I recently purchased a Eurail Italy pass for my daughter and myself for 4 travel days in June. I have found it confusing. There is a "Control Voucher Flexi" and also a "Flexi".?? When I tried to reserve some of the trentalia trains on italierail.com it asks for my passholder number. I see 3 different numbers and I am not sure which to use. One is CIV followed by 9 numbers and a letter a or b. Second is a stamped number at the bottom of each page. Finally there is a 3rd number which is a letter followed by 7 numbers which is on the travel log page. Can anyone give a simple explanation of these passes and which number to use? thanks for the help!
Posted by
Vienna, Austria
5534 posts
You should probably contact the company which sold you the pass for customer support. As you have found, rail passes are not ideal, but rather expensive and confusing. Point to point tickets are almost always the better option.
Maybe read this and decide whether or not you want to keep your passes:
http://www.seat61.com/Railpass-and-Eurail-pass-guide.htm#railpass-or-point-to-point-tickets
Posted by
Pa and Italy
4152 posts
Is there any way you can cancel this pass? Rail passes are not of great value in Italy and it's usually cheaper and easier to buy point to point tickets.
I would contact customer service to see how to use the pass you bought if you cannot cancel it.
Donna
Posted by
Green Bay
21373 posts
It would be very unusual to find a sold out train. You can always reserve at the station on the day of travel if the train requires reservations. Or all at once when you arrive in Italy.
Posted by
OP
Ohio
10 posts
Thank you for the input. I calculated the costs of a pass vs. individual tickets and the cost was very similar, mainly because we are on a tight schedule and some of the cheaper tickets are sold out. Plus my travel partner received a student rate (23 years old) which saved money. I believe I figured out which number to use but from what I am reading I don't really need to reserve a seat until the day before or the same day we travel.
Posted by
Vienna, Austria
5534 posts
If you used this site or the Rail Europe site to calculate fares, then be advised those are inflated prices. I say this because I think it is truly impossible for a rail pass to come out the same as properly calculated point to points. Hopefully, you went to the websites of the country rail sites to calculate your fares.
Posted by
Pa and Italy
4152 posts
Also, did you add the reservation fees for each trip to the cost of your pass? There are no additional fees when you buy point to point tickets but you must add the fees to the pass. Usually it's 10 euros per trip for each person. I would go back and re-do the math to see if you really are getting a good deal. If you take 4 different trips that's another 40 euros each to add to the cost of your pass.
Donna