I have read that companies like Rail Europe and Eurail often sell tickets for incorrect times. I don't see how that is possible. Has anyone had any experience with these companies?<BR>Thanks.<BR>

I've bought train tickets off the Internet and have never had a problem. I even returned tickets from the US and got a refund. I like to get my tickets before I go so I don't have to think about it.

I would not buy anything from Rail Europe. <BR><BR>There are no reasons that I can think of to buy from them. For starters, you will pay at least 25% more for the same ticket. Once I priced a ticket that was 60% more expensive than the exact same ticket bought in Paris. You can deal directly with all of the national rail sites over Internet, and you can check schedules right at the horses mouth so to speak. The French, German, Swiss, Austrian, British, Polish, and other national sites are at your finger tips on Internet. Rail Europe is not a charity and your contributions to its profits are not tax deductible. <BR><BR>If you don't believe me dial into this site: mercurio.iet.unipi.it/misc/timetabl.html <BR>And an icon for every rail system west of Siberia will appear. Some of them are in the native language, so useless to me. But the German system is in English and so is the French and the Swiss. For Western Europe, the German site is virtually comprehensive.<BR>But if you learn to play with the better ones you can get a lot of information. The one fact that is hard to learn, however,is international pricing. Sometimes you have to approximate it with two national tickets.<BR>The French site is the best for pricing on trips that originate in France and don't make more than one change.<BR>

To pick up again on the theme that Rail Europe charges ridiculous prices, let's take a quick comparison of Swiss Rail Passes. Look at the comparisons below.<BR>Rail Europe prices can be as much as SEVENTY THREE PERCENT, that is 73% M O R E than the same ticket bought in Europe!!!!!<BR><BR>Here is the example. The first column is Rail Europes price in US green money.<BR>The second column is the price in Swiss Francs converted into US dollars equivalent. Same pass, same trains, same seats, same scenery, same dollars. Just different prices.<BR><BR>Flexi Pass RE Price Swiss Price<BR>3 days in one month $156 $96.00<BR>4 days " $184 $142.80<BR>5 days " $212 $163.20<BR><BR>The 3 day Flexpass bought from Rail Europe is $60.00 or 62.5% more expensive than the exact same pass bought in Switzerland. And that is BEFORE shipping at $10 PER TICKET!<BR>That makes the final price of the 3 day ticket 73% more expensive if bought from RE!!!!!<BR> <BR>At least the 5 day pass is only 36% more expensive!! They are certainly doing us a big whopping favor. <BR><BR>The same pass in Switzerland is exactly that, the same. You walk up to the first train window you can find, plunk down your money, take your pass, have it validated, and go get on the blooming train, at substantially less money. In fact, you can go first class for the difference in cost.<BR><BR>Here is my methodology if you are curious. One Swiss franc, chf, today sold for almost 60 US cents, $$.5933 to be exact. The percentage difference is d%. I used this calculation. <BR><BR>d% = (RE Price - Swiss Price)/ Swiss P<BR>For the 3 day pass, d% = .625.<BR>If you multiply $96.00 by 1.625 you get $156.00 In my book that is 62.5% more expensive. <BR>The prices in chf for the Flexi Pass were 176, 238 and 272 for the 3 passes listed. I multiplied the Swiss Franc price, which I read off of the official Swiss Web site by .6 to get US dollar equivalent prices. <BR><BR>

Bob, I agree with you, but sometimes I think you go a little overboard--we would have taken your word for it (the percentages, that is).

Sorry, but where I grew up, and where I worked my whole career, you made no statements involving calculations that you could not back up with facts.<BR>And if you did not show your methodology your statements were not substantiated. It simply wasn't done.<BR>So if I am going to say it is x percent, then I need y proof of fact.<BR>If you cannot back up, it didn't happen and it isn't true.<BR>