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Post by mslibrarian on Jan 2, 2009 13:06:22 GMT -5
The Benelux-Germany pass I was looking at has jumped from $289 to $359 in the past week. That jump will have me seriously looking at maybe NOT buying a pass this time.
What's been your experience buying tickets, online, in advance from overseas rail companies?
My biggest trips will be:
Gent to Maastricht
Maastricht to Bremen
Bremen to Berlin (although, my friend who is in Bremen could pick this up for me when they go onsale).
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Post by WillTravel on Jan 3, 2009 10:57:48 GMT -5
Gent to Maastricht - see if you can book this with Thalys or with voyages-sncf.com . There is something like an anywhere in Belgium ticket that might work best. Maastricht to Belgium - I think I booked Amsterdam to Antwerp with the Belgian version of Thalys. The main problem was having to do the booking in Dutch, so you have to pay really close attention. (Maybe you did not mean Belgium here, but Bremen. If so, look at www.bahn.de ) Bremen to Berlin - this is easy with www.bahn.de . It might work best if your Bremen friend does the first two for you with the German version of Thalys, and then you can pay her back. I tend to think the reason I didn't use the German one was that you had to have a German address or something. But bahn.de works very well, either for printed out tickets, or for mailing the tickets to Canada. Just make sure you do not arrange to pick up a ticket at a station or country where you will not be. Also, if you cannot find a cheap ticket after playing around a bit, particularly with Thalys, try seeing what you can get for a roundtrip ticket. It might be cheapest to do it that way. I think you can buy these 89 or 90 days in advance. Just be ready to spring. You can start checking now for 89+ days from now to see what is available. |
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Post by mslibrarian on Jan 6, 2009 13:37:09 GMT -5
Hey Will,
I looked into what you suggested and it would have worked out to be about the same as getting the pass. That's if my friend in Bremen were able to buy cheap tickets for our trip to Berlin.
Funny enough, I decided to take a chance and contacted an online travel company that was still advertising the old price for the pass on their website. I called and double checked on the price and they said they would give it to me for the OLD rate! I grabbed it!
It arrived today by Fedex and it's writting right on the Pass that it costs 222 Euros, but I only paid about 170.
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Post by WillTravel on Jan 6, 2009 14:24:43 GMT -5
Libby, that is great! Glad you got to save some money in this process.
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