I go and plug in 4 passengers from Paris to Zurich using raileurope.com and come up with $544 USD. I go to TGV-Europe.com and plug in the same data on the same date (June 24) and I get 264 EURO, around $346. It's the same train line from what I can tell, TGV Lyria. Why so much difference? Thanks much!
Alina
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
The difference is that Rail Europe is a travel agency and doesn't offer discount fare tickets. To get the best price, book your tickets on tgv-europe.com ASAP. To avoid being bumped to the Rail Europe site, choose Great Britain as your country of residence and France as your ticket retrieval country.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19092 posts
RaiEurope is a US subsidiary owned by a number of European companies. French Rail is the major owner, but they are not an outlet for French Rail tickets at European prices. That is why French Rail makes it difficult for Americans to buy directly from them. German Rail, on the other hand has no interest in Rail Europe. You can easily buy German Rail tickets online from them at the same prices as in Europe.
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
Following Tim's instructions, the French system will email your tickets upon purchase and you can print them out at home. Or, you can pick them up at any train station in France.
Posted by
Bainbridge Island
3099 posts
Alina, you are not doing anything wrong!!!! TGV- Europa is the website to use for best prices. RailEurope marks up prices and does not show all trains.
Posted by
OP
Houston, Texas, USA
17 posts
Great tips - thanks so much everybody!!!
They will save me a lot of money.
Posted by
San Clemente, CA, USA
15 posts
another option is http://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html this is the swiss side of the reservations.
We tried the TGV website but they wanted a physical address in GB or Canada. But when we placed our reservations through the swiss website it worked beautifully and the same cost as the TGV website. We were wondering the same thing while trying to book through rail europe. Have fun..