Rail Pass- Will never do it again

Another happy Eurail customer. Funny, Rail Europe is owned by SNCF.

hfak2016: You've issued a proper warning that identifies some real problems. For your target countries I'm sure the rail pass was every bit the hassle you say it was.

The rail staff laughed at us a few times because some trains did not
exist or were canceled... I will be buying my train tickets through
the rail company's websites in the future

France's rail strike probably played into your problems as well - regular tickets have no advantage in a strike. We got stranded temporarily a few weeks ago in Portugal on a strike day - using regular tickets.

I will be buying my train tickets through the rail company's websites
in the future, and will never buy a rail pass again.

Careful you don't lump all rail passes together. Not all countries require reservations (Germany, where I travel a lot, comes to mind) and some country passes (like Germany's) are incredibly generous - the German Rail pass is actually a multi-country pass that can get you to Salzburg, Brussels, Copenhagen, Antwerp, Cracow, Venice, Milan, and Amsterdam as well as to thousands of stations in Germany.

I used a Flexi-Saver Eurail Pass once and I have also bought point-to-point tickets from Rail Europe. I bought the Pass over the phone and the agent was extremely courteous - and I daresay a good salesperson! After that, I had no need of their customer service since the RE agent made all the reservations for me when I bought the Pass, and we had no problems using it.

Thanks to this Forum, I know that there are better websites for buying European train tickets. I love loco2.com, but they don't sell tickets for Belgian trains - using trainline for my upcoming trip to France, Belgium and Luxembourg.

The only time I used a railpass it was Germany's (bought from RS in 2012) and it was amazingly convenient-we just got on the train that suited us, didn't need advance reservations.

Thank you for your feedback. I will be careful to look into it for other countries, but from my experience, won’t use it in the countries I previously stated.

The Swiss pass, although expensive, can be a good deal. It depends how long you will be there and what you intend to do. It covers pretty much all transportation in Switzerland and many museums too. No train reservations are required, at least for most of the trains. It's the only country I've been to so far, where a rail pass made sense for us.

Most people on this forum are not fans of Rail Europe. There prices tend to be high and they don't have tickets for all the trains. I think there website is easier to use than most of the country sites I've tried, but I won't use it unless the price is the same. That's only happened once.

Thanks for posting your experience. It will be helpful to others.

I always use a rail pass but I buy it from Eurail on-line and never have a shipping charge. I only use the rail pass in Germany and Austria, not in France or Italy. When I want seat reservations, say for night train routes and major day ICE trips, I buy them not on-line or use an app (don't know how anyway) but at the Reisezentrum in German train stations. That way I can talk with the DB staff on the location of the seat, taking another departure time, etc. I never go through Rail Europe, did it once...basically not worth it.

It looks like you've discovered what many on the forum learned years ago. Railpasses are not always the best or most convenient way to get around by rail in Europe. I haven't used one for years, and don't anticipate ever using one again.

Especially in Italy, Railpasses are rarely the most cost effective option. Buying discounted tickets well in advance is about the easiest way that I've found (and those include reservations, where required).

I'll just repeat what others have said above, because it's important: each country is different.

For France, Italy, and Spain, rail passes do not work well. They usually don't even save money, and as you learned, they don't save hassle. (I'm sorry you didn't come to this forum to ask first, as you would have learned about these issues before you bought the pass).

However, as said above, in Germany it is different, and in Switzerland it is different again. For Germany, a pass can make sense for some travelers. For Switzerland, some form of pass is often (not always, but often) a good deal.

To add to what Harold said, the difference in Germany and Switzerland is that the German and Swiss passes are sold by their national railway companies, and designed to fit their systems. Not the one-size-and-one-price-fits-all approach of the Eurail pass; which clearly doesn't fit all as different companies and different countries have totally different policies and pricing systems.

Eurail has to negotiate with each railway company to accept their pass, and some companies give a better deal than others (and some just say "no"). Spain, France etc. have invested heavily in their High Speed networks, charge premium prices for the tickets and are not about to give a pass holder (from whom they only get a small cut of the pass price) a cheaper ride.

Plus, the Swiss passes cover all transport (train + bus + boat + city transport). The German national pass is just trains; the various one-day passes offered by the German states (Länder tickets) do cover all transport and are also a good deal.