I purchased a vacation package through europeandestinations.com to Prague, Vienna %26amp; Budapest. I just received the train tickets from them but for the Prague to Vienna leg, I got a %26#39;special note%26#39; from the agency that says certain trains in Europe require supplemental seat reservations (range from 8 to 30 Euro) to be paid in addition when traveling with a point to point ticket. Then the note lists the specific train times that require this supplement and that the trains are NOT available for sale in the US. So right now on my ticket, there%26#39;s no departure time, just the date, departure and arrival location.
Did anyone have this experience? Does this mean I will have to get to the train station in Prague and pay an extra fee for the train, on top of what%26#39;s already stated on my train ticket?
I%26#39;m a little confused of why this is since I%26#39;ve already paid for my package in full and the train is supposed to be included.
Thanks in advance for any advice/help.
|||
you need to go back to the agency you bought the tickets to confirm what is and is not included as you have not bought these directly from the railway company. it would appear that you may have a standard ticket. the pendolino fast trains from prague to vienna are more expensive than the standard trains which also run from prague to vienna and need an additional fee and a compulsory seat reservation fee. the additional fee over the standard fare should not exceed 20 euros each way. As said by your agency, the supplement must be paid at the station in advance of the train time
as for the train times, unless you go on the very fast pendolino trains, the ticket should be valid on any train on the day it is issued for, so you should be able to go on any of the non pendolino trains that run from prague to vienna on that day. this basically should mean the 1335 and 1735.
|||
Hi Babycakes,
Peb7 answered your question, but I would like to add that this is pretty normal in Europe. There are a lot of rail routes between big cities where you have a choice of a %26quot;normal%26quot; train and a special (often express) service. There are normally advantages to the special service such as a seat reservation, some food or drink included and fewer stops in a more comfortable train. Apart from the price the downside is that you can%26#39;t afford to miss the train!
|||
on the pendolino trains from prague to vienna you don%26#39;t get any food, but a brand new train where second class is better than first class on a normal train and the train takes at least an hour less than normal trains, because as Jon says, there are much fewer stops
|||
The are 4 direct trains Prague-VIenna per day.
SuperCity trains (pendolino) with am departure at 8:26 and 10:26 from the Prague-Holesovice station.
and EuroCity trains with pm departure from the main train station at 13:35 and 17:35.
The only trains that REQUIRE %26quot;supplemental seat reservations%26quot; are the SuperCity trains (SC73, SC75) and fee for such reservation is 200 CZK (approx. 7 EUR) and must be purchased in advance (24 hours is advisable).
%26quot;Regular%26quot; EuroCity (EC173 and EC177) trains do not have mandatory seat reservations, however you may want to reserve a seat, fee for this reservation is 86 CZK (approx. 3 EUR) and again must be purchased in advance (24 hours is advisable).
.
|||
there is also a very early 5.01 am train from prague central station to vienna. some people get up early to use this for a day trip as it arrives at vienna at 0928 (the 0826 arrives at vienna at 12.28 meaning, you don%26#39;t have much time to do very much), but i wouldn%26#39;t recommend this train just for transferring from prague to vienna as part of a holiday
|||
-:- Message from TripAdvisor staff -:-
This topic was inactive for 6 months and has been closed to new posts. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one.
To review the TripAdvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html
We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason.
Removed on: 8:17 pm, September 06, 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment