Help with Train reservations
 

I bought tickets from www.raileuope.com and recieved them a couple of weeks ago. When I bought the tickets I filled out a form for a specific (point to point) itenary. In reviewing the tickets today I realized that one of the tickets has an incorrect date. Apon calling RailEuope I was told that they are open tickets good for three months (which means that the incorrect date on the ticket still works for my itenary).

My question is, I bought the tickets with the idea that I had made a reservation with a specific itenary, do I still need to confirm my reservation (and how) or can I do it when I get there (and if so how and how far in advance)?

My itenary via train is from Budapest to Vienna to Prague to Munich.

>My question is, I bought the tickets with the idea that I had made a reservation with a specific itenary, do I still need to confirm my reservation (and how) or can I do it when I get there (and if so how and how far in advance)?

NO.
There are a few trains in Europe (mostly night trains, as well as high-speed trains in France and Italy) that require reservation. The tickets for other trains are open. No confirmation, seat reservation is optional (for an extra fee).

Btw, when you bought your tickets from RipoffEurope, you probably paid double the official price. And since the tickets ARE open, there is no need to buy in advance.

Plus, RailEurope's schedules seem horribly incomplete...

Unfortunately, Altamiro is only partially correct. Tickets bought through RailEurope (which is, by the way, a subsidiary of the SNCF) are not necessarily a "ripoff" and sometimes their prices can actually be lower.

You do not say if you also made seat reservations through RailEurope and which specific routes you are talking about.

IF you made a seat reservation for a specific date and it is NOT the date you are actually traveling then that seat reservation is not going to be valid for another date.

Unless you are traveling on trains which require a mandatory seat reservation you should be OK.

>tickets bought through RailEurope (which is, by the way, a subsidiary of the SNCF) are not necessarily a "ripoff" and sometimes their prices can actually be lower.

You are only partially right too :-)
It is true only where the ticketing system is adminstered by SNCF: France itself, Thalys trains, Eurostar, TGV's into Switzerland and Italy. For Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Eastern Europe, the ticket prices on RailEurope are often 50-80% over the official prices. Additionally, many train routes (even important ones like the Brenner corridor from Muich via Innsbruck to Italy) and many local trains are simply ignored by RailEurope.
And then there is the small matter of seat reservations (12 $ on Raileurope, 3 -4 Euro on bahn.de or oebb.at or locally at the station).

Sorry, but Raileurope IS a rip-off in 90% of all cases.

Got to agree that Raileurope exists mainly to separate the ignorant from their cash - even under their new 4 class system.

Put in a trip for the UK & their price was double the walk-up fare for the same trip & 4 times the price you could pay on that day.

In short, use raileurope BUT don't buy from them until you've checked out the local rail companies first so you know what the real prices are.

Thanks I really appreciate each of your relpies.

I bought the tickets though raileurope primarily because I understood their website. I'm not much of a bargin shopper and I just wanted to get everything done.

Is there anything else I should consider about the tickets that I bought other than possibly/probably being overcharged?

I bought two 1st class point to points open tickets between Budapest to Vienna to Prague to Munich at about $680 USD.

Bart

680 $ one way?????
For real?

Your money must burn holes in your pocket. You DID pay more than double.

The simple way would be to buy one-way tickets for the entire route (Budapest to Munich via Vienna and Prague) for about 150 Euro per person. They are valid for 2 month.

In any case: what you should know is that on day trains, buying tickets and seat reservation are two entirely separate processes. Your ticket does not guarantee you a seat, only the transportation. The chance that you won't get a seat in the 1st class is so minuscule though that reserving seats doesn't pay off.

<the ticket prices on RailEurope are often 50-80% over the official prices>

Let's have some examples that are not from the UK -compare Italian prices with RailEurope and see if they are anywhere at 50-80% higher than the official prices - in fact they may even be a few bucks lower!
So the facts to back up you
your statement - you certainly must have some reason to say 50-80% higher so now please show us!

Last month we bought 2 tickets from Prague to Budapest on an IC train.

I bought them in Prague at the Cedok travel agency on Na Prikope.

The sales clerk convinced me not to buy 1st class (and to save about $30. per ticket) as she felt IC trains are pretty nice.

We paid about $65. per ticket and the seat reservation was a couple of Euros max.

We actually didn't sit in our reserved seats (lucky there was lots of room on the train) as our seats were the first seats between the smoking and non-smoking sections.

Obviously the person who designed the train cars is a smoker. There was a plastic divider between the sections with the walk-way totally open.

There were 6 (rather rowdy) wommen in the last seats of the smoking section who were chimneys.

