Hello, my family and I are traveling to Budapest in November. I purchased train tickets a month ago to travel to Vienna November 3rd than our plans changed. Now I have 4 tickets that I can't use. The train company will not refund or change our tickets. I disputed this, but it didn't work. Any suggestions on what I can do with the 4 extra tickets? -Andy
Posted by
Atlanta, GA, USA
215 posts
Andy,
Did you book on Rail Europe from BudaPest to Vienna? I booked on them but going from BudaPest to Munich mid November. We booked 1st class and they are non refundable but I thought you could change the date but we are told no changes.
My only suggestion in case the train is cancelled due to border closings or train cancellations, is to ask for a change in person. But we will do that only if we see an issue when we arrive in BudaPest on November 11th. We have 4 days before our November 15th tickets.
That would be my only suggestion and maybe go ahead and go to Vienna. It is beautiful! I would hate to lose 4 tickets.
Kathy
Kathy
Posted by
Vienna, Austria
5507 posts
RailEurope is ridiculous. As is this site's relationship with RailEurope. RS caters to a specific group of green and nervous travelers looking for advice. This site is constantly steering them (look at the home page!) to rail passes, inflated ticket prices and a real old school way. RS traveler's needs to realize that point to point (even on the day of travel!) purchased from the national rail companies is pretty much the way to go for ease and cost. They won't wake up, though, unless RS untwines themselves with RailEurope and stops selling their products.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
To get back on topic, Andy didn't say where he bought his tickets from ("the train company" could be any one of several entities). Andy, if you post this, people can give better advice.
If you bought non-refundable, non-exchangeable tickets, you're probably stuck. Even if you made a mistake and caught it one hour later, they really mean it when they say "non-refundable, non-exchangeable" - for any reason.
However, depending on the particular ticket, some of them require some form of ID to be used with the ticket (credit card, passport, etc), and some do not. If it does not require ID, you may be able to give or sell the ticket to someone else legitimately. If it requires ID, no one else can use them, and they just turned into scrap paper. Advance tickets from German Rail (Bahn) require the credit card used to purchase the ticket; advance tickets from Italian Rail (Trenitalia) are just a PNR number, so someone else could use them. I don't know which kind of ticket you have.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
I purchased the tickets through Mav-csoport, the Hungarian train company. Since I purchased them early, I got them for about $60 USD, so 15 each. Right after I purchased them I realized that we were leaving Budapest the next day. Thanks for all of the advice!
Posted by
Magyarország / Rep of Texas
20159 posts
Ya done well Andy. But i think you are stuck with them.
Here is an oddity of possible interest. Last week I used the ticket machine at Nyugati Station. I put my American no chip card in the machine and it asked for a PIN. Oops! So rather than cancel the purchase I entered 4 random numbers. Got my tickets. Don't bank on this. It may have just been a fluke.