Frequently Asked Questions

It’s your ticket to discovering Europe on your own terms. The Interrail Pass lets you hop on trains to discover select countries for a set number of travel days. This can vary depending on what suits you best — from 4 travel days up to 3 months.

The Interrail Global Pass is valid in 33 European countries, while the Interrail One Country Pass is useful if you’d like to discover the ins and outs of one single country.

Which Pass you choose depends on what you’re trying to get out of your trip. Only you will know the answer. If you’d like to discover all corners of one country, then the Interrail One Country Pass is your answer. However, if you’d like to see several European countries, then choose the Interrail Global Pass.

You also need to decide how many days you’d like to be able to use the European train network for — so-called travel days. These range from 4 all the way up to 3 months. You’ll also be able to choose between traveling in 1st class or 2nd class.

Finally, whether or not you’d like a paper or mobile Pass is also up to you. If you’d like to ditch paper clutter, then go for the mobile Pass and have everything sent to you by e-mail. The paper Pass is also an option; however, please note that you’ll have to wait about 10 days to have it sent to you.

Interrail Passes are for European citizens, while non-EU citizens need to buy a Eurail Pass. The exception is when you’re not a EU-citizen but a European resident, you can also opt for the Interrail Pass. Just make sure to bring your resident card/document along with you during your trip to prove that you love in the country that is printed on your Interrail Pass.

The Interrail Global Pass is your single ticket to exploring Europe by rail. If you've always wanted to go on a slow trip during your studies, there's no better way to do so than with the Global Pass. You can discover over 40,000 destinations in 33 European countries. What's more is that you can customize your trip entirely, depending on what fits your needs. 

Yes, but only for two days. When you’re using the Global Pass, you can make use of one travel day to leave your country at the beginning of the trip, and one travel day to come back at the end. 

These two travel days can be used at any point during the validity period of your Global Pass. If you add a journey or leg to your Pass in your own country, you’ll have to use one of your two travel days. Once you’ve used up your exit and re-entry journey, you won’t be able to add an additional leg to travel on trains in your country of residence.

Every three days, we’ll check your Interrail Pass to make sure it’s still valid and hasn’t been subjected to fraud. This means that, once every three days, you’ll have to find an internet connection. Don’t worry, though, because we’ll send you a reminder 24 hours in advance. Remember that background updating isn’t possible, so please open the app to go online and have your Pass checked.

Please note: if you miss the three-day cut-off, your Pass will be inactive and unusable until you go online and open your Rail Planner app. Most of the time you should be able to find Wifi on one of the trains you’re taking.

No, unfortunately not. If you want to extend your trip, you’ll have to buy another separate Interrail Pass and add it to your phone.

No, sadly not. As soon as you’ve started using your Interrail Pass, it’s no longer possible to ask for a refund, even if you still have travel days left.

On location, you can just show your Interrail pass in the ‘My Pass’ view to an employee to get the discount straight away. Online, your Pass number should get you a discount on the website of one of our benefit partners. You can find out more in the ‘Pass benefits’ section of the app.

Whether you’re an Apple or Android person, we’ve got you covered. The Rail Planner app is available in both app stores. On iPhones, the app is supported on iOS 13.0 and later, while, on Android phones, it’s supported on Android 6.0 and later. Check your device setting to see what version you’re on and upgrade to the latest version if need be.

Yes, but only until your Pass is activated. Once you’ve activated it, you won’t be able to make any changes.

You can deactivate your Pass at any point before midnight of the start date you chose. Simply go to ‘My Pass’, click on the three dots on the top right and select ‘Deactivate Pass’. You can reactivate again once you’re ready to start your journey.

Yes, but only before and after its validity period. Once you’ve decided to activate your pass, and are using it for your journey, you won’t be able to delete it or remove it. To remove the Pass while it’s not valid and/or activated, go to ‘My Pass’ and click ‘Remove’. You can always add it to the same or a different device later.

No, this is not possible. If you lose your passport or ID card, make sure to contact Interrail’s customer service. As long as you haven’t activated your Pass, they’ll be able to change this information on your Pass. Otherwise, you’ll have to purchase a new Pass.

After you’ve activated your Interrail Pass, you can check how long it’s valid for in ‘My Pass’. After clicking on your Pass, you’ll be able to see how long under ‘Validity Period’.

Please note: You’ll only be able to see this after activating your Pass. If you haven’t done this yet, you’ll see when you’ll be able to activate your Pass.