We moved to the back of the car.

Hi bar,

As noted, you have valid tickets.

You don't have guaranteed seats. For that you need to buy a reservation.

You can buy your seat reservations at the train stations as soon as you get to town.

Also ask your hotel if you can buy them from a travel agent, as this would usually be more convenient.

((I))

Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Eastern Europe, the ticket prices on RailEurope are often 50-80% over the official prices

Let's look at Germany -
Frankfurt-Berlin Reurope $174
bahn.de = 98 euro ($128)
RE about 35% higher

Berlin-Munich
RE $170
bahn.de 96-115 euro or $126-$150 depending on train - RE 35% higher in some cases but only 15% higher in others

Munich-Frankfurt
RE $108
www.bahn.de 75 euro or $98
RE about 10% higher

The statement that RE increases German prices of 50-80% just doesn't pan out in a brief comparison - maybe i'm missing something?

I like the way AlanRowe says it - do a comparison with RE and Europe train sites and take the best - at time folks will gladly pay a few more bucks for the convenience of having their tickets in hand. And yes RE's $15 order fee adds on if ordering only one or two tickets.
In any case the German fares show how quickly a German Railpass could come into play - $150 p.p. for a Twin Pass giving four days unlimited railing in Germany in a one-month period. www.bahn.de is charging $130 for Frankfurt-Berlin alone - just $20 cheaper than the pass for this one journey.
Anyway the 50-80% statement i don't think is correct except perhaps in UK or Eastern Europe as in the above Buda-Vienna-Praha-Munich fare.
don't throw the baby out with the bathwater and do comparison shopping which takes just a few minutes as with RE there can be significant fare differences - but not the blanket 50-80% surcharges as some say.

Switzerland
RE vs sbb.ch

Geneva-Zurich www.sbb.ch = 77 SF or $65
RE=$72 but on some trains $83
$72 is about 10% higher
$83 is about 30%

still looking for those "50-80" higher fares???
And RE sells Swiss Passes at cheaper prices than in Switzerland itself - figure out who is gouging who there?

Hey everyone! I have been reading all of your comments and advice on here and my fiance and are getting ready to buy our train tickets for our trip to Switzerland and Italy in Sept.

Our itineray is as follows:
--Sept. 11, fly into Zurich, take the train to Interlaken
--2 nights in Interlaken, 9/11 and 9/12
--9/13-14--Train to Venice, 2 nights in Venice
--9/15-16--take train to Cinque Terre, 2 nights there
--9/17-18--Train to Florence, 2 nights here
--9/19--Train to Siena, 1 night there
--9/20-21--Train to Rome, 2 nights there
--9/22--Fly out of Rome back to US

SO, in total we have 6 days of tran travel. We have priced it point-to-point vs. a "3 country pass" (both on RE) and the PASS comes out a little cheaper. Should we be looking at other websites (the local sites you speak of here) or just go with that. I think the total PASS price is around $350/person--does that seem about right or could we save more somewhere else?
Thanks for any help/suggestions you can give us!
M. Davis

A five-day pass would be good enough as the bus is a better bet Florence-Siena than train (train lets you off below the hill town; bus takes you up into it and bus costs about $10 i think - so a three country five day pass would be $325 each).
Your itinerary in Italy probably involves a few trains with mandatory reservations and if they're on Eurostar or ICp trains you'll have to pay up to $15 or so with a pass for the reservation. But on your itinerary i don't see many Eurostar possibilities or ICp so on IC trains you don't need reservations but can make them at a few euros. Sans eurostar trains the pass may be the best - it seems you checked but again local prices could be lower, especially in Switzerland than RailEurope prices. Real prices at www.sbb.ch or Italy www.trenitalia.com
For Italy check out if trains are Eurostar or ICp and thus require $15 surcharges with pass. The best and easiest schedules i've found are the www.bahn.de German Rail website, which has schedules for all of Europe. An easy way to reach their English schedule page is to go to: www.budgeteuropetravel.com and on their home page click on the link "All european Railway Schedules or some such nomenclature and then up pops the English schedule page where you just put in Venice and Monterosso (or any Ciqnue Terre town) and the date and you'll get all the trains for that date and time. Then hit the words details under the train schedule and it will then tell you more, such as whether reservations are compulsory or not and if it's an ES (eurostar) or ICp (InterCityPlus) train then with your pass you'll have to pay $15 or so. If you have many of these it may make the pass less worthwhile.

Not sure about the degree to which RE overcharges, but like altamiro, I'm not a big fan of the site.

