Interrail Lille-Lyon and onwards

[wellhouse]

I'm planning an Interrail itinerrary to Mallorca in July, and hoping to get from Lille to Perpignan avoiding Paris. There seem to be no Interrail Reservations on any trains from Lille to Lyon on this date, and minimal availabilty on random dates I have tried between now and July. I do realise that Interrail Pass Reservations are restricted on Eurostar and SNCF, but hadn't realised the extent of restrictions.

Is there a magic window when reservations might be released or is something else going on? The SNCF site is actually showing Zero availabilty for full fare first class tickets from Lille via Lyon on my preferred date on all trains from Brussels, so has the population of Belgium really fully booked all these services, or is there a gremlin in the Reservation system? (I had a similar problem last year booking Berlin-Krakow, and there is a known bug in that reservation system that prevents early booking in first class)

 

[Mainline421]

Virtually zero chance anything would be sold out that far ahead, and all spaces are available for Interrail ticket holders on SNCF (some journeys involving Belgium are the only exception, but domestic trips are unlimited). Would help if you posted the date in question, but I can see plenty of availability throughout July on https://www.raileurope.com right now. Some SNCF trains aren't open for booking yet in June/July, but as they don't publish a timetable it can be hard to check

 

[rvdborgt]

I'm planning an Interrail itinerrary to Mallorca in July, and hoping to get from Lille to Perpignan avoiding Paris. There seem to be no Interrail Reservations on any trains from Lille to Lyon on this date, and minimal availabilty on random dates I have tried between now and July. I do realise that Interrail Pass Reservations are restricted on Eurostar and SNCF, but hadn't realised the extent of restrictions.

SNCF do not have pass holder quota for the €20 domestic reservations, which can be booked until a train is full. Which exact train(s) are you looking at?

Is there a magic window when reservations might be released or is something else going on? The SNCF site is actually showing Zero availabilty for full fare first class tickets from Lille via Lyon on my preferred date on all trains from Brussels

From Brussels it's not the same. The TGVs from Brussels have quite limited quota. It would be helpful to mention travel date and preferred trains.

 

[nwales58]

General points:
SNCF claims TGVs up to 31/08 are currently open for booking, but as everyone points out that's not universally true.
School holidays start 05/07/25 in all 3 zones so trains may be busy (you'll still get Eur20 Interrail reservations) or full for a bit.
Zero first class but second class available is quite plausible, the inter-regional TGVs do not seem to get the peak day frequency increases of the radial routes (e.g. on a day that gets 2 or 3 closely-spaced Paris-Marseille in some hours the services via CDG/M-L-V have no increase).

 

[wellhouse]

I can now see availability on Rail Europe, though not through Interrail.

Thanks all

 

[rvdborgt]

I can now see availability on Rail Europe, though not through Interrail.

What Interrail shows is irrelevant. If you can book via Rail Europe, you're fine.