Have you been hit by RailEurope Sleeper Booking Nasty? Can cost £hundreds

cvCA

Has anyone else reading this booked a sleeper train into Paris with RailEurope and then been tricked by their website suggesting the Paris-London Eurostar to depart on the same date as the sleeper departs? That is, it encouraged you to buy the Eurostar ticket for the day before the sleeper arrives in Paris?

If so, did RailEurope put it right, did they protest much or charge extra and what sort of tickets did you have for each leg?

I've checked and it's really easy to be tricked by the website's date suggestion (it's usually right, as long as a sleeper isn't involved) and really hard to spot the error before the deadline given in their terms and conditions (2 days for Eurostar, which is before the sleeper tickets arrive in the post). A telephone conversation with RailEurope led me to believe that this date mixup with sleepers and Eurostars happens fairly often.

richardw

It's their software problem, they need to fix it.

cvCA

Any idea how to make them fix it? Their "technical team" denies everything so far, basically. I've sent them a video showing the date suggestions and some related problems.

richardw

Does the same happen with https://www.bahn.de?

Does https://www.seat61.com highlight this problem?

cvCA

richardw wrote: »

Does the same happen with www .bahn .de?

Not as far as I can tell but I don't see how to book Eurostar with bahn .de as it says Preisauskunft nicht möglich or Unbekannter Auslandstarif for any trips involving EST.

richardw wrote: »

Does www .seat61 .com highlight this problem?

It mentions some of it ("Don't forget that on your return journey, your departure date from Paris to London will be the day after your departure date from Spain to Paris!") but doesn't really highlight how RailEurope's website actively suggests the wrong date or the other tricks it does.

I think seat61 is a RailEurope affiliate, isn't it? I've seen their affiliate agreement and it allows them to terminate affiliations "for any reason" which probably would include anyone who points out the many faults in RailEurope's website.

richardw

I've used http://en.voyages-sncf.com/en before and when it has offered 'rail europe' I've said no and gone for the e-ticket option.

Also booked with https://www.renfe.es and selected e-tickets

I've never booked with raileurope.

cvCA

Yeah I've booked with voyages-sncf and renfe before without problems. This time I booked with RailEurope because I thought it would be helpful to have the whole journey on one booking and the site is recommended by seat61 as the best to use for this. Big, very expensive mistake!

It seemed from my phone call to their otherwise-useless call centre that this has happened to others and I'd still love to hear from others who have booked with RailEurope and fallen victim to the same date errors.

richardw

cvCA wrote: »

... I booked with RailEurope because I thought it would be helpful to have the whole journey on one booking....

Is that exclusive to raileurope?

cvCA

richardw wrote: »

Is that exclusive to raileurope?

Sadly, they seemed to be the only ticket agent of both Eurostar and Renfe.

richardw

Just checked renfe

Route summary Summary of Rates
OutwardNumber of links: 1Duration: 17h 45min
Stretch Depature Destination Departure d. Time Arrival d. Time
1 MADRID-CHAMARTIN PARIS-AUSTERLITZ 07-09-2013 20:45 08-09-2013 10:37
2 PARIS NORD LONDRES ST-PANCRAS 08-09-2013 12:13 08-09-2013 13:30


Outward
Traveller 1
Stretch Train Class Operator Price Available fares and discounts
1 TRENHOTEL / 00407 Butaca Super. RENFE 180,00

2 TGT / 09027 Primera EUROSTAR 279,00

Total: 459,00 €

Doesn't seem to be a problem.

I've looked at rail europe many times and never booked with them.
If you can find the trip you want with a bit of effort through eurostar, renfe, sncf, or bahn, I can't see the point of rail europe.

buglawton

Why not post the screen prints and a link to the Youtube video of their misleading booking process?

I would be doing a credit card chargeback on lesser things than this!