Rail Europe

Bashing Rail Europe is a favorite past time of regular posters here...no, it's not just you.

Keep after them. They will reply eventually. I called them one Saturday morning and got right through and the lady was extremely helpful. But follow-up emails and calls were a real challenge, but they eventually did respond. Be sure you try all of the ways to contact them, including the "Contact Us" part of their website. They seem to pay more attention to that than anything else. Also keep trying phone calls at different times and days. Once you do get through, they are pretty helpful.

No, it is not you. If you had spent any time of this site earlier you would have found lots of comments on Rail Europe. It is a travel agency or resell of train tickets. They do not list all of the trains available only the trains they have tickets for. None of the discounts that are available are listed. Some times R Europe price might equal what you can get at the local rail site but most times higher.

"Bashing Rail Europe is a favorite past time of regular posters here" With good reason. Really though, is telling the people the truth about them "bashing"? To be fair, Rail Europe is a good place to get rail passes (except rail passes are rarely a good deal). But as Frank points out, they sell tickets for a limited number of trains and usually at a markup (sometimes a very large markup).

I recently used RailEurope for a France train ticket because it seemed the only way to get an emailed ticket. But I checked the price on the SNCF web site at the same time to make sure it was pretty much the same. And while the process wasn't 100% smooth, it basically went fine.

Have you ever seen Rail Europe sell a ticket Rome -> Venice on the high speed luxury trains for 9 Euros? And you never will because they don't offer the specials like Trenitalia. I just bought 16 ticket Rome -> Venice for our summer group trip...9 Euros each. Cheapest price on RE for my date is $129 each. So I can either pay $2000+shipping from RE or I can pay 144E with no shipping and print at home. That's why I avoid RE whenever possible.

I absolutely avoid RailEurope whenever possible.

Well, it is good to hear I am not the only one. I will avoid them at all costs in the future. If they don't refund my money soon, I will post on their facebook website all the issues I have run across so far.

I bought train tickets for one leg in Spain on raileurope-world recently - primarily because the Renfe site is at least as hard to use.

"None of the discounts that are available are listed." As we have discussed many times, and as Brad and others have demonstrated, RailEurope DOES offer the Web discounts on Renfe trains (Spain). Depending on th euro/dollar exchange, they can be within a dollar or two of the price on Renfe. (Yes, there is a small agency fee, but hard to complain about when you are getting a 60% discount on the ticket). Just keeping you honest.

"They sell at a markup" Hmm.. that would be why they were less then either Eurostar.com or TGV.com on my Paris London trip? Markup? Honestly, they can be higher and can be lower. Sorry about the OPs issues. I have booked with them several times and never had an issue. So no expereince with what happens then (I did have an issue with Renfe. I can tell you that if that happens start with the credit card company don't waste time anyplace else :) )

Carol, you left out the word "usually". I said they usually sell at a markup. For Frankfurt to Munich, a common route, RailEurope charges $147 for an ICE ticket, which comes with a reservation. That ticket is subject to a 22% penalty if you return it before the travel date. DB sells a completely refundable ticket for €95 ($125.40); a non-refundable reservation is €4 ($5.30). But that's for a highly visible route. Less visible routes have a much bigger markup. In 2008 I went from Cochem to Bad Harzburg (north of the Harz N.P.) via a 2 hour stopover in Köln. Five days later I went from Walkenried (south of the Harz) to Karlsruhe. RailEurope's current price for those two trips, less a regional segment that they don't sell at all, is $422. The regional segment is €11.65 ($15.38), so buying from RailEurope would cost one $437. From DB, full fare tickets (completely refundable except the two $5 reservation) would have totaled €190 ($251), a little more than half of RE. I actually bought the tickets online with a Savings Fare, which today, with reservation, would cost €66 ($87.12). In a little over 10 years I have only once seen a RailEurope fare even a little less than a Bahn fare. I think that was due to a change in the exchange rate since RailEurope had adjusted their fares to $.

Dave, they don't seem like the type to respond well to that sort of behaviour.

What I like on here is the "automatic" assumption that "A" will be higher. And it may be but... "one size fits all" is generally not a good way to travel.

Carol, I knew going in they were more expensive, but I wanted to book reservations on the first two train trips when I arrive. One trip is from Barcelona to Arles, while the second trip is from Nice to Riomaggario. I probably would not have complained, except I was sent two reservation sets instead of one. Rail Europe's online website (for making reservations) did not work correctly and sent me two sets of reservations. There is even an online cancel procedure which did not work. Within minutes of noticing this glitch, I tried to call the help line. After about 45 minutes, I gave up and sent an email. 2-3 days later, I received a response telling me to mail (with tracking and signature) the reservations back to "customer relations". I was to include a letter explaining what happened and "customer relations" would evaluate the situation. As a side-note, and this is just my opinion, but I believe there was plenty of time for Rail Europe to stop my order before it was actually mailed. The fact it took 2-3 days for them to notice my email let the mistake go through their system. Anyway, I mailed my reservations back to Rail Europe on March 14th at my expense, and I also sent them an email with tracking information. I received an email last Thursday (3/22) saying they had not received my tickets. They said using US postal service is not recommended and I should have used Fed Ex or something like that. My last email to them was that I have a copy of their employee signing for the tickets on 3/19, so they did receive them. I have yet to hear anything back. Late next week, I will call my CC company and revoke the charges if nothing has happened.