 Poster: A snowHead
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I've just spent much of the afternoon trying to book travel by train from Warrington to somewhere near the Maurienne at half term. Today is the first day that return tickets are available. It was so utterly frustrating that we've now booked on Easyjet to Grenoble instead - and I hate flying these days!
For some reason it's beyond the wit of man to come up with a single website that will book you a ticket all the way by train. Instead you have to use various combinations.
I did start by looking at:
http://www.seat61.com/
A great resource but there's lots to wade through. It certainly gave a good hint of things to come.
Last week:
http://www.eurostar.com/
...would let me book all the way from Warrington to Lille or Paris but today it seems that "For the route chosen, you will need to book your ticket (warrington to Paris) separately from your ticket (Paris to paris). You can book both tickets on Eurostar.com" but then it wouldn't let me go any further!
If I go to:
http://www.raileurope.co.uk/
(the UK website of SNCF) I can book from St Pancras (but nowhere deeper into the UK) to anywhere in France. However, it will only pick out edited highlights from the trains available. For the more tortuous routes (eg to the Maurienne) you have to split your journey up into sections and book each one separately. Of course, this adds enormously to the price. Not only that, the website is interminably slow and often just freezes completely.
If I go to:
http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/
...at least the website runs at a descent speed but I can't book beyond London. At least I now know I can get there for £12. But there are no advance price return tickes available yet.
C'mon guys! This is the 21st century. Compete or die.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Had a similar problem trying to book for the BB in Feb. This was compounded by a bum steer from the Rail Europe help line, was told the wrong date for the tickets going live and missed the cheap seats.
Now booked on Monarch.
Will try again next year.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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This is the problem with Rail privatisation, too many companies who don't talk to each other.
You can try it all yourself like Altis above or just leave it to a specialist rail agency, who will book tickets on the actual dates available. I use Rail Canterbury www.rail-canterbury.co.uk and have done for many years now and always get the cheapest tickets available.
Once my dates are set, I just mail them and leave it for them to sort the trains out. I got Feb Half-Term to Chamonix for £119.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Daniel Snowcarbon
I have read various bits about Eurostar and baggage longer than certain lengths in relation to bicycles having to be booked as baggage at extra cost - where do skis sit in this length calculation?
Thanks
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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countryman, Here is the eurostar reply to your question, March 2012.
The luggage allowance on board Eurostar is 2 medium-sized cases (85cm at their longest length), and one piece of hand luggage per passenger. Your luggage must be no more than 85cm in length with the exception of skis which may be carried as part of your luggage allowance. I confirm therefore that a ski bag counts as part of your luggage allowance.
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Thanks - had vague worries they were trying airline tricks........
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I can sympathise altis: it is the one part of train travel that is immensely frustrating. It really shouldn't be hard to arrange which trains are running where 6 months in advance and then stick to it, with a slick website for booking. The first person that can do this will I hope make a lot of money.
I appreciate it's too late for you as you've now booked flights, but I find http://bahn.de/ by far the best site for exploring the European timetables. I've never actually booked through there though.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Blinder, +1 for Rail Canterbury
For the past 10 years, off and on, travelling to Bourg, with multiple start points, multiple return days, all sorted with what appears very very little uplift on best internet prices.
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altis, just for a laugh I went to the German rail website, www.bahn.de, and entered Warrington Central to Chambery. Comes up with a route Via London Euston / St. Pancras Eurostar to Paris Nord then on from Paris Gare de Lyon to Chambery. Also comes up with a number of alternatives.
I think I could even book the tickets end to end if I wanted to. No problem at all!
There is hope!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Yep, bahn.de is a useful site: it's very fast and picks out all sorts of routes (including changing at some station in Paris so you don't have to do GdN to GdL) BUT you can't book tickets thru it - which is what I was actually tring to do.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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bahn.de works pretty well for quite a significant chunk of Europe, including UK, at least for route and timetable, but doesn't always manage to come up with bookable end to end through fares on all services. I tried with Berlin-Paris and only half the results could be booked. Don't remember exactly, but I think it wouldn't let me book Frankfurt-Ebbsfleet either, but only Frankfurt-Brussels and Eurostar separately.
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| andy wrote: |
| bahn.de works pretty well for quite a significant chunk of Europe, including UK, at least for route and timetable, but doesn't always manage to come up with bookable end to end through fares on all services. I tried with Berlin-Paris and only half the results could be booked. Don't remember exactly, but I think it wouldn't let me book Frankfurt-Ebbsfleet either, but only Frankfurt-Brussels and Eurostar separately. |
DB web-site is fine if you are using DB services, of which there are (i think off the top-of-my-head) only 2 trains from Koln to Brussels, the rest are Thalys, which DB are not part of, so you cannot book through tickets via that service.
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You know it makes sense.
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