Booking seat reservations

The direct TGV Lyria seat reservation is an expensive one but I don't see much price difference between the sites - €39 from SNCF or $43 through Rail Europe for a second-class seat and more if you want to be in 1st class. Another way around this fare is to take a different TGV line to Strasbourg or Mulhouse with a $12 seat reservation and make one additional change of train. The Swiss connections don't need reservations.

Whether the French conductor will distinguish between an Interrail and a Eurail pass, I can't say for sure. I've often thought it was worth a try, not particularly for price but more if one offered e-ticketing when the other didn't.

Thank you Laura for your reply. I was looking at tickets for a family of four (two adults and two children) in first class. On the SNCF website the price listed is 236 GBP ($305 USD), with the ability to print my reservation tickets at home. The Rail Europe website wants $343.95 ($336 + $7.95 S&H), with the only option being mailing paper tickets. As a side note, the SNCF website has second class reservations for 122 GBP, but no meal is included. Actually, when I first posted this, I thought the price on the SNCF website was in euros (I've looked at too many different options!), but I see now that the price was actually GBP. This makes the price difference much less, but the SNCF site is still cheaper and has the option to print at home.

I've considered taking another route with a connection between, but since Basel is not our end destination (Wengen is) and we already will have to make 3-4 connections (with young children) to get to our final destination, we'd rather not add one more. The price difference does make one think though..

Rail Europe does charge that $7.95 handling fee but they still offer Print At Home e-ticketing for this train. (Their fee for physical shipping by UPS is $18, unless you meet the purchase price for free shipping.)

Exchange rates flex constantly, but I suspect that $305 is the current inter-bank rate, which only banks get. A typical credit card rate of +2% could bring the conversion up to $313. It's a small difference, but one that can get overlooked.

Ah, good point about the conversion rate. I didn't realize that was true, so thank you. Our credit card does offer zero foreign transaction fees, but I suspect that may be different. I didn't see the print-at-home option with Rail Europe, but I probably just didn't click through the checkout options far enough. It seems the price difference between the two sites is much smaller than I had first thought, and the uncertainty about going through the UK site may not be worth the small savings. Thank you for your help Laura! Now we just need to decide how much it's worth it to us to travel on a direct train for the Paris to Basel section, or save the money and make one more connection..

I know it's hard to assess some of these trade-offs, but for $52 on the route via Strasbourg, the family could still have any extra elbow room provided by 1st class and arrive in a similar total travel time. That train has a buffet car where you can pick up food and drinks, but you're also welcome to bring your own onboard. (The meal in 1st class on the Lyria is part of the reason for the high fee.)

Would the route through Strasbourg be more prone to service disruption caused by strikes, because the two connections are more rural routes?

No, I would not expect an issue.

A reservation is a reservation. Booking an extra expensive seat reservation on Rail Europe accomplishes the same thing as booking a ticket (reservation automatically included) via SNCF or SBB for that route.