Making reservations with already purchased Eurailpass

Continued...

1. I'm not sure if I'm using the RailEurope website correctly. When searching using the "Book a Reservation for Your Pass" function, I'm getting a price quote that seems pretty high for just a reservation of a train from Paris to Amsterdam. Since RailEurope won't let me look at dates too far out (i.e., April 7, 2011, which is a Thursday), I chose a random Thursday to get a feel for the prices. But when I search, I get a listing for Thalys 9331 leaving at 12:25 and arriving 3:43 that is $89 for a 1st class seat. Do I have to purchase the 1st class reservation since my Eurailpass is also 1st class, or can I purchase the 2nd class reservation for $55 instead even though my Eurailpass is 1st class?

2. I'm most concerned about reserving the rides for the train leaving Bacharach at 15:30 on a Tuesday and arriving Venezia Santa Lucia at 6:38 on a Wednesday. There are three transfers for that ride, with the last leg of the ride on City Night Line (CNL 363). Do I have to reserve seats for all four legs of the trip separately? And I get an error message saying "It seems the information we have from our online rail system cannot produce the fares and schedules for trip 1". Why can I see this trip on www.bahn.com but not on RailEurope.com?

Last things first, "Why can I see this trip on www.bahn.com but not on RailEurope.com?"

Because RailEurope is only a reseller of tickets. They only show connections for trains for which they sell tickets. These are usually for only the most expensive trains. You usually have to book routes with multiple connections separately. Not so with the Bahn.

If you book Bacharach to Venice online from the Bahn sufficiently in advance, you can get an entire ticket, train and accommodations, in an economy double compartment, for €159 per person.

"Do I have to reserve seats for all four legs of the trip separately?" The train from Bacharach to Mainz is not reservable (regional trains are not). On the Bahn website, the seat reservation from Mannheim to Munich will probably be included along with the compartment from Munich to Venice. The trip from Mainz to Mannheim is only 40 minutes, I'd probably take my chances with it.

It's a dirty little secret of rail passes. The European national rail companies do not like rail passes, and they make it as difficult as possible to use them. Most European rail companies have no provisions for making reservations online. Today, with discounted fares, you can probably buy point-point tickets with reservations as inexpensively, and a lot more easily online than you can passholder reservations. Before you blindly purchase a railpass, check out your options.

As Douglas aaid, an advance purchase discount fare point-to-point Eurostar ticket is cheaper than the the passholder fare ticket. Passholder = £58 ($91.42 USD). Best discount fare = €42.50 ($58.47 USD).

Actually the Thalys site does list passholder fares. For Paris-Amsterdam they are €37 in 2nd class and €60 in 1st class. However, if you book well in advance (up to 90 days allowed) on thalys.com, you can get a point-to-point 2nd class Smoove fare ticket for €35.

I'll try to answer as much as I can:

1. I do not believe you're railpass must be vaildated to purchase reservations. But you should know that you are more likely to get a cheaper fare buying a Eurostar ticket at standard discounts ahead of time than using the Eurorail discount. Check the prices carefully.

2. You can't typically make reservations more than a few months ahead.

3. As Lee noted, you really only need to make seat reservations for trains that require it. Most trains do not except for the high-speed ones. And RailEurope will be more expensive than making reservations with the actual rail system. Other than overnight couchettes, most seat reservations can be made day of or a day or two in advance. And yes, you can reserve a 2nd class seat with a 1st class pass.

Thalys is a joint operation of the national rail companies of France, Belgium, Germany, and, I think, Netherlands. It is considered a "Premium" train; regular tickets are more expensive than tickets for, say, an Intercity train. Thalys tickets only come with a reserved seat. Because it is a more expensive train, pass holders must pay a surcharge to use one of them, hence $89 first class. It's called a reservation, but it's really a surcharge for the ticket, and a seat reservation is included.

The Thalys website, www.thalys.com, doesn't show any way to get a passholder ticket (reservation) online. Like I said, European railroad don't particularly like rail passes and don't go out of their way to accommodate them. You can purchase a passholder ticket in Paris for less than RailEurope's marked up price, but beware. Thalys limits these to less than the seats available. You might not get on the train you want (or even the day you want).

Alternatively, you can use your rail pass for non-premium trains, like ICs, but the non-Thalys route from Paris to Amsterdam goes by regional train to Lille and then by ICs to Amsterdam and takes 8 hours. (So the Thalys surcharge amounts to about $11 per hour saved.)

I can see the Pass 1 fares listed, but if I go to "book and purchase tickets", I don't seem to be given the opportunity of getting Passholder tickets online. Is there somewhere else on the Thalys website to purchase pass holder tickets.

I don't find a way to book passholder tickets on the Thalys site either. Perhaps booking over the phone would work.

Trains from Paris to Lille are TGVs, not regional trains. If bought at a French station, the passholder reservation fee is €3.

"Trains from Paris to Lille are TGVs, not regional trains."

Right and wrong. There are TGVs. There are also regional trains. I was looking for ICs; apparently there are not any.

I used the Bahn website, Paris to Amsterdam, 8:00, "All" as means of transport. I got 10 straight connections, from 8:01 to 14:25, all using Thalys to Brussels. There were no connections in that time with TGV (but there is one at 7:03).

To eliminate the Thalys connections, I changed means of transport to "All without ICE" (which also eliminated TGV). Then all I got were connections with an RE from Paris to Lille, ICs from there. You could do that with just a rail pass.

The way to show the TGV connections is to keep means at "All" and change via to "Lille" (Thalys doesn't go through Lille, TGV does).

Maybe it's easier on the TGV website.

Just for the sake of clarification, all DIRECT trains from Paris to Lille are TGVs. Taking regional trains and/or IC trains requires a connection in either Amiens or Aulnoye Aymeries.

In general, passholder reservations must be made in person by an agent. Even if some rail websites show prices, the actual purchases must be made in person. The only exception I know of is RailEurope, but you pay a significant premium for that.

I've also never experienced not being able to buy a reservation with a pass. I don't totally doubt they limit the number of passes per train and it might be an issue in really busy times on really popular routes, but I think that issue is exagerated.

"passholder reservations must be made in person".

Not so with the Bahn. For most connections where tickets can be purchased online, they also have an option for "Seat reservation only (no ticket)". And the price of reservations is the same as the counter price over there.

Reservations can be made from any German Rail ticket terminal for any train in Europe. Euraide (www.euraide.com) has a German Rail ticket terminal in their office in Munich. They can get you reservations for anywhere. Unfortunately they charge you $50 for the service.

As for limited passholder tickets, a few years ago someone wrote in about difficulties getting ticket on Thalys out of Brussels in the summer. Seems you could still buy full priced tickets, but passholder tickets were sold out for days. Those were popular route at a busy time, but still something to be aware of.

More recently (maybe a month ago), someone with a French rail pass could not get a passholder reservation on the RailEurope site, but RE was still selling full price tickets on the very same train. It was for the Fall, probably, and I don't recall it being a hugely popular route.