buying train tickets?
 

We haven't decided if were are going with a 5-day eurorail pass or buying individual tickets. But I'd like to reserve seats now. Trip is in April.

Can we reserve seats then buy eurorail 5-day pass later?
Or should we buy the 5-day pass first then reserve our seats on each trip? How do you reserve seats without buying them?

What does the "ticket by post" mean on the austrian rail site (oebb.at)?

Thanks

As far as I can tell, you can't reserve seats through the national agencies without buying them (if anyone has figured out how to do so, I would be extremely interested in knowing how). However, before you decide whether to eurail or buy point to point, go to railsaver.com and plug in your itinerary, it'll tell you what is cheapest for you.

Let's say we buy a eurorail pass.

Do we then enter some eurorail code on the national sites (like oebb.at) when reserving individual trips?

Thanks

You can only reserve seats through the company you get the ticket from or at the station itself.

Don't ask me why, it just is.

www.seat61.com probably has something to say about it

You can reserve seats through outside agencies such as railpass and raileurope but they'll cost a great deal more than if you reserve them in Europe or through a national rail site.

Why would you reserve seats first and wait to buy a pass if that is definitely how you are going to travel?

Hi Bob,

>Let's say we buy a eurorail pass.<

Let's say we enter our itinerary at www.railsaver.com and click "only if it saves money".

Then if you still insist on a railpass, you will have to purchase seat reservations at a TA or the train station before you take the train, obviating the advantage of having a railpass.

((I))

Unless the railpass still saves you money, in which case you save no time (unless there are some routes you don't need reservations for), but make off with some more euros to spend elsewhere.