Hello all, I have purchased a France/Italy flexi saver Eurail pass with the rail protection plan for travel in Oct. Readyto book my seat reservations and find that they are more than the price quoted in the guides. Besides that confusion I am faced with deciding,or not,to purchase "total rail protection". My understanding is that this protects the seat reservation while the other insurance I bought protects the pass. However the seat insurance is pretty expensive. For example 2 seats @ $30.00 and the ins is an additional $19.90. Necessary? Thanks! Cheryl
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
I haven't heard of this. Who is making this offer? You do have the option of waiting until you get there before you get your seat reservations. Of course that means you go to the train stations and in France, you can't go to the ticket machines because they only accept credit cards with chip and pin. You'll have to go to a ticket agent that will provide the seat reservations. In France, your pass will get you on the Regionale type trains. There is a 9Euro supplemental fee for TGV and InterCite type trains. France also limits their seats to passholders but its usually not a problem. Perhaps this the reason for some type of seat protection insurance. In Italy, you will pay a 10Euro supplemental fee for each high-speed train that you will be on. No limitation of the seats for passholders. You can ride the Regionale-type trains at no extra cost and no limitations. You do have the choice of waiting until you get to Europe.
Posted by
OP
Thornton, Colorado USA
11 posts
I bought my pass from Rail Europe and also was going to make seat reservations with them. would rather do as much ahead of time as possible even though I know this is not a peak travel time.
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
IMHO, RailEurope counts on you wanting all of your tickets before you depart to avoid having to transact in the train stations while on vacation. They also seem to have decided that you will pay dearly for this advance purchase feature. It's all your choice at this point.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19240 posts
RE seems to stand for "Really Expensive".
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23569 posts
RE is not the best source for those services. And why are you buying all that insurance. What is the purpose of seat insurance? Never heard of it. Just get your seat reservation a day or two before.
Posted by
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
4085 posts
Many posts indicate that the number of seat reservations available for holders of passes is limited. If so, trying to reserve a day or so before travel may run up against a "full" train or at least no seats available for passes. There is a trade-off for advance reservations: The commitment reduces flexibility but also reduces the risk. As an aside, I am bewildered at this apparent North American obsession with European rail passes. So many posts indicate a great deal of bother with reservations etc. RailEurope is often more expensive than direct purchases, and point-to-point tickets appear cost-efficient unless the traveller intends to ride the rails almost every day.
As always, the fall-back position for any railroad topic is www.seat61.com