How to order reservations for European trains online (with pass)?

Upvote:1

Raileurope.co.uk currently has a problem with its booking system (due to a change in the French reservation system "Resarail"). My website, loco2.com, will be selling the reservations soon at the same prices as Rail Europe, but we are integrated with the same booking system, and so we are suffering from the same problem. We don't know when it will be fixed, but hopefully soon (we are waiting for SNCF to fix it).

I don't think it is possible to book French reservations online anywhere whilst this is broken (I don't think you can book reservation-only tickets at the main French site, voyages-sncf.com). However, you can probably book over the phone by calling Rail Europe (which Rail Europe number you call will depend on where you are). You can book non-French reservations on other national sites (e.g. Deutsche Bahn for German trains).

See this post for more information.

Upvote:5

As far as I know, Raileurope is the right site. The normal site for train tickets in France is TGV-Europe (the international version of Voyages-SNCF, but neither sells reservations without tickets, as far as I can see.

I tried booking a reservation with Eurail for next week and one for September. I was given the option in September but not next week. I suspect that like other fares, there is a quota of reservations for Eurail, Interrail and similar passes, and that quota is already full for many summer trains.

I don't know if you can get different quotas by booking on-site. I wouldn't be surprised if the quota was a time bomb in your pass's advertised fares, designed to make you pay more than you intended. Sadly, hidden charges are par for the course with many transportation companies; SNCF's gimmick is seat quotas per fare type.

Trains without compulsory reservations (TER and Intercités) are not subject to quotas, you can board any one you like. Depending on where you're going, this may make the trip very long.

More post

Search Posts

Related post