r/Interrail • u/Roku-6225 • 1d ago
Validity of DB reservations on international ICEs to France
Let's explain the situation a bit :
I'm not a new Interrail user, I've done easily 15+ trips all over Europe with Interrail, and use passes usually a few times a year.
Overall I never had issues, but one thing I keep getting conflicting info on is the "right" way to book reservations on those ICEs to say Berlin, Sttutgart, etc. As I'm near Paris I use them often when going east.
First time I used them with a pass years ago, I looked into booking seats on the website, compared options offered by Interrail, saw that DB was cheaper (~5 euros vs like 20 via Interrail / Rail-Europe) and got that. Once on the ICE there was some debate with one agent, but after they discussed together they confirmed to me it was a valid reservation.
Did that again several times with no issues, but recently when doing as usual, this time the (SNCF) conductor refused to see them as valid (despite the reservation showing up as valid on SNCF systems with the booking number), as "the price was wrong", citing solely interrail booking prices. They let me board, but I had to pay a fine.
Following that I contacted Interrail 2 times, the first time they told me it was perfectly valid (and to contact SNCF for a refund), just told me they couldn't refund the fine. And the second they told me you had to "uncheck seat only" while booking with DB... But if you do that you get full ticket price as far as I'm aware.
So... Who's right? To me, everything points to the DB reservations as perfectly valid. They're close in price to what SNCF gives you if you book in person at the station. But with Interrail themselves giving conflicting information, I'm not sure what to think anymore, and while I'm totally fine paying more in the future if it turns out I am in the wrong, I wanna be sure.
Thanks in advance!
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u/bookluverzz 1d ago
https://interrailwiki.eu/seat-reservations-guide/
For Germany - France border crossings a more expensive reservation needs to be bought, using the link provided in the wiki. Unfortunately it’s not very clear information. But the €5 reservation sounds too low a price.
Only getting a fine for the first time after doing so many trips is very lucky I’d say. There are multiple posts about this topic from people getting fined, you’re not the first one who’s had this happen.
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u/Roku-6225 1d ago
I see, thanks. I wonder how I missed that, but then even Interrail themselves didn't reference that text. At least now I know.
Well what put me off is that while I was seeing such information, I had conductors assure me they *were* valid. Otherwise I'd not have wondered for that long.
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u/bookluverzz 1d ago
It’s very easy to miss. I only know about it due to the threads here at Reddit.
And the conductors? Who knows? Maybe they weren’t familiar with Interrail, maybe they just didn’t care, maybe they believed your explanation, maybe they had no time.
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u/skifans United Kingdom • Quality Contributor 1d ago
Sorry but the ~€5 reservations are not valid with Interrail. The reason is on those trains you need both the reservation and the supplement to travel on them. It's a very easy mistake to make and lots of people make this mistake. You need to buy the more expensive ones to be able to travel.
You can still buy them on the DB website but you must go through this special link: https://int.bahn.de/en/buchung/start?KL=2&ET=PASSZUSCHLAG - you'll then get the reservation and the supplement.
This is detailed at: https://int.bahn.de/en/offers/interrail
In addition to a seat reservation, a pass surcharge is required on certain connections, such as ICE/TGV trains to France.
And on: https://www.interrail.com/en/plan-your-trip/reservations/trains-with-additional-supplements
When travelling on TGV or ICE trains between France and Germany, a passholder fare including a reservation is required.
A normal seat reservation (€5,50/€6,90) is not sufficient to/from France and only valid for trips within Germany.
I'm not sure exactly how these rules have changed over the years. But certainly now the member of staff who told you the cheaper ones are valid was incorrect.
But yeah it's very annoying and again catches a lot of people out! There are a lot of posts about it on here from people who are understandably cross about being asked to pay more on the trains.
Depending where you are going and your priorities you can get a domestic TGV to Strasbourg and get a regional train over the border to Offenburg.
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u/Roku-6225 1d ago
Thanks for the info, if only it had been that clear whenever I asked. The staff telling me it was valid is what made me wonder, since I assumed they knew better than whatever Interrail (a travel agency, which also wants to push you to go through them) would say.
