After seeing many posts with advice on calculating the value of buying tickets v buying a pass I actually went back over my last pass ( a 10 days in 2 months first class pass) and, using 2023 prices, worked out three options - Pass + reservations, Earliest non-flexible fare for the same trains and the fully flexible fare.
The details for anybody to check are below but the summary is - First Class pass plus reservations would cost 663 euros, Early saver fares (No exchange or refunds) would cost 940 euros and fully flexible tickets (the closest to the flexibility offered by a Global pass) would cost 1804 euros.
I appreciate this is only one personal itinerary, and in Western Europe, but it may help newbies to see how to do the calculation on the perennial question of pass v tickets.
It might also help show how reservation fees add to a typical itinerary. We took many optional reservations so added them in.
For the record we took 2 separate one-way journeys with the one pass.
PASS | SAVER | FLEXI | ||||
Journey | Train no | Res fee | ||||
Syracuse - Salerno | IC724 | 3 | 42.9 | 77 | ||
Salerno - Bologna | fr9584 | 10 | Sold out | 124 | ||
Bologna - Munich | EC84 | 10 | 86.1 | 175 | ||
Munich - Nuremberg | IC500 | 0 | 41.9 | 112.8 | ||
Nuremberg - Frankfurt | ICE 772 | 5 | 26.9 | 111.7 | ||
Frankfurt - Brussels zuid | ICE14 | 5 | 63.9 | 201.6 | ||
Brussels - London | ES (0951) | 38 | 120 | 120 | ||
London - Leeds | LNER | 0 | 142.5 | 234 | ||
Nice - Paris | TGV inoui | 10 | 89 | 205 | ||
Paris - Lille | TGV Inoui | 10 | 65 | 89 | ||
Lille - London | ES (0951) | 38 | 120 | 120 | ||
London - Leeds | LNER | 0 | 142.5 | 234 | ||
129 | 940.7 | 1804.1 | ||||
Pass cost | 534 | |||||
663 |
Best answer by AnnaB
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