Doing a search for rail passes for Christmas, I came across 2 very diverse prices. Eurail site quotes $429 USD for a Eurail Select Saver Pass (3 countries, 5 days). Rail Europe gives a quote of $370 USD for the same pass. That's a $59 difference per ticket. Is this legitimate? How can they sell for less than the provider?

That is weird because Rail Europe is usually overpriced.

Almost always, the question will be "why are you thinking to buy a rail pass at all?"

Try your itinerary at www.railsaver.com to see if buying a rail pass costs you more than the individual tickets you would plan to use. Make sure to check the box "only if it saves me money".

Best wishes,

Rex

I had already done a point-to-point search and found a pass was cheaper with our itinerary. Thanks for the RailSaver site, though. I confirmed with that and their price was cheaper still--only $365.

I think you're looking at the wrong thing. The $429 price on Eurail is for a single traveler in first class. If there are two traveling together they show it as $365 per person (Select Saver pass as opposed to simply a Select Pass). So it's actually $5 cheaper from Eurail than it is from Rail Europe.

I didn't pursue it to see if there is a difference in shipping charges or other fees, however. But you were clearly looking at a single pass rather than a saver pass for 2 traveling together.

Clearly you are right, NeoPat and next time I shall put on my glasses so everything will appear clearly to me! Thanks for the correction.