How To Use Your Interrail App And Make Reservations

Last Updated on: 11th January 2024, 11:54 am

Interrailing With One Ticket On All Of The Trains

Last year we went interrailing for 5 weeks, we loved it so much. But it was completely different from when we went 6 years ago. Purely because we now have a mobile app instead of paper tickets. You can still opt to use an interrail paper ticket, but we found them to be flimsy and rip easily. If you get caught in the rain, it gets wet and ruined. So the app is a welcome upgrade to the travel experience. Of course, there are problems like knowing how to use your Interrail app. As well as having to make sure your phone is always charged up. So make sure you carry a power pack with you.

Download The App

The app is easy to download from the Play Store. You need to look for Eurail/Interrail Rail Planner and download it. Then you need to go to the bottom of the app and tap the bit that says My Pass. Register your pass and add your passport details in there. Then you need to connect it to a trip. As you can see I created a trip called Summer 2024.

How To Use Your Interrail App Before You Travel

You are going to spend a lot of time planning your trip. You will decide on places to visit and then change your mind a dozen times. This is okay, you can change your mind right up to the moment you travel by train. But you do need to make sure that all of the trains you want to travel on will accept the Interrail pass.

You can go to the Planner on the app and type in where you are leaving from and where you want to go. It will tell you if you need to book reservations or whether you are good to go. If you do not need reservations, you simply get on a train and show your activated ticket. If you need to make a reservation, you can use Oebb.at. Then print them out or download them to your phone to show the conductor on the train. First-class ticket reservations are free on OBB.

When you choose the journey that you are going to take, you need to go to the little yellow button at the bottom and click Save Journey. This adds the journey to your trips. You need to put all of your journeys in here before you travel. Then when you are ready to travel, you toggle the button to activate that trip. You must activate your trip before you get on the train. If you do not do this you can be fined. If you cannot find your journey in the planner, you can add it manually. But make sure you double check the journey exists on the country train website. The Interrail app journey planner is not exactly accurate at times.

How To Use Your Interrail App As You Travel

When you are ready to take your journey, you get a QR code ticket in the Rail Planner app. Go To My Pass and go to the bottom where there is a yellow box with Show Ticket. Click that button and it shows your QR code. If you have problems finding the QR code, check the date is the correct date. If you are travelling overnight, the QR code may be on the date before today.

You might need this QR code to get in and out of some European stations. But you will need it on the trains, where the conductor will scan it with their device. They will also ask you for your compulsory reservation if it is needed on that train.

Mistakes To Avoid Whilst You Travel With Your Interrail Ticket

Make sure your phone is always charged up and that you have a backup phone or battery pack. If your phone dies, so do your tickets. If you are travelling with kids, make sure you have your tickets on one phone to keep them safe. But screenshot your passes and the QR code and share them with other phones within the party.

Do not activate your train ticket until you are just about to get on the train. Trains get cancelled and you might find yourself having to get a different train. If your pass doesn’t match the journey you could get into trouble. You will also waste a day on your pass if the trains are cancelled and you cannot travel. You cannot cancel a journey after it is supposed to have happened.

Check the train strikes in the country that you are in, You don’t want to lose a day of travel if you don’t do your homework. Look at what the weather is like in the countries that you are visiting. If you go to Scandinavia during the winter, trains will be cancelled due to the weather. You need to expect this and have a plan b in place for such problems.

Make sure you activate your journey ticket before getting on a train. Trying to cheat the system doesn’t work. You will be fined a lot of money by the train company.

Make sure your journey is worth buying an Interrail pass for. If you are travelling in Eastern Europe, it will probably be better to buy tickets as you go because the train tickets are so cheap to buy anyway.