I've been planning a month-long trip in September (par-swit-venice-slovenia-croatia-sarajevo. Though RE was great for getting a basic idea of my itinerary, but also confusing & misleading b/c it doesn't have a lot of the smaller towns available, and makes ALL train reservations appear required, when they aren't. I'm glad I stumbeled over this thread. You guys saved me from wasting about $100 on what I suspected were needless reservations, so thanks.

Also, I've decided on the Swiss Pass (since i'll be there for a week or so), but still have some lingering questions regarding specific segements of my itinerary that you all may be to answer better than any ticket agent.

1)noticed on RE labels the route btw lucerne and interlaken as'golden pass'. Is this a route on which reservations are required? Or, is the special name a gimmick to trick me into unnecessary reservs?
2) Ditto for Montreux to Gruyeres. I want to take a day trip from Montreux (my 2nd base during the wk).

3)Like meishad, i'll be heading to venice after a visit to the matternhorn. I'm thinking via Milan, but the 1 casalpino train leaves at 10am and really just wastes a day traveling? Any night trains? I'd be willing to take a longer night journey to have time during the day to do stuff. If it helps, i'll have extra travel days on my swiss pass that'll enable me to take a night route detour above the Itialian lakes, through Switzerland, and then down into italy (if such a route exists).

Thanks.

palq, jsut went to Budrailtrav site. Very very helpful. thanks.

www.railsaver.com is a good website to see if a pass is practical. Be sure to click "only if railpasses saves me money".

OK, a popular route: Munich to Salzburg

Bahn.de: 22,60 to 26 Euro single tickets, without taking in account Bayern-Ticket or such

Raileurope: 48 to 59 $ = +66% resp. +77%

satisfied?

>1)noticed on RE labels the route btw lucerne and interlaken as'golden pass'. Is this a route on which reservations are required? Or, is the special name a gimmick to trick me into unnecessary reservs?
2) Ditto for Montreux to Gruyeres. I want to take a day trip from Montreux (my 2nd base during the wk).

No reservation is requred for any of these trains. The trains on these routes are mostly normal commuter/regional trains with a few "scenic" carriages in between. Reservation is required for the special scenic seats in front of the Golden Pass trains from Montreux to Zweisimmen, but not for any other seats.

The only trains where you need a reservation is the dedicated "Glacier Express" or "Bernina Express" but on the same routes, additionally to the 1-2 daily "Express" trains there are dozen or more normal, local trains in any direction. The trains where you will meet day trippers from the nearest Swiss city or so, not couach tour groups wo usually fill the "Express" trains.

OK, a popular route: Munich to Salzburg
Fuzzy Math?
Bahn.de: 22,60 to 26 Euro single tickets, without taking in account Bayern-Ticket or such

Raileurope: 48 to 59 $ = +66% resp. +77%

satisfied?

my math:
Munich-Salzburg REurope most trains $48 - a few $59
bahn.de 26 euro (22.6 euro are for regional trains - RE only sells tickets for the IC and EC trains on this route thus we must use the 26 euro fare to compare apples to apples and not apples to oranges 26 euro=$34

RE $48 bahn.de $34 - most trains - this is a 40% mark up not 66% by my math

and for the few $59 fares RE sells where bahn has 26 e or $34 then this is a 52% mark up by my math not 77%

maybe you could explain where my math is wrong?

anyway your point is valid that RE marks up ticket prices but what i was objecting to is saying 90% of the time the markup is 60-80% - i still haven't been shown anything more than 52% and that on a few trains on that route - 40% is the rule. Now 40% is a good markup and you rightly point out that things are much cheaper in Germany, just that you may want to scale down the 60-80% claim.
Reservations are not required on Lucerne-Interlaken Ost Golden Pass trains - Golden Pass is a monniker created by the Swiss Travel System, incorporating the old name of the Panoramic Express. That said if you want a seat in the front of the dome cars in first class you should reserve, according to Swiss rail ticket windows in Interlaken where i've often asked.
The Montreux-Gruyeres-Broc Chocolated Express does require reservations and is first class only, using Belle Epoque Pullman cars and only runs once a day - it's more than transportation - includes visit to cheese factory in Gruyeres and Nestle plant in Broc. Yes regular trains go from Lausanne to Gruyeres constantly and you can't even reserve these.
I share your feelings about the official Bernina and Glacier Expresses - rather take the locals than be sitting in packed train with tour groups - and i think the Glacier Express is one of Europe's most overhyped trains - lots more scenic trains in Suisse than that and it's a long eight hour marathon ride from Zermatt to St Moritz/Chur/Davos - nice scenery but not spectacular. The name Glacier Express came from the glaciers the train once glided by on the Furka Pass area but a few decades ago a new tunnel now runs under the glacier area - tunnel being necessary to allow year round running of trains as the pass could become snow blocked. So even the name is bogus - though you will glimpse some glaciers in Zermatt area.
Bernina Express is Europe's top scenic train in my opinion - two daily services actually have open-air cars, on regular trains no reservations possible - and these are a true delight and yes this train does pass glaciers - get off at Bernina Ospiz and do the glacier walk around a lovely alpine lake.
I applaud your comments about RE ticket pricing. RE actually just raised ticket prices and they were not so out of kilter in Germany before - indeed in 2004 and 2005 many RE German ticket prices were below the www.bahn.de prices but with their recent readjustment as you rightly point out they are now significantly higher.
sincerely PQ

