Rail pass and train reservation help - EurAide is wonderful!

Wow! The answer to a question no one asked. I always wonder about unsolicited recommendations, particularly when they are, IMO, a little too glowing. Don't get me wrong, I occasionally suggest Euraide, particularly when someone has mistakenly gotten themselves into a bind. But Euraide, in my opinion, is a resource of next to last resort (the last usually being RailEurope).

You shouldn't normally get yourself into the situation of having to avail yourselves of one of these "cost added" resources.

First, there is only rarely a case where advance tickets or reservations are required. In most cases this is to take advantage of some of the great promotional fares from German Rail (Dauer-Spezial) or French Rail (PREMS) - neither Euraide nor RailEurope offers these fares. You have to go directly to the rail website.

Secondly, rail passes and night trains are probably an indication that you are trying to go to far. Pare down the scope of your travel, spend a lot less, and discover that Europe can be a travel bargain and come back again, instead of spending all of your time and money getting from farflung place to farflung place and concluding that Europe is not worth it.

Railpass night train reservations are hard to find online. In many cases you can get global tickets (rail and accommodations) online for the same, more or less, as the cost of reservations and a day of your railpass.

In all cases, before I went anywhere else, I would try German Rail (+49 1805 996633) in Germany. They can sell you tickets at the European prices (no fee), charge your credit card, and either mail them to you or send you a pdf file to print out at home.

So german rail might be one of the best options then? This topic seems to bring up so many various view points

Euraide has an office in the Hauptbahnhof in Munich with a German Rail terminal. They can book any ticket which German Rail can, at the same price that German Rail can, but they charge $50 to send it over here.

Just to put this in perspective, last November I traveled from Cochem (Mosel) to Bad Harzburg, a town on the northern edge of the Harz park.

The price if I had booked full a fare ticket from the Bahn would have been $130 (€95 at 1.37 ex. rate).

The price of the same ticket booked through Euraide would have been $180 ($130 plus $50 fee).

The price of tickets (Cochem to Hannover plus Hannover to Bad Harzburg) from RailEurope would have been $204.

I booked a Dauer-Spezial-Ticket through the Bahn website for $42 (€31 at 1.36 ex. rate). That was $138 less than through Euraide and $162 less than through RailEurope - for a ticket that cost me $42.

Now to be fair, the $50 Euraide fee only applies once, so with more tickets or reservations the difference would have been less. But my saving would still have been $88 plus a share of the fee.

Any questions?

Question for Lee --

On the bahn.de site, I just booked a round trip Berlin-Dresden, in first class, for 58 EUR (plus 6 EUR for seat reservations).

I did not get the Dauer-Spezial-Ticket, which was 98 EUR. The Sparpreis 50 option was only 58 EUR.

What's the difference? The conditions seem pretty much the same -- you have to take the train you booked, but the Sparpreis 50 allows you to change your ticket for a 15 EUR fee. The more expensive Dauer-Spezial-Ticket does not.

Lee, To be fair to Krista she is just trying to pass along helpful information. I too have used Euraide and been very pleased! They charge one 50.00 fee no matter how many reservations they are booking for you) I required several reservations for our entire family. For a first time traveler who has concerns about reservations / tickets using Euraide can be well worth the one time fee of 50.00 for the peace of mind.

The Dauer-Spezial, although not the only discount fare from German Rail, is usually the best deal. If you have found the SparPreis fare to be better, fine. It is still far better than anything offered by RailEurpe or Euraide.

And to be fair to me, I am also trying to pass on helpful information. Euraide can be helpful, but only if you have failed to do your research.

It is possible to get your "peace of mind" other ways. For tickets, never. For reservations, maybe.

Tyler,

According to bahn.de, the conditions for the Spar Preis 50 and the Dauer-Spezial are quite different. The Spar Preis 50 is only good for roundtrips to and from the same stations. If you travel on a weekday, the return trip cannot be any sooner than the following Sunday. If you travel on a Sunday, you may return the following Saturday. If you travel on Saturday or Sunday, you may return that same day.

The Dauer-Spezial fare is good for single (one-way) tickets. You can book any day of the week you wish.

One additional comment regarding Euraide. I've purchased tickets through them in the past in their office in the Munich Hauptbanhof, and don't recall paying any extra fees. As with Krista's experience, I found them to be wonderfully helpful.

Cheers!

No, I don't think they will charge any extra fees, but if you walk around the corner in the Munich Hauptbahnhof to the Deutsche Bahn Reisezentrum, most counter workers will speak English and there will also not be any extra fees.

The nice thing about the SparPreis is that the first person gets a discount and the second (through fifth, I believe) person gets an additional 50% off that fare. It is often worth throwing away the return just for the savings offered on the outward leg.

Thanks, Tim.

I figured out that the Sparpreis was 50% off because I was traveling on a weekend to Dresden. For the same round trip during the week, it was only 25% off.

Hi everyone - I can definitely understand why you wouldn't want to go through a company to do what you can do on your own (and I've done several rail trips that way) But when you get to a point where you really need help (ie. overnight trains that require reservations and how to make that work with an infant who travels for free) it was quite a relief to have someone with the answers.

Krista

There is a Sparpreis 50 fare which is 50% off of the full fare for the first person. Sparpreis 50 fares require a Saturday night stay.

There is also a Sparpreis 25 fare which is 25% off of the full fare for the first person. Sparpreis fares do NOT require a Saturday night stay.

Both Sparpreis fares require at least a 3 day advance purchase and are limited in quantity. They are train specific and are only partially refundable up to the day of travel. At least one leg of travel must be on an express train of the Bahn (ICE/IC/EC). With the Sparpreis fares, up to four people traveling with you (Mitfahrer) receive an additional 50% off the first person's fare.