Can't figure out how to buy 2nd class rail passes for 2 of us. We are both over 60 years. Any combination I enter, I seem to get the price for 1st class travel.
I'm interested in a 4 country, 6 travel days, 2nd class, for 2 over 60. The 4 countries are: France, Germany, Austria, and Italy.
Do they even sell 2nd class passes for adults? Any help is appreciated!!
No, they don't sell 2nd-class passes for adults for either 3 or 4 countries on the Select Pass. You do get first class and save 15% when you mark that you're always traveling together, called the Saver discount; the current price for that is $402 per person.
I recommend reserving any French TGV trains that you need in the same booking, before checking out, at https://ricksteves.raileurope.com/us/rail/point_to_point/triprequest.htm.
You really need to spend some time determining if you want or need a rail pass. Twenty, thirty years ago a rail pass was a no brainer. Today, with deep discount available for advance sales, surcharges for seat reservations, and in France the limitations on seats available for pass holder makes the value of a rail pass questionable. And, as you just found out, you cannot ride second class on a pass. Without knowing your schedule, I cannot judge if a rail pass makes economic sense - most likely it does not especially for Italy. A rail pass may provide some convenience but at a substantial cost.
You might also want to follow this discussion
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/transportation/booking-reservations-on-tgv-high-speed-train-from-munich-to-paris-with-a-global-select-rail-pass
joanens
You may have decided that you are definitely getting a rail pass, and if so I wouldn't want to have you feel negatively.
But if you are only doing 6 trips you may very well be better off not.
If your country list is the order of your journey, could you possibly be planning something like
Train Day 1 - Paris to Munich.
Train Day 2 - Munich to Innsbruck or Salzburg or Vienna
Train Day 3 - that Austrian city to Venice
Train Day 4 - Venice to Florence
Train Day 5 - Florence to Orvieto or Florence to a town in the Cinque Terre
Train Day 6 - Orvieto or Cinque Terre town to Rome
If so it is unlikely that a pass would save much or any money or aggravation if you are able to commit to specific trains like you would commit to specific flights if you were flying.
If you are far enough out that you can benefit from the extraordinary deals available with a little work on the national railways for each country websites you can save wheelbarrows of money and aggravation.
A pass in France will require a separate purchase of a reservation, quota controlled.
If you buy your tickets in France (or tickets ahead) you can get really good prices and the reservation is included.
The same is true for every leg of a journey in Italy which is not on the very slowest of trains. Often a low priced advance ticket on the high speed trains is not much different in price to the pass-holder mandatory reservation fee, and you have a day of pass use on top of that.
If you are open to us helping you work through the differences for you could you please post the dates, times of day, and origin/destination for those 6 train days? If the railpass is better for you we will say.
In one of his travel skills programs Rick mentions that the Eurail passes (global and select) are only available (to adults) for 1st class - what he calls "forced luxury".
Eurail does sell "youth" passes (under 26 yo) in 2nd class. There are also single country passes available from Eurail for 2nd class.
Good advice on rail passes, and much else riding the rails, from the dependable www.seat61.com
Some of us on this forum (well, me) think would-be train customers should start the other way round: Work out the point-to-point prices first and only then compare pass packages. Whatever may have been true in the past, passes now have a fairly limited appeal and contain hidden hazards such as the need to purchase mandatory seat reservations separately.
I agree with Southam 100%.
Here's an excellent discussion of the issues in buying passes vs. buying tickets, from The Man In Seat 61. Make sure you fully understand all his points before buying anything: http://tinyurl.com/bkw4u6c
If you need any more help, post your exact itinerary with dates, and lots of us can assist.
Hello -
Before you purchase consider/check into another factor. In Spain, perhaps in other counties also, the national railways offers special discounts to seniors 60 or more years. It is called a Tarjeta Dorada, costs 6 euros for one year, and offers discounts of 40% off train fares on weekdays and 25% off on weekends. Maybe Spain is not the only country with similar policies... Have you looked into this? In Italy standard rail fares are very, very low. In Germany Lander/family ticket offers abound. Then, of course, there is always buying advance tickets on line for discounts up to 60% off standard fares. All of these should be carefully considered before you shell out something like $800 for two rail passes.