Activate your Pass at any time before your first travel day. Basically at any time within 11 months of purchase. To activate, fill in your passport or ID card number and select when you’ll be starting your trip. Make sure that your Pass is activated and ready to go in ‘My Pass’ before boarding your first train.

To make use of your Pass, you’ll have to activate it within 11 months of the day you purchased it. However, you don’t have to wait that long. You can activate at any time before this date too. If you’re not sure when you bought your Pass, check the purchase confirmation email we sent you.

We ask for this to make sure that the Pass you’re using is actually yours. Also, you may be requested to show your passport or ID card by train ticket inspectors, so it’s important that your documentation matches what’s listed on your Pass.

Your Pass will get checked on every train you board during your journey. However, whether or not it will get checked visually or via a barcode depends on the country. Your Pass’ barcode can currently be scanned in these countries:

- Austria
- Czech republic
- France
- Germany
- Hungary
- Poland
- Slovakia
- Switzerland
- The Netherlands
- Turkey

On trains in countries that are not listed above, the ticketing inspector will check your details visually. You can also use your Interrail barcode to get into ticketing gates in Italy, France and The Netherlands.

You can use your ticket for the entire travel day and can show it to ticketing inspectors as often as needed. Just make sure that all of your journeys have been added to your Pass during your trip, because only then will your ticket be valid. Each travel day has a separate ticket, so you’ll have to create and show a different ticket every day. The only exception for this is when you’re traveling on night trains.

You can use your ticket’s barcode to open TER gates in France and platform gates in Italy and The Netherlands. You’ll just tap your barcode against the scanner and wait until the gates open. If this doesn’t work for whatever reason, speak to an employee at the station and they’ll gladly help you out.

Usually you should be able to find a ‘Show ticket’ button in My Pass. However, if you can’t find it, first make sure you’ve added your planned journey to your Pass. This can be done on the toggle bar on the right. You can also find more help here.

Once you add your journey to your Pass under ‘My Trip’, you’ll be able to get a ticket and see it in ‘My Pass’. Choose the Interrail Pass you’re travelling with, then click on one of your travel days and, finally, ‘Show ticket’. Here, you’ll see your ticket, its barcode, your Pass details and your journey information for that specific travel day. 

If you’ve bought a Continuous Pass, you can see your ticket by clicking on your Pass and then ‘Show ticket’. If you’d like to see your ticket for a different day, select your the date you’re looking for at the top of the screen in the ticket view.

Your ticket is connected to your mobile Pass, of course. Whether or not the ticketing inspector checks your ticket barcode or visually scans the details depends on the country you’re traveling in. Also, have your passport or ID card ready in case you’re asked to show it, in order to verify that your Pass is really yours.

Every travel day, you’ll need to add your journey leg to your Pass in order to access your ticket for those day’s trains. This has to be done for every part of your trip to ensure that you have a valid ticket at all times. The journey details will also be shown on your ticket, and the ticket inspector will check this, so make sure you’ve done everything correctly before getting on the train.

Night trains are the exception. If you board a night train on the evening of a travel day, but arrive at your destination after midnight, you’ll still be able to use the ticket of the previous travel day. Show this ticket to the inspector, even if it’s technically the next day.

No. If a reservation is required on a train that’s part of your journey, you’ll need to book and pay for your seat reservation separately. On those trains, the ticketing inspector will ask you to show not only your ticket in the app but also the seat reservation you added to it. On trains where seat reservations aren’t required, you can choose any free seat in second class (unless you bought a 1st class Pass).

It’s always possible to cancel a travel day as long as you do this before midnight of that day. This can be done in ‘My Pass’ where you can click on the travel day you’d like to cancel and press ‘cancel travel day’. It’s not possible to do this once the travel days has started.

If you still have leftover travel days and can’t seem to use them, it could be that your overall Pass validity has expired. You can check this at the top section of your Pass in the app. It’s important that you use all of your travel days within the overall validity period of your Pass.

If the end point of the night train is your final destination, you’ll only have to use one travel day. However, if you’ll be transferring to another train after the night train, you’ll need to use a regular travel day in addition to another inbound journey travel day. 

This can be done by adding two separate journeys to ‘My Trip’ on the app. For example, if you’re returning to the Netherlands from Austria, and are taking a night train to Germany first, you’ll need to use one travel day to reach the German city, followed by another inbound journey travel day to reach your Dutch destination. The app will automatically apply the inbound journey to your travel day after you enter your journey.

