Thanks schmare, your post was very helpful.

I recognized that in general use among native English speakers the phrase would mean what you indicated. But I was thinking that this description wasn't written by a native English speaker, for 2 reasons. First, English isn't the first language of any country in which a Eurrail pass is valid, and secondly I don't think a native speaker would have chosen that phrase.

There is definitely a cultural difference in thinking about this. That was illustrated by an email reply I finally received from Eurail on the question. They said: "Youth passes are for those between the ages of 12 and 26." That had me scratching my head until their example showed that it works exactly as you described.

Now I'm wondering if it might be possible to somehow get the pass validated in the US before the birthday as the Europe trip will not begin until after the birthday.