Getting best fare - journey from FGW territory to Germany

[whole diary]

[Tim]

Have a look at http://www.seat61.com/Germany.htm#Nuremberg to see what the man in seat 61 has to say

[eightf48544]

One of the problems with integrating Railteam ticket sales is that all the participants have different booking systems and as it includes the French and Belgians nobody wants to give up their own system. Full  integration  the exisiting systems would keep half the programmers in Europe busy.

[grahame]

Have a look at http://www.seat61.com/Germany.htm#Nuremberg to see what the man in seat 61 has to say

Goodness - thanks. How did I miss that page / part earlier?  May be useful once I get a few more details of when I'm due there.   

[inspector_blakey]

Throwing another possibility into the mix, how about the ferry connection from Harwich International to Hoek Van Holland then a train onward from there...? Information to get you started off here! Much more direct than the other possibilities.

[Worcester_Passenger]

Throwing another possibility into the mix, how about the ferry connection from Harwich International to Hoek Van Holland then a train onward from there...? Information to get you started off here! Much more direct than the other possibilities.

Especially overnight - a very civilised way to travel!

[bobg]

Does anyone know if the 46E? DB^» (Deutsche Bahn - German State Railway - about) advance single is still available? I know someone that got one from London to Rostock from the website, but they said you had to tweek the vias and dates and times.

They are theoretically still available, but the best price I have found going from anywhere in Germany recently is ^69 - in fact next Tuesday I'm getting the train from Salzburg (which counts as both Austria and Germany for rail purposes!) to London next Tuesday. I bought the tickets in March on the second day that reservations opened, so I have no idea where the ^49 fare went (I also checked prices from Freilassing, which is just over the German border)

I'm pretty certain that from the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), phoning the DB centre in London (the number is on the bahn.co.uk frontpage) would be the best way to get the prices - they can sell tickets to anywhere, they just don't online or using ticket machines.

Also, it is sometimes worth checking tgv-europe.com which is also SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) owned/run, but sometimes has tickets available cheaper than db and earlier than voyages-sncf.fr and also sends tickets for free to any European address!

[Tim]

I'm pretty certain that from the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), phoning the DB^» (Deutsche Bahn - German State Railway - about) centre in London (the number is on the bahn.co.uk frontpage) would be the best way to get the prices - they can sell tickets to anywhere, they just don't online or using ticket machines.

I've managed to get cheap London-Munich fares from the DB call centre that were not available onlibne before now.

[grahame]

I even tried dropping a note to Eurostar to ask them (after I was unable to find the answer in their "questions we have good answers to already" section).  I wrote

I want to travel from Melksham, Wiltshire, England to Nurnberg, Germany on Monday, 7th June, returning on Friday, 11th June. I have been able to find out train times and connections, but every web site I have looked at so far tells me "fares not available" or "Total fare cannot be calculated".

Can you tell me what it will cost ...

I have just received an answer (10:29 a.m., 22nd June)

Dear Mr Ellis

Thank you for your e mail and apologise for the delay in replying.

As your dates of travel have now passed, I assume that you have resolved this issue. However, if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us on 08448 224 777.

Kind Regards
Sxxxx, Eurostar.com support

Eurostar take customer service to new levels 

[JayMac]

Makes FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s often missed 'reply within 5 working days' seem positively speedy in comparison!

29 days to reply to an e-mail from a potential customer. Am I right in thinking you took a cross-channel ferry instead? Here's hoping you reply to Eurostar to let them know they didn't get your business.

[LiskeardRich]

no good to you now but Newells travel agents in cornwall and Devon maybe further afield, are rail specialists, they have a dedicated telephone number for rail travel, and claim to be able to arrange travel across all of europe. they have an enquiry form here, and a telephone number  0800 008 7411 dedicated to train tickets

http://www.newellstravel.co.uk/book_rail.php

hope this will help you in the future or others as well

[grahame]

Makes FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s often missed 'reply within 5 working days' seem positively speedy in comparison!

29 days to reply to an e-mail from a potential customer. Am I right in thinking you took a cross-channel ferry instead? Here's hoping you reply to Eurostar to let them know they didn't get your business.

Yes, I used a ferry instead.  And very nice and easy to book it was too, so that will be my first choice next time too. 


I have replied to Eurostar, and got an almost immediate response:

Sorry your reply did not process correctly. Please Click on your REPLY button and type between the specified lines. Your original message has been attached.

[===> Please type your message below this line<===]

[===> Please type your message above this line <===]

I expect Eurostar have so many potential customers that they can afford not to be bothered to offer a timeous reponse and a system that's easy for Jo Public to use!