I was recently on ACPRail - the pass I was looking at was a senior pass for 4 days in 1 month - the price was $301. I then went to
what I believe was BritRail site directly at traintickets.com and the Britrail pass (flexible) for 4 days within 1 month of travel was
$281.50. My friend is reluctant to use the BritRail site directly because so many people use the ACPRail site.
I think ACPRail is a distributer and adding $20 to the pass. Does anyone know about using the Britrail site directly?
Posted by
Lake District, England
11474 posts
There is no means to buy Britrail as a first party. The Britrail website will just direct you to ACP rail who are technically a third party- https://www.britrail.com/how-to-book/
Looking it up (on the Britrail site) according to ATOC (Association of Train Operating Companies- the umbrella body for all UK train companies) authorised distributors are ACP rail, internationalrail.com, trainline, traintickets.com and Rail Europe.
https://www.britrail.com/how-to-book/
Most people buy through ACP rail, but presumably traintickets.com have some kind of special offer on.
As they are an authorised distributor (and are a legitimate company) if they are cheaper then there is no obvious reason not to buy from traintickets.com
Posted by
Arctophilia, Northamptonshire, England
36594 posts
ATOC was replaced by Rail Delivery Group in 2017 so it is possible that an ATOC page may be out of date.
Generally though, I think the information correct.
It is possible that the discrepancy is down to exchange rates.
"traintickets.com" is a new 3rd party to me - I've never heard of them. Just because I haven't heard of them doesn't make them bad though...