Rail Pass

Yes, there are senior discounts, but each country and sometimes each railway company has it's own system.
In France you get a small discount if you are over 60.
But, if you book in advance you get prices which may be 1/3 of the "full" price and a lot cheaper than a rail pass. So it is much more important to get advance-purchase tickets as soon as possible, the savings will be a lot more than any over-60 discount.

Before you even think of buying a rail pass, read this, from the rail guru The Man In Seat 61, and make sure you understand all of it: http://tinyurl.com/bkw4u6c

For each country, the situation is different.

For France, you need to buy reservations for fast trains on top of your rail pass. The rail pass holder reservations are limited, so they can be unavailable even when a train has plenty of open seats. So, in order to get the trains you want, you need to book your rail reservations as soon as you buy your pass. This removes any flexibility of using rail passes in France. Discount advanced tickets can be very cheap. When you buy a regular ticket (last minute or advance, online or at the station), it comes with any mandatory reservations included.

For Italy, you need to buy reservations for fast trains on top of your rail pass. The good news is that, unlike in France, the number of pass holder reservations is not limited. However, even full priced last minute tickets without a pass are not that expensive, so a rail pass does not save money. That is, unless you are going a large distance every day (say, Venice to Rome). As in France, when you buy a regular ticket (last minute or advance, online or at the station), it comes with any mandatory reservations included.

I don't know all the particulars for Hungary, but domestic trains there are inexpensive, so again, a pass is unlikely to save money over even last minute full priced tickets.

For Turkey, the train system is limited, so you are likely to be taking more buses or flights than trains.

Our experience with senior discounts is that they are restricted to EU members. Spain has been an exception in that anyone can get the discount. Just show your passport in Spain and buy a one year discount card for 6E at any train station. Knocks 40% off of week day and 25% on weekend. Very handy. Could get no discount in Italy.

If you are over 60 you can purchase (30 euros) a Carta d'Argento in Italy. It confers a 15% discount on basic rail fares, 10% on sleepers, and 25% on "international connections" (I'm not sure what that means, exactly). If you're over 75, you can get the Carta d'Argento for free. The card is valid for a year.

I bought the card last year because I was spending about 2 months in Italy, and I figured it would pay off. I'm sure it did, but not to a really great degree, because a lot of my trips were short ones on local trains, which have much lower fares than the fast trains. And using the card occasionally proved annoying because some of the ticket machines--which were otherwise very easy to use--didn't recognize my card number. I ended up having to buy some of my tickets at staffed windows, and once missed a train as a result.

Thank you very much for the information and the replies are so quick
NM

The title of this post is "Rail Pass."

Are you talking about one rail pass? First, Eurail Select Passes are only for four bordering countries. Italy and France, yes. Hungary and Turkey, no. Also, Eurail does not have a Sr. discount. It's not one of the AARP benefits.

The French ticket discounts for seniors are also available to non-Europeans. But in both France and Italy, the advance-discount rates are the better discount, for any longer route that you're willing to lock in ahead.

As already touched upon, only the most expensive Eurail Global pass covers all four of your countries of travel, but that's not likely to be a good value. If you don't have other stops planned along the way, we recommend flying to Hungary and to Turkey; try www.skyscanner.com as one search engine. Within Turkey, as well, a cheap flight from say Istanbul to Cappadocia can be preferred over a 13-hour bus ride. Or, you might rent a car in Turkey, through Auto Europe or other agent.