Paper vs Mobile Eurail pass on iPhones?

I’m actually sat on a Rome to Milan train as I type this. We have the app on our iPhones and once you get your head round how it works, is very slick. We booked with a newish UK based agency that specialises in non flying holidays and has excellent support. There was an offer of a free upgrade to first class when we booked as long as we used the app. They actually offer a free weekly webinar to their customers explaining how to use the app.

It did take a little while to get our old heads around what to do but now it is very simple, even changing trains when we missed a connection in Salerno two weeks ago. What the agency did recommend and we have done is print off all our seat reservations before we left - that saves trying to find both on your phone at once when the ticket inspector comes round.

The mobile pass works fine. I am about to buy my third one this year :-)

My tips are:
- Do not use the App for train planning. Use official website and apps. The data is sometimes outdated.
- When adding trips you do not have to be exact. Eurail is only interested in which countries you travel in. So if you do not find your exact trains or routes put in something approximate. And you do not need to have everything in there. As long as you end up activating a day you are fine.

Reservations you best do via the websites of the railways themselves, or via RailEurope for France, Spain and Italy.

Another important tip:

• You can wait till the last moment with buying your pass.

Any reservations you want to make you can actually make without needing the pass. You can go to RailEurope and just indicate "Eurail Pass" as reduction, and on DB or OBB they do not want to see your pass either.

I am travelling tomorrow to Belgium. I hadn't bought the pass yet, was planning to do this today, and what do I see today: All passes are 15% off!
Waiting has saved me some money.

So I will get myself 2 passes straight away. One for tomorrow's trip, and one for a trip I am planning in September.

I understand any anxiety about passes on iPhones. I am the klutziest phone user but soon got the hang of it. My son said in exasperation one day- 'swipe Jennie, you are not going to blow up a bridge!' There may have been an expletive there.

As previous poster said, the pass doesnt always show the best routes- use the website. I did usually get a paper seat reservation at a big station where there was formal reservation offices. Staff always helped me get the desired seats.

I have the Eurail Global Senior Flexi Pass (paper) for this summer's trip, 15 days/2 months 2nd class, always have used paper passes on past trips ...never had a problem, not interested in a mobile pass.

I bought it on-line while the big promotion was on prior to the deadline on Dec 17. You get the promo discount on top of the senior discount. My pass will be activated the first week in June.

I used to get paper passes when I was still able to just buy them at the local train station. However that is no longer possible. If you buy a paper pass it gets fedexed to you from Ireland (at least here in Europe). The electronic pass meant that I could just buy it yesterday, for my trip today.

Also reserved my seats yesterday... Tip: Do not reserve seats via the App. Eurail wants 8,- euro per train in Germany, whereas DB will reserve the whole route, multiple trains, for 6,90. And on DB you can pick your seats...

Thanks to you all for your very helpful advice! Good to know that so many people have been using the mobile passes successfully!

The paper Eurail Pass is sent from the Netherlands to my home address in SF.