Cheaper way to make a train reservation?
 

Based on what I have read on these forums, I was planning to make my train reservations after I arrived in Europe. But now, I am seeing some routes listed as, "Sold Out", and I'm getting too nervous to wait. I started to make reservations on the Rail Europe site, but when it comes time to check out, it looks like they charge you a hefty shipping fee to send the tickets for EACH reservation. Is there a way to make all my reservations at once and have them sent to me in ONE envelope so I incur only one shipping charge?

First of all,

where are you planning to travel and where are you seeing the "sold out" notices listed?

Knowing this will be important...

Are you looking at the actual train websites for each country or at various rail booking sites? All the rail booking sites (the ones that sell rail passes) mark-up the tickets and charge a hefty shipping fee. The individual countries usually expect you to print the ticket or confirmation yourself.

We <b>need to know</b> which routes the poster thinks are &quot;sold out&quot; before we can do anything to help.

&lt;Is there a way to make all my reservations at once and have them sent to me in ONE envelope so I incur only one shipping charge?&gt;

this is one reason for anyone contemplating RailEurope tickets to go thru BETS (800-441-2387) as they don't charge all these fees and also you can talk to someone and ask these type of questions - besides their expertise.

That said what trains are you talking about - many can be easily bought once in Europe - some you may want to book before, especially overnight trains and during peak travel periods. But with the plethora of trains at least hourly between most main cities getting on trains should not be a worry.

And about the RE site - Sold Out pops up a lot and in my investigations is often a glitch - again why i advise talking in person on phone to someone who will do a manual check. There are many trains that you can book thru RE that do not show up on their web site.

Tell what trains you're talking about so we can give better specific advice.

Here are the trains I will make reservations for:

July 8 Milan to Venice
July 11 Venice to Rome (Formia)
July 25 Lyon to Montpellier
Aug 5 Montpellier to Amsterdam

these reservations can easily be made in Europe but you can save lots potentially by doing them at home on www.trenitalia.com (Italy state railways) and www.voyages-sncf.com (France railways) - print out at home or pick up at stations.

That said many have problems with both sites but there are Fodorites who will help you thru it if need be - just ask.

But it may involve quite a bit of time for novice users of these sites and thus you may prefer to pay extra to do them here - that said many agents do not like to do them because they are so labor intensive and pay nearly no commission - ricksteves.com for one will sell passes but not make reservations probably for that reason.

And on the online sites you will pay no handling fees or mailing fees so give it a try IMO

Chatenever,

Please tell us at what site you were told these routes are &quot;sold out.&quot;

Was it on the Trenitalia site, the Voyages-SNCF site, or where?

Otherwise, I agree with Pal that you may have to go to an &quot;outside&quot; agency such as BETS and pay accordingly for them to make what reservations are available on your behalf.

Over to you, Pal, because I'm not sure I have the patience this one may require...sorry.

MOre info would be helpful -- I don't know about the other routes, but the idea that Lyon to Montpellier would be sold out is pretty unbelievable, that just can't be true. So where exactly are you being told this.

I just checked www.sncf.com and they offered me several types of tickets on that route on that same date, 1-2 times every hour of the day in the morning. I got tired of looking at them all so stopped around 11 am. They even have PREM discount fares available.

I don't think SNCF ever tells you it is sold out, but I could be wrong. I think if it were sold out, they just don't show that time as a possibility. But there are zillions of trains between Lyon and Montpellier. The PREM they offered me was at 10:39 am.

The SOLD OUT in caps appears often on www.raileurope.com, ironically largely owned by the SNCF.

And it often mind-boggling appears for first class and not second class on the same train - and on routes like Christina says should never be sold out.

I've seen this frequently and then yes like Christina says when go to www.voyages-sncf.com there is availability, often at a PREM (discounted) rate.

why raileurope.com displays this is just one glitch of that site, which generally sucks

Are you going first or second class - first class reservations much more available of course as you can also reserve second class as well so have more seats to tap into.

If you are purchasing tickets on the trenitalia.com website many here have reported problems completing the transaction by credit card.

Here's what I found.

If I use Citibank MC # printed on the card I cannot complete the transaction - perhaps either CitiBank or Trenitalia isn't letting it go through.

The solution? I use Citibank &quot;virtual&quot; credit card numbers (online identity theft solution from Citibank - info on their website) and I had no problem.

