Reservation for Trains

Congratulations, you've discovered one of the dirty little secrets of rail passes - reservations are often difficult if not impossible to get. As for German trains, reservations for regional trains (RE, RB) are not available or required and rarely needed. Only a few express trains (namely ICE Sprinters) require reservation. You can make reservations online for any express train entirely within Germany on the Bahn website. You can also make reservations online for many train "connections" that have one end inside of Germany and the other end outside, as long as there are no train changes, although often the reservations can only be mailed. Reservations for trains entirely outside Germany will not likely be found on the German Rail website. However, before you give up and go to RailEurope, check with Euraide (www.euraide.com). You'll have to call them (in the US) with the phone number given on their website. They get the reservations in Europe, for the same price you would pay at the counter over there, then ship them over here for a one-time fee of about $50 for all of you reservations. Spread over a bunch of reservation, that's less than it would be from RailEurope.

Thank you so much, Lee. I will check out the euraide website.

you might want to look at Rail Europe since you already have the pass, I ended up doing that over Euraide, I guess I liked having prices for various reservations in front of me instead of having to contact someone and wait for the response. On the Rail Europe home page, go to the bottom left and click on "reservations". Then you need to put in all 5 countries on your pass for every thing you look at (I know, I have the same pass, very tedious). You have to use a site like DB to figure out your route and the different trains that make it up, you can't do that with rail europe. BUT if you spend enough time, you CAN figure out which route/time will make sense for you. And in my experience, if you spend enough time (and I guess give them your e-mail address at some point, don't worry, you'll get a chance when some ticket is "not available"), you'll get e-mailed a code for $10 off your ticket price. That way if you can purchase a number of reservations at one time, the fee for Rail Europe sending you the tickets will only amount to $8. I know it's not perfect, and if I was doing this again I would not buy a rail pass, but by shopping very carefully I think I will end up coming out ahead. But I spent many many hours figuring out what route from Frankfurt to Avignon was cheaper, and than going from Basel to the outlying station in Prague on the night train was half the price of going to the main station.
And there are days that I have just purchased a ticket, the savings would not have been worth it.

For a few simple seat reservations, I wouldn't use RailEurope or Euraide. You can probably buy them at the counter over there. RailEurope will charge you twice ($12 vs €4,50) the actual cost, but for a few tickets it's not worth the Euraide shipping charge. However, throw in a lot of reservations or one night train reservation, and everything changes. Then you are better off with Euraide. Given the choice, I'll alway pick saving a bunch of dollars vs "having prices for various reservations in front of me".

Thank you for your help, everyone.

Lee, First of all you're becoming my favorite poster. Thanks for all you do. Second, am I to understand that in addition to buying a big fancy expensive eurail pass you have to pay to reserve the trains? Sigh. I hope that's not true.

@ Jennifer, Unfortunately, it IS TRUE! Reservations are compulsory on the "fast" trains (ie: EuroStar Italia / Alta Velocita in Italy or TGV in France), and the cost for those is NOT included with a Railpass. If you check the rail websites (ie: bahn.de), they will indicate which routes require reservations. Cheers!

I'm not sure the pass situation has changed since 1980, 1970, whenever. You can still ride most trains without reservations, they've just added some new, fast trains that they consider "premium" trains, and they require a supplemental fee to ride these trains with a pass. Since they require seat reservations for these trains, which you get with the supplemental fees, some people refer to these as reservation, but they're more than reservations, they're a fee for the faster train. Note, some trains - lower level express mainly, ICs in many countries - have optional seat reservations for about €5, but you can otherwise ride these trains for free. Regional trains almost never have additional fees. In Germany, almost no trains require supplements, only a few ICE Sprinters. On other trains, if you want to assure a seat, you can buy just a seat reservation for €5,50, 1st cl (online or at a counter). If you buy a reservation along with a ticket online or from an automat, it's €3,50.

OK, so DB has a route from Zermatt to Paris and this is what it gives me: Zermatt Fr, 23.09.11 dep 19:13 R 268 Regionalzug Brig Bahnhofplatz Fr, 23.09.11 arr 20:35 walk 7 min. Adjust the transfer time Brig Fr, 23.09.11 dep 20:44 4 EC 41 Eurocity Milano Centrale Fr, 23.09.11 arr 22:35 Transfer time 1:03 h Adjust the transfer time Milano Centrale Fr, 23.09.11 dep 23:38 EN 220 EuroNight Sleeper and couchette train, Subject to compulsory reservation, Global price, Bordrestaurant Paris-Bercy Sa, 24.09.11 arr 09:16
Show intermediate stops I know its squished...I tried to clean it up a bit. Here's my question... Would my Eurail pass cover Zermatt-Brig-Milan and THEN I pay out of pocket for the sleeper Milan-Paris? I really hope my questions aren't too redundant...thanks as always!

I don't think you've told us what countries are included in your rail pass. Is it correct to assume it includes Italy and Switzerland, but not France? Night train tickets consist of two parts, the rail part, which costs essentially the same as a day train of the same class, and the accommodations part, which pays for the sleeping accommodations (sleeper, couchette, or reclining seat). The sleeping accommodations are reserved for you, so that part is sometimes mistakenly called "reservations". When you buy a ticket with both parts it's called a "Global" ticket, but for someone who already has the rail part covered (rail pass or annual pass) they can buy just the accommodations part (reservations). If your rail pass does not include France, you can add just the rail component for the part of the trip in France. However, it might go by the last station where the train stops before entering France, which is Milan, to Paris, so you might be buying the entire rail part plus the reservation anyway. OTOH, since you have Italy and Switzerland covered, they might only consider it from the French border to Paris. This is something to ask Euraide.

Shooting for the Global Pass since we'll be entering 7 countries. We may* do the 5 country pass but unsure at this time. More specific of a question would be does my pass (we'll say global) cover the sleep trainer or is that additional? The route above has me travel through 3 countries that will be "covered" by the pass but I don't know how much additional or how to reserve a sleeper coach or couchette?

If you get a Eurail Global Pass, the entire rail part will be covered. The accommodations part (reservations) are not covered by the Eurail pass. The accommodations are by the space, not the time or distance traveled. In other words, you have the space for any portion of the trip; same price for the entire run of the train or just between two stations. You might be able to find a way to reserve the accommodations on either French or Italian rail. Maybe someone will know. I don't. As a last resort, Euraide or RailEurope. For night trains beginning or ending in Germany, you can reserve on the German Rail site. For the CNL train from Munich to Paris, the "reservation" are €25/€35 per person for a 6/4 person couchette and €65 per person for a deluxe double (w/ WC) with a 1st class pass, which you will have. The Milan-Paris train is a EuroNight so reservations might not be exactly the same, but they should be similar. Night trains are still popular and accommodations often sell out well in advance of the departure date. You should make these reservations asap.

Apparently that is an Artesia train. According to their website, a double compartment on that train is €75. You cannot purchase reservations directly on the Artesia website. If you tell them you are in the US or Canada, they direct you to RailEurope. If you tell them you are in the UK, they direct you to RailEurope-UK. If you tell them you are in Germany, they direct you to TGV-Europe. I think as long as you tell TGV-Europe that you're in Germany, France, etc, you can print the reservations at home.

This is great, thanks!