You can change your starting date as long as you do this before the start of the day of your previous starting date. Go to ‘My Pass’, tap the three dots on the top right and select ‘Deactivate Pass’. Then, you can choose a new starting date by re-activating your Pass.

Yes. If you’re traveling on a night train that arrives after midnight, you’ll still be able to use the departure travel day from the previous day. When you add your journey to your Pass, the app will automatically know that only one travel day is needed. However, if you transfer to another train after the night train, you’ll need to use another travel day, which the app will also ask you for after adding the extra journey to your trip.

This is because your journey is also split across two days, which means you’ll have to use two travel days to ensure that you’ll have the correct tickets for ticket inspection.

Yes, that’s possible. Just enter the last name and Pass number of each Pass into the device. This information can be found in the confirmation emails.

No, it’s up to you how you want to do it. You can activate them all on one device or choose to do so on separate devices. Each traveler can add their Pass manually to their own mobile if they follow the link in their confirmation email and enter their last name and Pass number.

No. One trip has to be connected to one Pass. However, you can always duplicate a trip and copy it to a separate Pass if you’d like.

Please note: You’ll have to add your journeys to every trip as you travel. So every Pass’ trip needs to have every leg of the journey added to it. However, it’s easy to add journeys to multiple trips at once from the planner in the app.

No, this is not necessary. You can choose to activate each Pass individually in ‘My Pass’ at any point until the day you want to start your trip.

Please note: Once a Pass has been activated, you won’t be able to remove it from a device. This means that your group will not be able to split up during the trip.

No, this is not possible. Once a Pass has been activated on a device, and the starting date has passed, you won’t be able to make changes. This means that your group has to stick together and travel together at all times. In case you want to travel separately, make sure that your group activates their Passes on separate devices before you start your adventure.

Please get in touch with customer service as soon as you can. Make sure to share your Interrail Pass number with us, which can be found in your purchase confirmation email or in your Interrail account under ‘order overview’. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to offer any refunds, so make sure to buy a separate ticket if you get on any train while having lost or broken your phone.

In order for us to ensure that your Interrail Pass is valid for your intended journey, you’ll have to connect a trip. If you don’t do this, your Pass won’t be valid on the trains you decide to take. Your journey will be saved in My Trip, and you can add to this during your travels.

Did you find an error on your mobile Pass and don’t know how to fix it? Please get in touch with Interrail’s customer service. As long as your Pass hasn’t been activated yet, they’ll be able to change the following information for you:

- your name (due to typos/legal or marriage-related name changes)
- your ID/passport information (due to typos/document renewal)
- changes to your date of birth

Please note: if your country of residence is incorrect, we won’t be able to change this. However, you can ask for a refund for your old Pass and buy a new one with the correct country on it.

In the rare case that this happens, please note down all details from your specific journey and train, screenshot your ticket, fine and, if applicable, reservation. Send these over to Interrail’s Customer Service team and they’ll help you further. This can be done in the Rail Planner app in the ‘Help Centre’ section.

We ask this to protect your personal information like the passport or ID card number on your Pass. Any device authentication features are fine – like a passcode, fingerprint or facial recognition.

No, your authentication data or authentication input isn’t registered or accessed in any way by the app. We also do not store any information.

This could be due to a number of reasons:
- You may have entered the wrong last  name or Pass number. Make sure you fill both of these in the way they are stated in the confirmation e-mail. Also, double-check that you haven’t added any extra spaces on accident.
- Maybe your Pass has already been added to another device. If this is the case, it cannot be added to a second device.
- Your Pass has expired. Once the activation period is over, or it is no longer valid, you won’t be able to re-activate your Pass.

Did you check whether you accidentally connected this trip to another Pass? You’ll need to make an individual trip for each Pass on your device. You can always choose another or create a new one.

Not every European train can be found in our database, but make sure that you’ve tried entering the station name in the local language. If you tried that and it didn’t work, there’s always the option to add a journey to your Pass manually. Just enter all the details of this journey and save it to your trip. Try to avoid any typos, as your ticket will be checked by the on-train ticketing inspectors. In case of delay, enter the departure time your train was originally scheduled for.

Interrai’s reservation system is not linked to the Rail Planner app, which means you won’t be able to see your reservations attached to your ticket. However, you can view and download any confirmed reservations in the ‘reservations overview’ of your online Interrail account. It’s always a good idea to print your reservation e-ticket to avoid any issues during your trip.

It’s the same as the passcode you use to unlock your device.

If this is the case, the Rail Planner app will ask you to create a new passcode to protect your Pass and tickets.