I have a railpass for France/Benulux - 6 days. At some time I must have visited RailEurope as they sent me an email saying that booking a reservation on the TGV leaving Rennes for Annecy (through Lyon) was now available.

Since I already have a railpass I only need a reservation/seat on this train. There is a box to check if you have a pass and only need a seat reservation.

I thought I had read on this site that you could not make a reservation from the US for a seat on the TGV.

Raileurope is confirming my seat assignment for $11.00.

Should I book it? Will I in fact get a seat reservation? Am I looney?

The synonym for "raileurope" is "rip off".

In virtually all cases if they are offering something you can get it a lot cheaper elsewhere

I am not positive as I haven't bought one in a while so haven't paid much attention to those posts, but I am pretty sure when people said you couldn't do that they meant you can't do it yourself on a country's website with a railpass. For example, you can't book only a reservation on the French rail website, for use with a railpass.

I don't remember anyone saying Raileurope couldn't do it for you, but I have no reason to think they are completely lying and you will have no reservation. It is more expensive when they do it, but it will save a lot of time for you, I'd do it for $11 as the fee in Europe will probably be around US$4-5, but you'll have to wait in line, maybe a long time, to do that. If they charge you some expensive delivery fee on top of that, I wouldn't do it.

Yes you can reserve TGV seats thru RailEurope. But the $11 price will also entrail at $18 booking fee and mailing fee per order, making one seat reservation very expensive.

that said railpass reservations on some TGVs in France can be problematic IME

When folks say RailEurope is a rip-off they should say the SNCF or French Railways is a rip-off since they are majority stakeholders in RailEurope.

Hi E,

Yes RE can make a seat reservation for you. It will cost more than if you make the reservation in Europe.

However, there have been reports that seating for passholders is limited, so the safest way to get a reservation is the expensive way.

See also http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35024821

Best wishes,

Rex

Thank you -- that answers my questions.

I will probably book through Raileurope for the $11 just to have peace of mind. There are some trains that already have "sold out" as far off as September/October.

I need to make the Rennes/Annecy direct train bypassing Paris so will go ahead and book.

Thanks for all your help. Always appreciate it.

Peg

>I will probably book through Raileurope for the $11 just to have peace of mind. There are some trains that already have "sold out" as far off as September/October.
i
Sorry, but this is utter nonsense. No train is sold out right now for september/october.

The problem is that RailEurope, besides being more expensive, also does not have full access to the train database (or can't be bothered to program the access into their website). If they can't for some reason sell you a ticket (fpr example because it is too far in the future, or because it is a local train without reservations, or because their crippled version of the database doesn't hold the ticket price for the connection) it automatically throws up "sold out". Don't be fooled.

Once, just for fun, I entered a connection Munich to Salzburg into RE and got "sold out" messages. This for reginal or InterCity trains, which just can't sell out.

raileurope.com has a lot of 'sold out' messages that simply can't be true IME - my enquiries say that if the train has not been loaded onto the RE computer it will say 'sold out' when it should say not available thru this system - misleading and hard to defend - this is why i always say if going thre RE call someone and ask for a manual search as they can indeed IME book trains that their website says are 'sold out'. Unfortunately to talk to anyone at RE incurs a $25 fee according to their website.

What I have finally done is book through euraide in FL.

When I went to Italy in 2005 I needed to book an overnight train from Milan to Amsterdam and didn't want to chance not getting a seat on the Cisalpano/Pegasus trains. By the way -- both of these trains were wonderful.

Euraide's pricing for a reserved seat is more like $4-5 a trip, rather than the $11 quoted by RailEurope. They do charge a hefty shipping fee of $50, but there are 4 of us traveling, all the trips are on TGVs and I don't want to not get a seat.

Just like the airlines and their frequent flier program, the TGV limits the number of seats on the train. I don't want to be "shut out".

It comes to about $35-40 a person for all the seat reservations and shipping. It is worth my "peace of mind".

Am I showing my age? I used to just "wing it".

I don't think what you did is utter nonsense at all, and is actually fairly reasonable for everything you did, and will make your vacation smoother. Who needs anxiety about train tickets on top of everything else. $35-40 a person for a lot of reservations isn't that much, as they won't be free in Europe. You are saving your time, also, it is not just piece of mind. That would be worth it to me right there. It can take a lot of time standing in line to get seat reservations at train stations in France. I waited an hour once in Aix-en-Provence, and about 30-45 minutes in Paris and some other places.

Don't be fooled by people who tell you what you did is nonsense.

Nothing that Eurogals did was utter nonsense, but the messages of the Raileurope website certainly are.

not at all - some veteran travelers often forget when they first set out - and veterans can consider something a snap when it really isn't to the novice.

eurogals did the right thing - peace of mind is priceless and does not deserve the piece of mind some veteran travelers might add.

I like euraide.com from what i hear but a $50 mailing fee?

How can that be justified. It would be justifiable if they call it an order fee as such reservations can be very time consuming and pay very little commission - why many agents like rick Steves refuse to do them i guess.

But $50 mailing fee and they're sening them from Florida or Illinois - are they chartering a plane just to get them to you?

Actually, it /is/ possible to book a reservation only on voyages-sncf.com, for 1.5€ ...

Hit the "Advances Search" link on the search page, you will find an "advanced" form with several fields under the "Number of passengers" line. One of them is labeled 'Your card or season ticket'.

Select "2nd class Fixed Price Season ticket".

Actually, it is intended for those holding an "Abonnement Forfait", a (very expensive) railpass for French railways only. But you will certainly get the reservation you need.

I'm not sure, although, whether the conductors will accept it. I think they will, but I will go and search some definite answer.

super: are you talking of French domestic trains or any train in Europe, like i understand bahn.de do?

thanks

>like i understand bahn.de do?

bahn.de does not. Only a Deutsche Bahn ticket agent in person (if not on strike) can reserve seats for your travel outside of Germany. I would assume the same for SNCF online.

yes, i'm glad about the correction - someone recently gave the English Deutsche Bahn phone number with which to make reservations all over Europe with a railpass or book tickets i think - though not sure about the latter.

PalenQ - the method I disclosed is for booking reservations only on domestic French trains (especially TGVs). I'm awaiting an answer from the SNCF as to the validity of such a reservation when bundled to a "tourist" railpass. I'll follow up here.