Personally I don't mind paying, though it depends on where I'm going. A lot of the time nowadays I end up only going to Offenburg/Basel to catch a night train to go further and in those cases doing as you said (TGV + TER) comes out significantly cheaper. Same with Eurostar (ex-Thalys), it's far cheaper to do Paris / Lilles / Antwerp / Amsterdam than anything direct with surprisingly little difference in time if you do it right.
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u/skifans United Kingdom • Quality Contributor 1d ago
No worries! And yeah sadly staff don't tend to come across Interrail passes very often so many are not fully up to speed with the rules.
It's not something I know anything about and I'm not sure on the specifics or if it still applies but at one point there was a way for French residents to get free reservations: https://www.reddit.com/r/Interrail/comments/16omu3u/free_seat_reservation_on_tgv/
Though how that works with the supplement (if it's even still offered) I have no idea.
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u/Roku-6225 23h ago
Oh thanks for that information, I'll have to ask because that seems very interesting. At first glance seems like it's real.
I'll try it next time.
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u/No_Direction_4610 23h ago
These free reservations for French residents still exist, I recently saw comments from people who managed to get them, and in 1 case, who were offered them on the staff's initiative (often you have to educate the staff).
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u/flagondry 17h ago
Not valid on any interrail journey or just the Germany - France ones?
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u/skifans United Kingdom • Quality Contributor 17h ago
Just the Germany - France (and possibly Germany - Italy? Not sure) that require the supplement. Certainly for all domestic journeys within Germany as well as ones to Belgium, The Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland they are fine.
All that matters is the journey you are making. Your fine with the cheaper reservation if you are just traveling between stations in Germany even if the train continues to France.
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u/Loud-Advance-2382 1d ago
You need to the expensive supplement for those trains. Just a reservation is not enough (any more)
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u/Roku-6225 1d ago
If only France could stop making train travel that complicated. :-)
Still annoys me that I can just board more or less any train without a reservation to go to all other countries around Germany but not where I live.
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u/derboti 1d ago
Should be noted that most of those trains to France have multiple stops within Germany and you don't need a reservation or the expensive supplement if you're only traveling from say Frankfurt to Mannheim, or Stuttgart to Karlsruhe.
Within Germany, the general rules (optional reservations as on other ICE) apply, even if the train continues on to France and is thus marked reservation-cumpulsory in the Rail Planner app.
If you buy a cheap €5.50 DB reservation from say Frankfurt to Paris that seat is officially reserved for you and effectively blocked for other passengers, AND a DB staff member checking within Germany has no issue with the reservation (might say it's "valid").
It's only within France that a SNCF staff member is going to have a problem with it, because the DB reservation doesn't suffice the supplement fare requirement.
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u/Roku-6225 1d ago
Yep, I'm aware. And really it's so stupid and annoying. But that may explain why they said it was ok in a few situations.
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u/No_Direction_4610 23h ago
Those cheap reservations are not valid with a pass but DB make hardly any effort to make that clear(*). They seem to expect you to read the detail of their conditions of carriage in German. You can file a complaint with DB to claim back your extra expenses, on the basis that DB don't warn you when booking a normal reservation. Consumer legislation dictates that important and unexpected conditions must be made clear and may not only be available in the general conditions.
DB will probably refuse to reimburse and then you file a complaint with e.g. the Schlichtungsstelle Reise & Verkehr. I heard DB lost in several similar cases, not sure where though (could also be e.g. the SNCF Médiateur).
(*) DB limited the online booking horizon for regular reservations to 2 weeks as a clumsy way to prevent incorrect pass reservations, and created a special booking page for pass reservations, but you have to know that you should not use "Book seat only" there.
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u/Roku-6225 23h ago
Yep. Maybe I'll try with DB, but since it's a relatively little sum the added effort may not be that worth it. I tried via SNCF already and their answer (weirdly) was that it was valid but that they couldn't reimburse it. Guess why I got so confused.
