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Orgent- Thalys reservation problem

To Rick Steves' Travel Dept.: When we purchased our Eurail passes several weeks ago (which I didn't realize you sold at the time), I e-mailed Eurail about how to buy first class Thalys passes for a one way trip from Psris to Amsterdam. I was told I had to deal with Thalys directly. I first e-mailed their customer service department, but was told that they did not make reservations and that I had to phone their reservation office in Europe. I phoned their, made a semi-flex reservation for a decent fare, but then found out my Visa Sapphire card payment would not go through. I called back several times after (before and after the recent strike), and eventually found out from the representative I spoke with today that they are no longer accepting any foreign credit card payments because they lost 3 million euros in 1 month due to bad credit cards recently (and have since refused to accept foreign credit cards). At this point, I feel like panicking because both full fare first class and Pass 2 fares have gone up a lot and there are no other trains that travel from Paris to Amsterdam. The representative I spoke with recommended that my son make a reservation and pay with cash when he goes to Paris in late June to study, but I would prefer not putting the burden on him (and am also concerned that fares will be even higher then). What should I do? Thank you for your prompt assistance.

Posted by
4406 posts

First of all, this is a travel forum comprised of regular 'ol travelers; no RS staff involved. Having said that, we have a lot of traveling experience between all of us. Second, what is your exact travel date? How many people are traveling? What exact type of railpass do you have? We can help you get this worked out with that info... Breathe ;-)

Posted by
32519 posts

Randy, if it is Urgent, are you still here? Do you still need help?

Posted by
32519 posts

guess not... sorry you didn't let us help