I'm not sure if other card issuers have a similar feature, but it worked well for me.

j62

I asked my question of Rail Europe because that's where I purchased my rail pass. And once again, the reply that I received from them was remarkably unhelpful. Each time I've contacted them, they send me an answer that has nothing to do with my question. Finally, though, I've got all my train reservations made, thanks to Linda at B.E.T.S. I wish I had purchased my rail pass from them. They have WONDERFUL customer service. Linda took the time to research all my options, give me recommendations, etc, etc. B.E.T.S. and Linda receive my highest kudo's.

I cannot praise BETS enough! I too ran into a problem with the train issue and thanks to one of the posters, I was guided to BETS who helped me solve all of my problems and I left for Europe with the comfort of knowing that I had reservations. The best part wa that they knew how to solve those problems and the treat was that I had peace of mind. They spent endless hours searching for ways to solve my train issues and did so very well.

I was told to wait until I got there to make any reservations and then someone on this site said that train tickets are like plane tickets - the earlier you book the more choices you have. I will say that the trains we were on during the month of June were packed. When you call BETS tell them Barbara said Hi and that I will call soon. I also checked to see comparison prices in Europe and they were the same that I paid in the States.

In the future, use railsaver.com, enter your itinerary and click only if a pass saves me money. Many people buy passes they don't need and end up overpaying as a result. Railsaver isn't 100% accurate in predicting if a pass is cheaper, it saves many people from purchasing something they really don't need.

bcirish - All the websites that sell railpasses either mark-up individual tickets (anywhere from $3-$20), seat reservations ($15 from them when you get it for $3 in Europe), and charge a big fee to mail them ($15-$18). They also tell you individual tickets have to be mailed which is unnecessary if you purchase directly from each countries rail company. Ticket for Rome to Florence purchased from Trenitalia or in Italy,on an ES train 2nd cl, which includes your seat, will cost 33E or $44.22 US. If you were to purchase the same ticket from a website that sells railpasses such as RailEurope (or others)the price is $47 + $18 mailing fee. That makes the ticket cost and extra $20. I believe BETS has a bit cheaper mailing fee, but they are still making money above the actual cost of tickets.

Actually the commission on point-point tickets is minimal and thus most agents, ricksteves.com won't waste time on them as they are also labor intensive - ones that do it seem to do it as a service for folks who buy railpasses but often won't do them otherwise.

&lt;They spent endless hours searching for ways to solve my train issues and did so very well.&gt;

so there seems very little profit for all the work involved - perhaps why RailEurope marks them up but RE gets all the mark up pretty much and not agents to my knowledge. And RE only does it online, reducing the time spent talking and explaining to zero - actually to even be able to talk to anyone at RailEurope, according to their web site costs $25 extra, above all other charges.

I keep on reading about hefty mailing fees imposed by RailEurope. Is this only for lower priced tickets? I purchased my SelectPasses from them (no shipping and handling fee) and sleeping car reservations from them, again no shipping and handling.

REurope site says a $18 fee is added to all reservations - per order - that you did not pay one is surprising.

Orders over $399 get free mailing but many orders like point-point tickets, Swiss passes, Eurostar, etc. may well be under $399 in which case they have a $15-18 mailing fee, which is separate from the handling fee that i thought they automatically charge for reservations.

Thus to make a $120 Eurostar booking you'd pay the $18 reservation fee plus a $15-18 mailing fee - this is hefty for $120 IMO. So yes the smaller cheaper tickets have hefty fees that are not charged in Europe generally, though i have been charged 5 euros in Holland for making reservations - though this seems to be rescinded.

that they did not charge you a reservation handling fee of $15-18 i think must have been a slip up on their part. That will buy you about three cups of coffee in Europe!

i don't know how much agents of RailEurope make on such orders but i do know that RE gets the lion's share of the $11 fee - i think nearly all of it; agents can charge their own handling fees of course and probably have to to make any money on these rather piddling time-consuming orders... and if you talk for hours on the phone there's more expensives to cover.

Palen -
That's exactly why I praised B.E.T.S. at the beginning of this thread. Linda DID spend a lot of time with me, and before she started, she apologetically told me she would have to charge me $30 for her work. But had I purchased the pass through B.E.T.S., her services would have been included for free.