canceling raileurope tickets?

Posted by Melissa (Boise, ID, United States) on 05/02/09 04:35 PM

I purchase two tickets through raileurope, May 17 Paris to Arles and May 20 Arles to Nice for a total of $302. I tried booking these through the tgv website as a UK resident but kept getting error messages every time I tried completing the purchase. I just read another post regarding how much of a rip off raileurope is and I'm concerned I paid way too much. Does anyone have experience canceling their order and how much they would charge for it? Their office is closed until Monday so I can't ask them.

If I am able to cancel, is there another website to book through that would save more money? I tried over five times to book through tgv and it just would not work.

Posted by Jeff

Bend, OR, United States

05/02/09 04:42 PM

1167 posts

If you go to the RailEurope website and type "cancellation" in the search window at the top right you will lots of information about cancellation and refunds.

Posted by Melissa OP

Boise, ID, United States

05/02/09 06:17 PM

158 posts

So with a 15% cancellation charge and a 5% admin fee, I would be refunded about $250. Now it seems I can't even search tgv for comparative fares, same error message. Even I were to get cheaper fares, at the end won't it ask for a UK mailing address?

Should I just accept this price as a first timer, learning experience cost and move on?

Posted by Tigerfan

Hickory, NC USA

05/04/09 05:36 AM

491 posts

I booked TGV tickets on voyages-SNCF.com and selected the option to pick up my tickets in the station. I will say, there were some days that the site just didn't work. Also, I should I add that I did this in French since I was a French major undergrad and even though many years have passed, I can still read pretty well.

I looked for you this morning and the cheapest for two adults paris - arles is 128.6 Euros and Arles to nice is 64 Euros. There may be some type of sale or special that I didn't request that could make it cheaper, but that's what I found on a quick look. The good deals seem to mostly be available about 60 days out.

So, you are looking at about $254 anyway (and you may have your first choice of train times instead of just the cheapest) so you may as well stick with what you have since it is relatively close to travel time. No need to cause yourself a bunch of extra stress worrying about it.