Hi, I booked seats for tomorrow Paris-Brussels-Köln through Happyrail.com
When I got the confirmation email I get the impression only seats Brussels-Koln are booked, but not Paris to Brussels train.
It looks like this:
Any idea?
Answer
seats for tomorrow Paris-Brussels- Köln Happyrail.com
Best answer by ralderton
At least the could fix/improve the web to avoid the same thing happening to more people.
In my experience, unless you can get through to somebody who actually understands the issue, cares about it, and has the power to make a change, you may as well be banging your head against a brick wall. 😕
(That's my experience in general, not specifically Happyrail.)
15 eur for 2 seats, which to me corresponds to ICE train?
It seems a bug in happyrail.com, it should not offer the reservation in the search engine.
+6Seems Happyrail sold you a partial DB reservation and you should have booked Paris-Brussels separately. The Eurostar from Paris to Brussels has a far higher reservation fee (€27 per person) and has limited availability for passholders. There is no passholder fare available on that train any more.
Reservations for the Eurostar are best made through Raileurope.com. Reservations for German trains are best made through Deutsche Bahn or CD/ÖBB. Check out: https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm Happyrail charges extra fees and clearly isn't providing the proper reservations.
For your trip, you might want to consider travelling from Paris Est to Cologne via Mannheim, with the ICE/TGV directly from Paris Est towards Frankfurt: This link might work; otherwise search on the seat61 page for the France-Germany passholder fees. A passholder reservation ("Passzuschlag Global Pass") should cost €19 per person for the international section and is optional for the domestic section.
I'd also suggest reaching out to Happyrail as your reservation is useless and they shouldn't sell that.
Thanks, I will ask happyrail.com to get the money back.
Thanks for other suggestions. Actually original plans was to go to Germany through Karlsrue or Manheim, but it seems to be fully booked.
We might take the pain of regional trains is we dont find any other alternative.
+6Where do you see it as fully booked? Follow the instructions on seat61 specifically for booking passholder reservations between France and Germany.
I might be doing something wrong, I get this
when trying https://int.bahn.de/en/buchung/start?KL=2&ET=PASSZUSCHLAG as suggested in seat61
+6Indeed there seem not to be 2 seats available in second class. Book yourselves a reservation to Strasbourg through raileurope.com for €20 per person and cross the border by regional train. Within Germany seat reservations are optional.
All trains to Germany are sold out in 2nd class, most to Strasbourg too.
Here's the first alternative that comes to mind:
- RER B Paris city center -> CDG Airport (Interrail not valid)
- TGV CDG Airport - Bruxelles-Midi 08:07 - 09:43 20€
- your original ICE to Cologne
You could as well leave a bit later by:
- Ouigo Paris-Nord - Bruxelles-Midi 08:18 - 11:35 39€ ticket (Interrail not valid)
- 12:25 ICE to Cologne
The route through Strasbourg - Offenburg is possible by leaving at 09:25 but you must either:
- wait a long time in Strasbourg before the overcrowded 12:52 cross-border train (no guarantee to get on)
- tram + replacement bus to Kehl (annoying)
So yeah I'd suggest the 8am TGV from CDG Airport. Plan sufficient time for the connection there.
Very disappointed from happyrail.com answer after 3 days waiting. Not even comment on my request to get money back and just explain how Eurostars works... their search engine stills offer misleading info in my view, did a new test today
I explained it again and asked for refund, not big hoppes.
I was very happy with them with previos Renfe and TGV bookings, but this was disappointing....
Very disappointed from happyrail.com answer after 3 days waiting. Not even comment on my request to get money back and just explain how Eurostars works... their search engine stills offer misleading info in my view, did a new test today
Did they reply at all, and if so, what did they say?
They wrote this:
"Thank you for your message. No, Eurostar (between Brussels and Pairs) will be reservered in once with an ICE. Eurostar reservations will cost al least €35 per person, so that's way more expensive"
I reply back explaining the they sell an unsable booking and that I want my money back.
+8That’s very misleading from Happyrail. It’s perfectly reasonable for a customer to assume that you’re reserving your whole journey - especially with the big green tick next to the Eurostar.
It gives false ‘free seating’ information about the Eurostar. And when you click on ‘Conditions’, it even falsely confirms that the Eurostar is included.
+8ÖBB has a much better way of showing that they’re only selling the Brussels-Köln portion of the journey. You could point this out to Happyrail.
Thanks for the tips.
Anybody has experience with claims to Happyrail.com?
Any chance I get something?
At least the could fix/improve the web to avoid the same thing happening to more people.
+8At least the could fix/improve the web to avoid the same thing happening to more people.
In my experience, unless you can get through to somebody who actually understands the issue, cares about it, and has the power to make a change, you may as well be banging your head against a brick wall. 😕
(That's my experience in general, not specifically Happyrail.)
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