Eurail pass travel days

If you use a free bonus, like use of the K-D boats on the Rhein, you will have to activate the pass for that day. That does not mean that you cannot use it for trains that day (it's activated, use it as much as you like), it just means that you must check off a day of the pass that day to use the free bonus.

There are other bonuses, like percent discounts that you get just for having an active pass, that don't require it to be activated that day. However, the bonus has to be used during the validity period of the pass. Before you start using the pass, you must validate it at a rail station. That starts, for instance, the one month period if it's a flexipass good for so many days in a month.

Why isn't the company you bought the pass from answering your question? With the amount of money you have spent on your Global Passes (outrageous!) they should be helping you out.

if you are having to do all this work for reservations such, you would be so much better off returning the pass and booking directly with the national train companies. You would also save hundreds of dollars.

I bought the passes from this site - Rick Steves - after adding up some very expensive train journeys. Plus the fares get more expensive by the day almost and as it takes time to nail down my itinerary it is costing me big bucks. With a train pass I don't have to worry about the crazy rate increases. While I was booking a two leg journey, the price of the second leg went up as they only allow so many seats for super economy, etc. Very frustrating!

Would you mind sharing where you were looking at the fares?

I've been purchasing fares from the individual train lines. I've been pricing Austria, Germany thru to the Netherlands. Long distances are expensive!

For Austria, were you looking at www.oebb.at? Fares there are 29 Euro from Lj to Vienna...

In order for a railpass to pay, you have to make a lot of long train trips. If the objective is to see a lot of the insides of trains, that the way to go. If you wanted to see something of Europe instead, concentrate on a smaller area, take shorter trips, see more.

Polly has done the math and bought the pass, so second-guessing her decision now is not helpful. Lee's first answer was correct; see also http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/using-your-rail-pass.

Hi everyone,
A big thank you to each of you for your input. I'm a novice here. When traveling in the past, we would rent a car and my husband would drive. I have only taken trains for fun jaunts. This is my first for transportation only. I'm totally out of my depth. So, please forgive me for my ignorance, but I still don't understand how the rail passes work. If I board a night train, does this train trip go on my day of departure since I'm leaving in the evening, or does it go on the next day when I arrive at my destination?
For example: if the train leaves at 7:30 (the after 7 rule) on Monday and arrives at 5:00 (the after 4:00 rule) on Tuesday, I use only one day, but which one - Monday or Tuesday? I think by telling me which day of the week, it will finally be crystal clear in my cloudy mind.
Many thanks!

Done the math with likely bad info. Seen it too many times. Too late for Polly, but not too late for others.

When the night train uses one day, it is the day of arrival, the "Tuesday." You could take another train connection on that arrival day if you wanted to, since that day lasts until midnight. (Fred also addressed night trains rules well at https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/slovenia/ljubljiana-to-vienna-by-night-train.)

It's the 7 PM rule. If you board a night train that departs after 7 PM (1900) and reaches it's destination after 4 AM, you only have to enter the 2nd day (after midnight) of travel on your rail pass.

Since the 2nd day is entered on the rail pass, you can continue to travel by train after you arrive on the night train, but if you use trains to get to the night train, you'll have to buy the tickets separately or use another day of your rail pass.

"Polly has done the math and bought the pass, so second-guessing her decision now is not helpful. "
"Too late for Polly, but not too late for others."

Yes, that's the point. A lot of people read this site. Perhaps by critiquing others mistakes, we can help them avoid the same ones. In 2000 I bought a rail pass. After I came home, I checked prices and found that, given the trains I took, I about broke even, but there were alternative trains I could have taken with little inconvenience and saved money. Since then, as I have learned to find better fares, I have always compared point-point and discounted fares with the cost of a rail pass, and I have never found a rail pass to be even close to cost effective.

However, my method of travel is not the same as everyone else. I tend to exploit one area rather than jump all over the place. Hence most of my trips are short and can better be done with regional passes. Everyone should do the analysis and decide for themselves, but make sure you really understand the system and how to find the least expensive fares.

I guess one big plus about the rail pass over point-to-point tickets is that we will now be traveling first class. So even if I break "even", we will be ahead with more comfortable accommodations.

Just thought I would let everyone know that I just checked the fares for Ljubjiana to Munich. The cheap €57 fares are for the bus. The train fares start at €117 with the next fare listed as €147 and this is two months in advance. The night train isn't available to be booked yet, which means that I have no idea how expensive it will be by the time they do. I'm still glad that I bought the passes.

None of the European web sites sell this night train ticket. Rail Europe has the base ticket price at $60 in 2nd class (where the triple compartments are), so that's roughly the value you're getting from the rail pass day. But they're not selling the pass holder sleeper reservation; they may be able to sell it by phone with an extra fee, or contact the aforementioned Euraide office.

The standard (full) fare from Ljubljana to Munich by day is €88 for one adult in 2nd class and €147 in 1st. DB is showing advance discounts available on both daytime train and bus for test dates around Nov. 10, but that doesn't help you, since you have the pass. (If you're in danger of running out of rail pass days to use, then your possible Italian leg would be the cheaper one to buy there.)

It's a shame so many people (usually uninformed) get suckered into these Eurail Passes. Point to point tickets are dirt cheap. Learn from others' mistakes.

There is no advantage to First Class at all. Same seats, different upholstery. All travel advice points to this fact.