Confusion??? Passes Vs. Tickets

Whether you buy full tickets (rail plus accommodation) for night trains from nation rail companies or get reservations to go with a rail pass, you need to get them well in advance. Night trains are popular and often sell out a month or more in advance. Full tickets are easier to find online than passholder reservations, and passholder reservations are often limited by the rail companies so the full tickets might be available when passholder reservations are not.

For some "premium" trains, like Thalys, you can get tickets online from their website, often for less or little more than a passholder ticket, which also uses a day of your railpass.

As for other trains in Europe, what you heard is not true. (Maybe it has something to do with RailEurope selling tickets?) I've bought tickets for hundreds of trains, over there. The only time I buy tickets in advance, is when I get a substantial discount from counter prices by doing so. If you buy in advance from RailEurope, you'll pay more than counter prices.

For overnight trains, as Lee has noted, it's very difficult to be flexible because they are so popular. I wouldn't show up anywhere in Europe and expect to get on an overnight train without some sort of advance notice, even if I chose to sleeping sitting up. Having to make those advance reservations negate any chance of a rail pass being flexible.
First Class premium sleeping accommodations will also cost you quite a bit more, on top of your Railpass. For example, RailEurope will charge you a whopping $324 per person for a first-class double compartment...that's over and above whatever a day of your railpass costs. At the French national rail website, tgv-europe.com, an all-in ticket for the same accommodations on the same train would cost me $230 per person.
The only way to maintain a modicum of flexibility with a rail pass is to either travel popular daytime runs where there are enough trains/day that you don't mind if the one you choose that day is full or has not passholder spaces left, or ride a lot of trains that don't require reservations/supplements (your best bet for that is in Germany, it seems.)
So, to misquote Clint Eastwood, you've got to ask yourself one question....is limited flexibility worth the cost.

Thank you both for your responses, and you are making it much easier on my mind on how to figure these things out for the first time.

A lot of daytime high-speed trains fill up quickly too. Thalys is the more iconic case, but many TGV and International ICE services fill out rather quickly too. As others said, the extra difficulty you will face to book seats as a pass holder might require you giving up that "flexibility" your are expecting. Think of it like redeeming miles on your airline program: it is not only about having a seat available, but one available in a reserve class whose rules nobody but the company understands. If you truly want flexibility, you would rather travel off-season and with a leased/rental car.

Elischa, it is so easy to listen to the siren song of the Eurail pass. Type almost any European destination into your browser and RailEurope pops up as a selection. It sounds so easy and convenient. However, almost every country adds a supplemental fee onto the railpass for their premium trains. The Thalys train system is the worst for fees. I would be really curious to learn how many travelers who bought a railpass for their first trip to Europe bought one again for any subsequent visits. Once you experience the train systems in Europe, you see why you really don't need a railpass. And, you learn how to travel by train. Of course this all changes with the night trains as explained by Lee and Norm above. Night trains sell out fast. To get the best fares, you need to book 90 days out. In many countries, you can buy the tickets online. You just need to learn the website names for the train systems of the different countries. France is www-tgv-europe.com, Italy is www.trenitalia.com, Spain is www.renfe.com and Switzerland is www.rail/ch. Just keep asking questions.

Thanks Andre and Larry. I was just getting myself confused again by looking at Rail Europe. I'm curious on what the point is of having a rail pass when you have to keep reserving and buying tickets anyway?? I understand the overnight train. But we are wanting to go from Barcelona to Marseille and I still have to pay an additional $22-50 dollars to reserve tickets... Still a little confused on the process, but I'm sure once I complete this first trip, I will learn the ins and outs a bit more...hopefully:)

"the pass and it['s] issuer RailEurope." Actually the pass is issued by Eurail, a consortium of European national railroads, including French Rail. RailEurope, which is owned by French Rail, is only one of the Eurail pass resellers in this country.

Elischa, you are discovering the secrets of the pass and it issuer RailEurope. If you were to pay the reservation fee in Barcelona for the Marseille journey, it would be 6.50E 2nd class. 10E first class. Says so on the following Eurail webpage. http://www.eurail.com/eurail-reservations-supplements-international-trains. The extra cost is RailEurope's added stuff. We are planning the same journey next year to eventually end up in Paris. We will try to purchase advance point-to-point tickets on either the French or Spanish train websites at a discount. We have no need for a Eurail pass.

"I would be really curious to learn how many travelers who bought a railpass for their first trip to Europe bought one again for any subsequent visits." I would like to know that as well. Can we start a poll?