>Munich-Salzburg REurope most trains $48 - a few $59
bahn.de 26 euro (22.6 euro are for regional trains - RE only sells tickets for the IC and EC trains on this route thus we must use the 26 euro fare to compare apples to apples and not apples to oranges 26 euro=$34

RE $48 bahn.de $34 - most trains - this is a 40% mark up not 66% by my math

and for the few $59 fares RE sells where bahn has 26 e or $34 then this is a 52% mark up by my math not 77%

maybe you could explain where my math is wrong?

Let me try. I just looked at Raileurope and they DO sell tickets for RE trains at 48 $ one way. The IC tickets cost 59 $. At the current rate of 1.28 $/€, it means 46 € instead of 26, meaning you overpay by 20€ or 77%.
Official price = 100%
RailEurope price = 177%

Anyway, except of the quantitative disagreement about BY HOW MUCH Raileurope makes it's customers pay too much, I agree with you.

I think i'm using a different math than you -

26 euro and 46 euro i'd say was less than a 50% difference but i understand you may mean 100% diff because it's nearly twice as much - so maybe my math was fuzzy - so maybe what i took you to claim in posts far above i misunderstood in math terms. Anyway best wishes. PQ

OK, so I'm new to this forum and struggling with the purchase of train tickets between Paris and Venice for late July (so I need to get moving!). I've priced out RailEurope and come up with $608 for 2 seniors and 2 youths, 1st class, or $500 2nd class. Based on the comments in this forum, I'm trying to compare that with the French and Italian railroad sites directly, but always come up with some symbol that indicates these tickets cannot be purchased on line, even though reservations are required. They won't even give me comparative prices. What am I doing wrong? Can you book directly through these sites? Am I getting a good deal or a rip-off from RailEurope? Does one dare, in high season, wait until you get to Paris to purchase tickets? Would that be cheaper? Any thoughts?

friedmom: i'd copy your question over and put an apt heading on it like Buying Paris-Venice Tickets Online and make a new original post with your own headline, then i'm sure you'll get some sage advice. As it's now, buried at the end of an old thread that few will keep opening you'll unlikely to get a response.

Through this site, I learned about Budget Europe Travel Service. Their phone number is 800-441-9413 or 800-441-2387. They sell railpasses, tickets, and reservations, and they give great advice. They helped us tremendously with our trip planning!

Since you're discussing ticket prices here, could you tell me how much I should expect to pay on the hourly train (not Thalys) from Amsterdam to Brussels? Would like to know both 1st and 2nd class as I'm told first is easier with luggage.

For prices in U.S. and the special 50% off summer Thalys sale thru RailEurope - good for travel thru the end of August call BETS as in above post - they are the most helpful agency imagineable in my experience as well.

sorry you said non Thalys and i read Thalys - go to www.ns.nl - Dutch Railways web site for those fares - probably about $30-40 in 2nd class i suspect.

Hi "PAL Q"--your information is EXTREMELY helpful! I went to budgeteuropetravel.com and followed your instructions that took me to Die Bahn and I found some good info--but, I am having trouble finding out if there is a HIGH SPEED train (not sure which one that would be--IR, etc) from Milan to Venice. We are going to take a 'slower train' from Interlaken to Milan so we can see the sights, but in order to save some time, we would like to take the faster train from Milan to Venice. Is there an easy way to find that out or is it better to just wait until we get to Milan and look from there?
Thanks for your help!
M. Davis

