Ok, I am not a computer idiot. I use computers all the time, I even use a software program developed in the UK so I have some idea of their programming mindset (which is different than our approach in the US).

But, I have to say I am really disappointed in the Britrail website and customer service.
I sent an email with 3 questions, they answered one and very slowly. I called them at the 800 number and they were clearly bored to tears. Some of the cities I want to go to aren't listed and as far as I can find there is no way to research and find a stop that is nearby the unlisted city on the website.

Well I'm sorry, as far as I can tell I'm about sink $1000 for two people to travel in Great Britain (8 day flexipass plus a sleeper fare). This is more than I spend on my mortgage and if I want someone to hold my hand and help me make a decision, they better do it and smile.

That is the complaint, now here's the question:

I may have one or two unused trips on my flexipass at the end of the trip. Can I give my pass to another tourist to use or is it name/passport specific?

I haven't bought my pass yet-still waiting for those other questions to be answered by Britrail.

Thanks,

Michelle

Sorry to hear about your shoddy treatment. Poor customer relations is, sadly, a traditional trait of British Rail. It sucks You only have to ask London commuters). I'm glad I'm not one of them.

And I thought the Brits were suppose to be overly friendly? Maybe not to the point they were in European Vacation but you get the point

EnglishOne and Scottee25, I do not think this is an appropriate thread to start bad mouthing the national rail system in Britain (known as British Rail prior to 1996) or British friendliness. Britrail is a US-based travel agency that develops and sells rail passes on behalf of the 26 train operating companies in the UK. If they are indeed offering lousy service, it is lousy American service.

Violet, I suspect if you were to check individual fares on thetrainline.com or qjump.co.uk, you would find buying the Britrail passes uneconomical. The passes do have some convenience value though, which only you can assess.

Legally, the rail passes are non-transferable. In reality, I've never had any check to match up my name with that on the pass.

Regarding trip planning, I found http://www.qjump.co.uk/home/index.html to be much more useful than BritRail's site.

No where in my post did I bad mouth the British. I asked a simple question. If you took it as bad mouthing, you obviously looked far deeper into the question than what was actually there. My grandmother is British for crying out loud... why would I be bad mouthing them? From all I have heard, I have been told they are incredibly friendly for the most part. It was a sincere question.

Violet2 -- if I understand your question/comments correctly, you have not as of 2 hours ago, yet purchased your rail passes. May I suggest you check out Rick Steves web site -- I had a question concerning our 4 Day BritRail Flex passes & had a very professional & timely response prior to purchasing them from him. Emailed another question several weeks after purchase with equally professional & timely response.

The "badmouthing/accusation of badmouthing" does remind me of signs seen at railroad stations through out our trip. We certainly did not see these signs (or at least did not notice them) on our last visit in the late 80s -- signs requested that the public not physically attack employees.

And I AM british, for goodness sake! I am merely apologising for a rail system that is poorly funded and an embarrassment to me, BEING BRITISH. Do you think I am bad-mouthing MYSELF?!

My apologies Scottee; I guess whatever point you are making is too subtle for me to get.

Where is MY apology, Ron?

I do not have one for you, EnglishOne. Violet was complaining about poor customer service from an American company called Britrail. You were irrelevantly relating that to the behaviour of a British train company that has not existed for 7 years.

OK, I went to Qjump and in terms of fares, it is no different than Britrail.

For example, the reason I want to do the 8 day flexipass is due to the following trips:

London to Bath day trip
London to Glastonbury day trip
London to Stratford day trip
London to Edinburgh
Edinburgh to Inverness
Inverness to ?somewhere to catch ferry to islands
Inverness to London-sleeper separate ticket.

On qjump or britrail, to do a point to point ticket to Bath,for example, round trip costs me 129L which is about $214.

The four day flexipass is US$239, so already I'm ahead with the four day pass.

The britrail site gives me an 129L price point to point to Inverness from Edinburgh.

Just point to point on these two tickets alone is over $400 and my 8 day flexipass is $349 (times 2 people equals $698) and then a $350 family sleeper suite (to accomodate a brother travelling with us).

I'm curious as to how people are saying they've found cheaper travel point to point. I've spent hours going in circles on the net.

I think it is a very bad sign that Rick Steves managed to write a book on the European rail system, IMO that just screams "difficult, convoluted system" to me.

I will however check out his website to see if I can buy passes from him with better customer service.

At this point the Britrail people could curse, yell and scream at me but if they gave me the information I need in between I wouldn't complain. You can be rude and efficient (I'm Ok with that) it is rude and crappy service that pushes my buttons.

Thanks

Michelle

Violet, when I looked at individual fares for my recent trip (London to Lincoln, Lincoln to Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury to Lancaster & Lancaster to London) I found that point to point COULD save money IF discounted fares were available. However, almost every train that I needed didn't have the cheaper fares so I bought a Flex Pass. Sounds like you've encountered the same situation.

Ron, Doh!! Then why did you include me in your outburst? if you thought my comments were irrelevant??? Leave my comments alone in future please!

Someone already mentioned an alternative web site, but you could also try http://www.crowsnest.co.uk/north/train1e.htm

My sole occasion buying tix for the UK resulted in my concluding that individual tickets were less expensive than the passes. This may well have been because I bought us APEX tickets that I ordered in advance from some British based version of Britrail over the phone. I'm very sorry, I can't find the phone number, but perhaps the above web site will help you.

MHS The business about a posted request to not physically attack the employees gave me a chuckle. Not the thought of employees being attacked, but the thought that some people might not have thought to do it until someone put the suggestion in their minds.

When I have bought a Britrail pass in the past, I needed to provide the issuing agent my name exactly as it was written on my passport.
And I have at times been requested to show the Britrail pass AND my passport to the conductor ( ticket taker) once I was on the train. This has happened twice on trips from London to Edinburgh. This verification of name on ticket w/ name on passport seems largely up to the discretion of the individual conductor.
The penalty being caught using a Britrail pass that was not issued to you specifically could be twofold: firstly the conductor would ask you to pay the fare then and there ( probably charged at the highest rate as opposed to a leisure or Daypex rate) and secondly there could be an additional penalty fare levied.

Michelle, You are correct that the pass is cheaper if you are comparing to the cost of first class open tickets. When I suggested that individual tickets might be cheaper, I was comparing to such things as super advance 2nd class return tickets to Bath Spa (£28), 2nd class day return to Stratford (£23) and 2nd class bargain singles to Edinburgh (£25).

But EnglishOne, the irrelevancy of your contribution was the reason for my intervention. Had your contribution been apposite, I would have had no reason to comment and would have limited myself to trying to help Michelle.

It was a mistake on my behalf to think this post was about British Rail. To that, I concur. However, irrelevancy aside, if I wish to make complaints about the train systems IN MY OWN COUNTRY, then I will. I will not let you (an american) try to 'shut me up'. How dare you. If I, as an englishwoman, were to try and silence you if you had a complaint about something in the US, then I would, justly, receive the same comments from yourself or other US citizens. I rest my case....

Violet2: In your post I noticed "family sleeper suite (to accomodate a brother travelling with us)."

Is your brother a child? Somehow in your other threads I got the impression he was an adult. If so, I don't think a family sleeper is for three adults. Maybe someone else can clarify this - but the only family sleepers I have ever seen are for 2 adults and a child - or 2 small children