I just checked on ticket prices from ams to paris one way in may and the price has gone up to 80 dollars from 49! should I get my ticket before they go up any more, I flew point to point under advice itd be cheaper and the prices just jump up ridiculously. For a ticket thats for 2 1/2 3 months away should i just get it now or it there another option?
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
Where are you getting your fares? What date do you wish to travel?
The price for a standard Comfort 2 (2nd class) Librys single (one-way) ticket from Amsterdam to Paris has been 105€ for a long time. The Smilys return (roundtrip) fare is 70€. Book an arbitrary return date and throw away the unused portion. The new Mini single fare is 25€.
You can book at www.thalys.com up to 90 days in advance. To get a Mini fare you'll need to book as soon as the 90-day window opens (after midnight French time). Smilys fares should be available a few days longer. You can print your own Smilys and Mini tickets. Even though you'll be starting in Amsterdam, choose France and English.
You can't print Librys tickets so to pick them up in Amsterdam you have two choices: (1) Choose the Netherlands and English. The site will switch to Dutch when you reach the booking stage. (2) Buy a ticket when you get to Amsterdam. In either case the fare will be 105€.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
One more thing: You could take a Eurolines coach. The standard fare is 37€ and you can get a Promo fare of 12€ if you book well in advance. It's a long ride, but one of your choices would be to travel overnight, saving you the cost of a night in a hotel. Go to www.eurolines.com. After you choose the Netherlands as your departure country the site will switch to Dutch, but you can click on an English link.
Posted by
OP
boston
64 posts
well the far on rail europe site is 89.00 and up. But- I looked on thalys last night and found a 39.00 fare and i will check out the other websites you gave me. I still have a good amount of time to book for may 23rd and was wondering how the prices jump so high so fast, you have to book like 4months in advance to get a good deal!
The whole country thing you explained is still confusing, I will probably do thalys. I see that eurolines is a bus- yikes. I don't think I could do that!
Posted by
OP
boston
64 posts
On thalys I can get comfort 2 youth fare for 52 and a MINI fare for 25eur. What is mini, it sounds too good, do they just strap you to the train and that is why it is so cheap?
Posted by
Alabama
108 posts
Alayna, I believe Thalys chose an appropriate name for the Mini-Fare due to the mini-sized seats in the carriage (a tad better than being strapped on, ha!). I am also getting the Mini-Fare, and was doing a dummy-booking trial run, and always ended up with seats in carriage #8, once lower deck seats, and once upper deck seats. On the Thalys site, click on Practical Travel Guide, then under the heading of During, click on Train Diagrams, scroll to the bottom where you will find carriage 8. You'll see that it has 73 seats, compared to 56 seats in the other Comfort 2 carriages. I'm definitely not an authority on trains, but this was my take on it.