Meishad - thanks for your generous compliment. There is no real high-speed train Milan-Venice - Italian high-speed trains, called Eurostar Italia (ES) trains only run at high-speeds on the basically all-new high-speed tracks built in the past decade and mainly between Milan, Florence, Rome and Naples. ES trains also run on other routes but not at high speeds they are capable of because of old and congested rail lines, such as the one between Milan and Venice. Though a high-speed railway is in the works on this line current ES trains that run this route are only marginally faster than other 'express' trains like EC (EuroCity) and IC (InterCity) - being 15 minutes faster probably because they don't stop as much or for as long. Regional (R) trains are much slower.
Milan-Venice by ES or CIS (Cisalpino trains from Switzerland) take 2:43 hr
IC and EC take 3:03 hr and R about 3.45-4 hr. Reservations are required only on ES and CIS trains and on the fairly new ICp (InterCityPlus) trains that the bahn.de site i just check doesn't have any on this route for the times i checked.
so go back to the bahn.de site and look at the symbols for trains and times - you'll see there is no trains much faster than any other on this line, even though there are ES trains that are about 20 mins faster - so i wouldn't worry just take any that convenient to you.
If you want to reserve online go to www.trenitalia.com and then you can make a reservation with ticket and either print out your own ticket at home - get a code to retrieve them at an ATM-like machine in stations or ticket window, or, in the case of ES trains mainly i think a code to give the conductor on the train.
In any case the cost of Milan-Venice is so cheap i wouldn't worry about scouring the trenitalia site for the discounted PREM tickets.
Ask in Switzerland, if not having a pass, to buy a Interlaken-Venice ticket via Milan and have them make the reservation. Though reservations are not mandatory on many non-ES trains this is changing quickly. If on the bahn.de site you click on details below the schedules it will then tell you whether reservations are compulsory on that train - if they are you should reserve in Switzerland as lines in Milan can be very long.

PalQ, I agree; you give good advice. Shortly after posting my query about the Paris to Venice route, I discovered budgettraveleurope.com and also found them very helpful. We purchased Paris-Milan tickets from them, but they advised us to purchase the Milan to Venice part once we got to Milan because the best connection was only a 15 minute change time, and one can't be sure the train will be on time. They said the Italian trains are not friendly about allowing you to use a ticket on a later train if you miss the first one. So we may have to wait an hour in Milan, but it's safer. They said there should be no problem getting tickets and 4 seats. Do you agree? It makes me a little nervous, since I'm used to the American way of reserving everything in advance, but they assured me it would be fine on the local trains that don't require reservations. Any thoughts?

Hi mom,

>They said the Italian trains are not friendly about allowing you to use a ticket on a later train if you miss the first one.<

I'm assuming that you will take the shuttle bus from MXP to Milan Centrale.

If you buy a ticket on an IC (not ES*) train, that ticket is good for any train that day.

You will not have a reserved seat if you miss your train. However, you can purchase a seat reservation for about 3E while waiting for the next train.

((I))

Friedmom: perhaps you could purchase the Milan-Venice train and reservations in Paris - leaving more than 15 minutes of course connecting time as yes trains can be late and Milano is a huge, huge station with dozens of tracks. Info is clearly labeled but it just takes time, with luggage, to navigate the maze of tracks.

Hi Sonny (oops, Ira) and PalQ; Thanks for the info. I think the issue was that the two trains we would have liked to have taken (one to Milan, the other from Milan to Venice) both required reservations at the time of ticket purchase, at least from the US, and the connection time was short, and the tickets were "non-exchangeable", at least at the price we paid. That's why we were warned not to purchase the 2nd leg of the journey in advance. Our tickets just arrived for the Paris to Milan trip, and we may well purchase the 2nd leg in Paris. We'll see if the train is leaving on time! Ira, I'm not sure what you mean about a shuttle from MXP to Centrale, since our Paris train goes to Milano Centrale. What's MXP? It's an interesting process, sorting this all out for first-timers like ourselves! Thanks for the help.

MXP is the Milan airport.

We're traveling in France in October, and I just did a search on RailEurope for round-trip tickets on the TGV for 2 in economy class from Paris to Avignon and was quoted $196 for one-way. By comparison, I searched sncf.com and the same train for 2 cost 70 Euro. I'm afraid it's looking like altamiro is right - Americans (and Asians) are paying for the rail subsidy of European countries? This totally sucks. Reservations are required for the TGV, so I don't understand how you could buy tix the day of in Paris? I called the Budget Europe Travel and they told me you will not necessarily get a cheaper ticket the day of, and then there's no guaranteed seat. Not to mention, who wants to wait in the train station all day hoping to get on a train. It's cheaper to rent a car for our five days into the country then for us to travel by train (even though going by train is much more preferred). Does anyone else have advice on how to find discounted fairs on the TGV?