I'm a little nervous b/c I just bought 2 Thalys tickets. I thought the ticket was from Brugges, to Brussels, then to Paris. When I look at the ticket, it only says, "Departure: Bruxelles-Midi and Arrival: "Paris Nord.
It is a non-flex ticket. I seee nothing on here indicating that we our Departure starts in Brugges. And the other thing is, when I am reading Rick Steves' Belgium book, he says the average price for a Thalys ticket from Brussels, 2nd Class, is between 60 and 80 Euros. We did buy in advance. Won't be using ticket until September 19th. But we only paid 72 Euros for 2 tickets. So, of course I am worried I did something wrong. Any ideas????
Posted by
New Paltz, NY
9110 posts
Look over your tickets again. Your ticket from Bruges to Brussels will just be a "general" ticket valid for any departure...so there will be no date or departure time printed on them. This is normal is as you can't make reservations on regular inter-city trains. Your Thalys ticket from Brussels to Paris is only valid for a specific departure so it will have a specific date and time printed on it. As for the pricing, Rick's estimates are a bit off. If you book early it's not uncommon to get Thalys fares for as little as 25 euros.
Posted by
Danville, VT
12040 posts
To clarify- the leg of your trip between Brugge and Brussels is operated by the domestic Belgian rail service, NMBS. Your ticket from Thalys covers both portions of the route. But whereas Thalys operates like an airline - the tickets assigns you a specific seat on one particular train at a certain time- on NMBS, there are no seat reservations and it doesn't matter which train you take. So, you can take a train from Brugge that arrives in Brussels hours before your Thalys train leaves, or one that arrives minutes beforehand. Your choice, as long as you arrive in time for your connection.
Posted by
Wyckoff, NJ, USA
7887 posts
I will admit that I haven't done this (OP itinerary) in over a year, but I have done it in the past, from Antwerp. I believe that the ticket used to say "Any Belgian Station". I also recall a post on TripAdvisor that said, in the last year or so, that "Any Belgian Station" was no longer the free, default ticket issuance. It now has to be ed from a drop-down box and costs slightly more. As noted, I'm not 100% sure of this, so I hope someone else will post. It is also possible that I'm confusing Eurostar and Thalys practices.
Posted by
Wyckoff, NJ, USA
7887 posts
Bets, for a slightly different point of view, I want to offer this TripAdvisor thread, which says that ABS has some limitations and time-span limits: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g188644-i205-k5105976-Thalys_All_Belgian_Stations_fare_how_does_it_work-Brussels.html and here's a related thread: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g188644-i205-k5281420-Thalys_Tickets_and_Any_Belgian_Station-Brussels.html