Train Reservations

This is one of the "benefits" of a railpass that people don't think about until after they have committed to the pass.

It is difficult to get just reservations.

RailEurope marks up the price over what you would pay in Europe.

Euraide will sell you the reservations at the "in-Europe" price, but they charge a one-time fee of $50 to mail the reservations to the U.S.

Most national rail website don't sell the passholder reservations online.

You might be able to call German Rail in Germany, +49 1805 996633 and buy your reservations from them at in-Europe prices.

How long after you arrive will you be taking the night train, and at what time of year is it? Depending on the route and how long in advance you are arriving in Europe, you can get a reservation at pretty well any major train station in Europe, even for a train in a completely different country.

If you are not sure if you are getting the proper price quoted on RailEurope, you can always call them... but certainly Lee laid out the ways to possibly get it done more cheaply in advance from the US before you depart.

Hi Kari, I'm in the same boat. I'm nervous about not having a seat on a train or being refused a seat because the number of reservations available to passholders is limited. I'm trying to avoid RailEurope due to some frustrations with their service. The Eurail website recommends making reservations in Europe except for overnight and long distance trains.

Unfortunately I've been searching for a while for some hints on which trains are packed and which are not, but I guess the best indication is frequency of train (check on the website for the country you are traveling in to get schedules). I think I'll probably wait on reservations until I get to Europe and maybe see if I can book earlier in the day or from the first station I am in.
Best of Luck!

Thanks for everyone's comments and suggestions! We decided to try raileurope.com and book the trains we definitely needed to catch: a couple overnights. It was helpful to speak to a rep from raileurope and she did answer some of our questions. However, be prepared to wait on hold for 30-45 minutes to get through.

Also, after booking our trains online. . . I received an email saying that they could not send our tickets because all the schedules haven't been finalized. hmmmm.....apparently they'll contact us if the schedules are not completed 5 days prior to our departure. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

the answer to our original question, it's normal to have high reservation fees for overnight trains. On regular day trains the reservation fee is lower.

Happy Travels everyone!

To Kari:

Raileurope is marking prices up by 25+%. It is not normal for the overnight reservations to be as high as them seem on the website. If their agent told you the price is normal, she's trying to get you to book through them.

You didn't tell us where you are traveling. If any of the trips travel through Germany or Austria, try calling the respective railways directly on the phone (get an intern'l phone card or use Skype). Start with the train that runs through their country, ask about making a reservation only, find out what the ticket delivery options are (electronic pdf? pickup at station?) and then ask about any other night train reservations you may need.

For what its worth, I've taken 7 or 8 night trains in Europe in the last few years, and I've NEVER paid more than a 30 euro supplement for a berth in a couchette (and that was on the Lisbon-Madrid hotel train, where 6-berth couchettes are not available).

For the other poster that mentioned being nervous about a limited number of reservations for railpass holders...THIS IS ONLY IN FRANCE.

France has started limiting the number of pass holders. I ran into this problem trying to do a marathon Barcelona-Berlin journey a few weeks ago. RENFE's ticket computers in Spain do not communicate well with SNCF in France, and they were unable to make a reservation for me for a Paris-Mannheim TGV. When I got to France (Cerbere) before boarding my night train (had to buy couchette from the conductor, again, RENFE couldn't make the rez) the spots were sold out.

I tried again when I arrived in Paris, no luck. Ended up buying a full fare Paris-Mannheim ticket, which was quite pricey.

Continued:

On the train, I was expecting the normal French crew in France, German in Germany, but it seems the new Paris-Frankfurt trains are operating a mix of TGV and ICE high speed equipment, and also operating a mixed crew for the duration. If I'd known this, I would have skipped the ticket counter, sought out the DB conductor and tried to get the rez from him, as I suspect the DB computer system wouldn't have limited the reservations.

Additionally, although the agent in Paris told me the train was reserved seat all the way to Frankfurt (and her computer may have indeed indicated that, since TGVs are normally all reserved), as soon as we made our first stop in Germany, it was apparent that reservations were no longer required. I should have been able to just buy a ticket from Paris to the Frontier with a reservation, and then used my pass w/o a reservation the rest of the distance.

Ahh, the pitfalls of railpasses!

Lee....my point was to mention to Northwester that it's not just France where reservations are limited for passholders. While there may be exceptions, such as the few ICE trains you mention, I would think that Rick is pretty close to the mark. Frankly, I think the distinction between "reservation" and "supplement" is irrelevant, since, on trains where both are required, you can't get one without the other anyway. In Spain, for example, the "reservation" fee for the high-speed AVE trains is actually quite reasonable....it's not a "supplement," but they do limit Railpass holders' access to them.

Northwesterner....from Rick's railpass guide on the website..."All trains that require reservations also limit the number of seats available to passholders." So while you may have encountered a problem in France, that's not to say it may not happen elsewhere as well.

Norm, I have to disagree with Rick on this one. "All" is a little too general.

There are really two things we call "reservations". There is the small charge that you might pay just to reserve a seat in a train. There is also the supplement (Aufpreis), which is much higher, which you might pay to ride a premium train, such as Thalys, Italian EuroStar, a night train, some others. The supplements come with seat reservations; hence the confusion. Some rail lines, Thalys I know, do limit the number of passholders on a train.

In Germany, seat reservations are almost never required, but they are on a few ICEs. On those ICEs, reservation are required because the trains are often filled and they want to avoid people standing in the aisles. If you purchase one of those required ICE reservations online, they don't even ask you if you have a railpass.