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what if a police report couldn't be got when rail pass is lost in Europe?

Posted by (Seattle, Washington, USA) on

Hi, my 18 years old daughter is traveling with 3 same age girls in Europe. This morning she called me in tears from Paris train station. Her rail pass (has never been used, today is their first travel day to use rail pass) got stolen in Paris along with money. She found out the lost when they were in the rail pass activation line (which was super long, took them 2.5 hours to be in that line and they missed the reservation trains!). While the other 2 girls remained in the long line, she and her friend went to the train station's police station and tried to get a police report about the lost. But the police they talked to was very mean to the girls and didn't want to help them at all. My daughter said the police said he didn't know what is rail pass and he would not file a report for her and just walked away. My daughter ended up buying a new rail pass (cost almost 500 euros!), 4 girls got new reservation to Amesterdan and arrived in Amesterdan in much later multiple transfers trains. They finally arrived in Amesterdan safely at midnight. My daughter could not get police report in Paris train station due to that police's mean attitute and they had to catch trains (they missed the original booked trains and had to pay another $57 for reservation fee). They are now in Amesterdan and they will try to get police report from Amesterdan police station tomorrow morning. But they don't know if they will be able to get it as the lost happend in Paris and they are not sure if Amesterdan police will be helpful to them or not.

I called Rail Europe customer service today. I bought rail protection plan for the railpass for my daughter. She made notes in my daughter's account. But she is not sure we would be able to get replacement cost if my daughter couldn't get police report there. The four 18 years old girls never encounted such mean police in U.S. Does anyone know what they can do to get the police report and what we can do here with Rail Europe to get the claim processed after she returns from Europe. We have the old rail pass copied. Thank you for any help!

Posted by
14980 posts

Hi,

I assume this incident took place at Paris Nord...Gare du Nord. Tell her to report the incident to EurAid at Amsterdam and the police too.

Going to Amsterdam from Paris Nord is too taxing with 3-4 ? changes. I would have done it differently, with an over night stay in Frankfurt. (There's a hostel on Kaiserstrasse just 2 mins straight up from the train station, no side or winding streets, etc): Paris Est to Frankfurt, Frankfurt Hbf to Amsterdam Centraal early next morning....both legs direct. What recourse would you have since the police refused to cooperate?

Posted by
12 posts

Rail pass is a paper form and not a e-ticket is such a low tech. Today my daughter had the never being used rail pass online copy (a picture in her cell phone), if the pass is a e-ticket, with a valid ID, she would be able to use rail pass.
Lesson learnt here: don't buy rail pass unless you take train every day. It is very expensive with all the reservation fees added up, not convenient at all and in the case such as loss, it is very painful to deal with. The girls was waiting in Paris' Nord train station for 2.5 hours (super long line and moved extremely slowly with only one ticketing wndow open) for the rail pass activation process. In all the countries I visited in Europe before, Paris is the least friendly city in Europe.

Posted by
33839 posts

I'm sorry for the hard time your daughter is having.

You said that your daughter lost both her money and railpass. Was her passport OK? How did the thieves get the railpass and cash out of her money belt?

Posted by
16895 posts

Your daughter should keep as much documentation as she has and write up a report right now about what happened at the police station. It's not unusual that police would not take a report in some circumstances that the Rail Protection Plan does cover (such as loss instead of theft). When she returns home, she will have a maximum of 30 days to send her RPP Traveler's Request claim form and supporting documents to Rail Europe. They won't promise any specific action until they have reviewed the documents. Refund will be for the original pass value or the new pass value, whichever is less. If you also booked the Thalys reservation through RE, then they may have also sold you RPP for that separate product; otherwise it won't be reimbursable.

Meanwhile, read more about money, scams, and safety: http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/theft-scams. If they don't have money belts, they should keep eyes open to buy one at a tourist office or travel-related store in Amsterdam.

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