I leave for europe in 2 weeks and am gone gone for 3 months. ive booked most of our hostels as they were starting to fill up. Only problem is i;m concerned i wont be able to get a train on the day i want to and when my eurail pass came it was sent with a wrong time table.
From what i can tell is rail europe is the only place that i can book my international seat reservations - except every time i have spoken to them all they are is rude and unhelpful

Has anyone had any problems getting seats on international trains on the days they want ? or have any recommendation on what i could do?

I'm not knowledgeable about rail passes but you could help inform yourself by looking at the excellent train resource website www.seat61.com.

I have had zillions of passes and never had any problems getting required reservations and on trains that do not require them no problem getting seats (first class pass - 2nd class can indeed often be quite full) - except for France - French TGVs have a limit on the number of passholder seats they give out and IME even if regular tickets remain they may still deny a passholder a seat on that train but offer to sell you a full fare ticket. The problem is mainly IME on the Paris to Avignon/Nice and Paris-Bordeaux lines so those required seat reservations I would indeed reserve ahead of time. And as a sidestep to RailEurope I would suggest contacting Byron at www.budgeteuropetravel.com - I have bought passes from him for years and can attest to him being the exact opposite of what you say about RailEurope staff - and even though you are not buying a pass will answer all your questions and book if you want - they work thru RailEurope as almost all European rail sellers do but have much much better service. That said unless you are taking one of the French TGVs I mention I would just make seat reservations as you go - all other countries I have never had any problem doing so and in one country at any station you can make all your seat reservations at once. Other sources of good info besides Budget Europe are www.ricksteves.com (only sells passes and directs you to RailEurope to make seat reservations however) and www.seat61.com. I do not think it possible to make seat reservations with a pass online thru French Railways www.voyages-sncf.com but am not totally sure of that.

Your concerns are well founded.

French Rail severely limits the availability of seats offered to pass riders. If your plans are relatively concrete (as you appear to have already reserved hotels) your interests might be better served by purchasing rail tickets commensurate with your travel itinerary. Otherwise you may or may not arrive at a destination as planned. You may still have an option making <i>Sur reservations</i> but again, there are no guarantees that you will be able to maintain any specific travel schedule.

PalenQ-- have you ever used the eurail aid office? my first stop is in madrid and they have one there. I was thinking we would go there our first day and book all our trains through them.

yay or nay?

thanks so much for all the feed back all!

yah for Spain

nay I would think for reservations in any other countre - I have always found one country's train ticketing windows to refuse to make reservations for trains not involving their own rail system - even though they have the same Euronet booking system that say RailEurope or Budget Europe (via RE), etc use - so they could but always refuse IME. Again except for France there is little problem making reservations IME - when I arrive in a city by train I immediately make bookings for all trains in that country (if they require reservations - if not I just hop on - again in first class I have in decades of rail travel in Europe not found empty seats - one of the signifcant perks of first class - among many things IMO. as reservations thru RE or their agents like Budget Europe cost about $7 more per reservation if doing many this can add up - but for French TGVs I see no alternative - in retrospect one should buy any necessary reservations needed when you buy your pass to avoid extra mailing and handling fees.

BTW Eurail Aid Offices are usually IME the same place as regular ticket windows - just have a Eurail Aid sign on them but same personnel doing same things usually - I do not think they would do reservations for other countries just because you have a Eurailpass - these offices are to help you if you have problems or lose your pass in which case they will sell you a new pass (at 20% higher than the U S dollar rate however) - but you could try - again they could well make any reservations just like RailEurope here can.