RailEurope had previously announced a half-off Thalys Summer special where full fares were discounted by 50%. But the new RE special beats that as fares of 'about $16' are being offered for all Thalys services from Paris to Belgium and Holland (not on German services) and the ABS (All Belgian Station fare is not honored with these tickets as they are with regular Thalys tickets (where you have 48 hours to take a free train ride to or from any Belgian station in conjunction with a Thalys ticket.
Of course you'll have to pay a $15 booking fee per order, not per ticket, and RailEurope's mailing fee of $15 (for orders under $200 - they have free mailing over $200) - i always recommend BETS (800-441-2387) for any such RailEurope bookings as they are experts and will charge only a $5 mailing fee. Even with the booking and mailing fees this seems like a real deal. Now as often is the case with such fab promos we'll see if tickets are really available - they are limited in number so if taking the Thalys before Aug 31, 2006 act quickly for this fare. (these special tickets are sold only thru June 30, 2006 and travel must be done between July 1 and Aug 31, 2006.

though these tickets may be hard to book many days i suspect the aspect of those traveling with railpasses can be great - instead of using a day on a pass to go between paris and Amsterdam you'd buy instead one of these tickets, which may cost even less than the normal supplement charged on these trains to railpass holders. So save a day on a pass and this could be significant with the Eurail Select Pass which has increments of 5, 6 and then 8 days. If you're buying an 8-day pass because you'll need 7 travel days, downsize to 6 and save about $100!

Now that's a special.

TOPPING for those seeking bargain fares.

ttt