As I am seeing where my 15 consecutive days of rail travel will fall in my itinerary, I realized that I am planning on taking a night train leaving at 23:30 and arriving the next morning at 6:20 on my last (15th) day. I remember reading that if you are using a flexi-pass your travel day technically doesn't count until the next morning of a night train. With a consecutive day pass, would this mean that my night train wouldn't be covered because it would count as the 16th day? Before I move forward with my plan making I would like to make sure this plan works!
If you arrive the morning of your 15th day, you are fine. If you leave the night of your 15th day, it will not work.
Douglas is right, the 7 PM rule is not intended to extend your rail pass another day, it means that a night train won't "cost" you two days (ie, the first day of the night train). If the night train leaves on the 15th day, you need to consider paying additionally for the next day's travel on the night train or paying for the first day of travel and starting the 15 consecutive days one day later.
Ok, thanks. That's what I was afraid of, but that's ok. I think it would be better to start my travel a day later--but then it really might be better to just go with point to point tickets. A question about those - The ticket prices that come up on the DB website (or other country's sites, but I haven't looked at those yet) - do those include "reservations" when they are compulsory? So, when I'm comparing the cost of point to point and railpass plus reservations, would I have to add the same reservation price onto the advanced purchase price I see, or is it included? Also, do point to point travelers have to make reservations on all the trains that railpass users do? Thank you so much for your help!
Point to point ticket prices include the reservation fee if applicable. No need to add reservation fee to ticket price.
On most German trains, seat reservations are optional and the price is nominal (~€4/seat). The only exception is the ICE Sprinter, for which "reservations" are mandatory for pass holders and include a small surcharge. Point-point tickets on ICE Sprinters also include a seat reservation. In other countries, certain trains are more expensive, and tickets come with seat reservations; the same trains require pass holders to pay a supplement (and that includes it seat reservation). I don't know of any trains that require a supplement and don't have all seats reserved.