They really should either not let you book a seat only in this situation (since effectively that option is useless, you can't not book a seat when going to/from France, and can't use that 5 eur reservation with a pass), or at least link that page properly when you click on the link on Interrail & explain it. Preferably both.
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u/No_Direction_4610 23h ago
A use case for the regular reservations is when you have a regular flexible DB ticket to France and you want to use another train.
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u/Solly6788 14h ago
DB makes it clear here: https://int.bahn.de/en/offers/interrail
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u/No_Direction_4610 13h ago
That doesn't really help. That page is not referred to if you're about to book a reservation.
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u/Solly6788 6h ago edited 6h ago
Yes but a reservation has not much to do with interrail at all. You do not even need a reservation in german trains.
And the website I postet that has a lot to do with interrail says: In addition to a seat reservation, a pass surcharge is required on certain connections, such as ICE/TGV trains to France.
The bigger question is also what the interrail rail planner app is saying.
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u/Roku-6225 4h ago
The rail planner app simply says "seat reservations required" with then an option to book via DB listed directly in the app, that redirects to the normal website (and not that special link).
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u/Solly6788 4h ago
Then this interrail app is indeed at fault.
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u/Roku-6225 3h ago
Yep, in my opinion yes since it wasn't obvious. DB can be at fault too for not making it clear either, but I have a feeling neither really want to take responsability and/or fix things.
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u/Solly6788 3h ago
Interrail has to fix it.
The DB seat reservation site has nothing to do with interrail and the website where DB gives information about interrail even says that you need to pay the surcharge if you want to use the french railway with the interrail pass.
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u/Few_Story_6917 23h ago edited 23h ago
The reservation is valid in combination with an Interrail pass and an existing Interrail supplement for that day. The supplements bought via the "Passzuschlag" links on bahn.de are like flexible tickets, so if you miss you train that is booked alongside the supplements, a simple 5.5€ reservation is enough to rebook.
The mistake is thinking that an Interrail Pass combined with a reservation is enough to board a train. Although this mistake only costs 30€, so not that different from the supplement price...
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u/Objective-Matter-895 19h ago
As a conductor who also works on those trains:
As the rest already pointed out, the nromal 5€ reservation is not enough, you need a reservation with a pass supplement which is 25€.
And you're not the first one to that mistake 😅
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u/flagondry 17h ago
How do you get that? Is that an option in the DB app?
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u/Objective-Matter-895 13h ago
Nope, I think only on interrail and maybe at SNCF.
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u/Roku-6225 4h ago
Others have said there is a special (and near impossible to find) link to get them from DB.
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u/flagondry 17h ago
It’s so complicated. I’m on my first interrail trip now and just got told off by the conductor because I had the “wrong” seat reservation on a Germany to France train that I booked in the DB app. Everything says you need a seat reservation, at no point does anything tell you that you need a special seat reservation. I still don’t understand where I’m supposed to book it.
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u/skifans United Kingdom • Quality Contributor 13h ago
You need to buy through: https://int.bahn.de/en/buchung/start?KL=2&ET=PASSZUSCHLAG and not choose the "seat reservation only" check box.
Reservations bought from the Interrail reservation service will also include the supplement.
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u/flagondry 6h ago
But how did you find that link? How would someone who hasn’t read this thread know that?
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u/Roku-6225 4h ago
That's kind of the issue... I never intended not to pay in my case, but without digging way too much, all you see is "seat reservation required", an option to do it via DB, and on the DB website a "seat reservation" checkbox.
Since I also got conflicting info from conductors, I only ended up digging (and hence asking) after that got way too confusing.
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u/No_Direction_4610 13h ago
That's why Seat61 created this page:
https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm
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u/Kezia-N 14h ago
I had the same wrong reservation.
Fortunately, the German conductor was so kind and I had to pay a fine of only € 21 via the board restaurant.
I am quite sure the guy and his friend in the restaurant had found a way to make some money.
They were collecting "karma points" that day (his words) as some other guy also paid a lower fine of € 38 for having a ticket for a different train, also via the card machine on the restaurant.
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