask a question that's been asked and answered so often, but I fergit! Please help me.
Posted by
Stuttgart, Germany
3050 posts
The easiest way at this point would to be to book it once you're already in Germany at the train station or you could call ahead. I could be wrong (someone want to validate this?) but I don't think the reservation fees for sleepers etc change based on date, so there's no advantage to buying in advance. But I don't know how to deal with your 3 people problem. You can't book a sleeper with a stranger to share the cost. So you'd either be in a couchette, or you have to share the sleeper with 3 (according to seat61 some sleepers have 3 beds?) or eat the cost of a sleeper by yourself. Thems the breaks. Depending on how finalized your itinerary is, I don't know if I'd waste a Eurail pass day on a night train, given how high the fees for reserving sleepers are. It would almost certainly be cheaper to buy the cheap, advance price ticket (as low as 29 pp) because your pp eurail pass is much higher per day. Maybe you can find a high speed train "day trip" that might justify the Eurail pass day and not waste it on the night train.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
There is an advantage, maybe a necessity, to book in advance. Night train accommodations often sell out well in advance. In particular, I've seen booking pages with single accommodations already sold out. When you click "availability", it gives you a page with "Your offers for the selected connection". They all include tickets, but at the bottom is a link that says "book only extra charge". Click that and "pass offer" on the next page, and it will give you a page of just the accommodation supplement charges.
Posted by
OP
Easley, SC, USA
306 posts
Thanks Lee. I'm almost certain you alread explained that to me some time back, but I gave up scrolling backwards after several pages, looking for it! I appreciate the help! Sarah, I'm on a monthly pass, so using a day is not an issue. As for the number of persons issue, all I was saying is that given a choice, I'll pay the price to reserve one berth in a compartment that will never have more than one more person assigned to it, not two more. I knew I could do that, once I found how to negotiate the webpage, which Lee graciously explained to me (again!). thx both for your help!