I've bought my Eurail global pass, upgrading two teenagers to be with me on a saver pass. I have hotel reservations for all the cities we would like to visit from Sept 1st to Sept 15th.......Paris to Rome to Naples to Venice to Munich to Zurich and back to Paris.......Munich to Zurich does not require a seat reservation, the others do. I have tried to reserve seats on the raileurope.com website but no matter how I adjust my itinerary they come back with the message that all rail pass seats available for those dates are taken....BUT I can buy a ticket for 114 to 144 PER PERSON!!! Even then, the seats available at the lower prices are second class (I have all 3 in first class), and if I want a better seat I have to pay even more. I have tried several times, several combinations and they are giving me crazy prices that are going to add hundreds of dollars to my rail costs after I've already paid over $1800 for a supposedly fun, easy, quick way to tour Europe!!!!! Has anybody come up with a method of reserving seats...or what would happen if I just go to Europe and try to reserve at the train stations? would I need to do all at once? or each as I go?
Shirley
Posted by
Tilburg, Netherlands
2829 posts
You felt pray to "pushy and fishy" advertising from the Eurail branding team :) You should call SNCF to reserve the Paris - Rome and Zurich - Paris trains as they are subject to quotas for pass holders and do fill up often (but even if they didn't, there is a limited number of seats available for passholders, more-or-less like limited seats available for mileage redemption on airlines). As for the Rome-Naples, Naples-Venice sectors, you could make your reservations once you arrive in Italy, in the automated ticket machines, with your Global Pass code (it's easy and straightforward). I don't think Trenitalia limits passholders using their trains wiht a quota, but maybe they changed their rules recently with the new fare structure... Venezia-Munich requires reservation to Verona, but not for the Verona-Munich sector. All of this assuming you are travelling on day trains. If you intended on taking night trains, call each operating railway or Rail europe as a last resort and make reservations ASAP. Have you gotten the same message for ALL sectors of your trip? It would be strange to have all sectors exhausted their quotas this way... Have you tried to make sector-specific reservations and see if they return the same message?
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
If you take an ES from Venice to Verona to catch a Verona to Munich EuroCity, you do need a "reservation" for the ES. However, there is one EC directly from Venice (13:34) to Munich (20:25). For that train, reservations are possible, at €4 per seat, but not mandatory. However, it is a seven hour trip. I think I would prefer to have a seat reservation. If you try to reserve a seat online without buying a ticket, the Bahn will say, "It is not possible to make a reservation for international connections at www.bahn.de without the purchase of a ticket. "