So as always I’m plotting my next vacation and managed to get myself invite to Chamonix, Bologna, and Vienna for the one week break I have towards the end of February.
This time around booking stuff was a lot more difficult because I had to book three separate trips. On top of that, this time the budget airlines didn’t seem to fly to where I needed them to.
Enter train travel.
So far the only train I’ve taken in Europe is the one from Rouen to Paris but I hear they’re a lot more convenient than plane travel because 1. Most train stations are located in the center of town and 2. You don’t have to worry about baggage restrictions. The only thing is they can be really expensive. For example a train from Vienna to Paris is around 250 Euros (yes one way).
After several days of checking multiple sites I ended up booking a flight instead for approximately the same cost as flying round trip to London figuring it was the best I was going to get.
So one down two to go. Sounds easy right? Not really. That’s because there are like a million train travel websites.
There’s SNCF which is the French train travel site (in French). Then there’s TGV which is the fast train travel site but from what I can see it’s the same as the SNCF one only in English. Then there’s the rail-europe site which only caters to the U.S., Canada, and Mexico and another site that caters to the UK.
All of these websites sell train tickets from multiple locations but not the same tickets and if it is the same ticket they sell it for a different price. Not only that but I notice that, depending on different times, you get different results from the same website. And not like the price goes up, I mean new train times or a cheaper prices magically appear.
What’s a girl to do?
Spend all day combing through these websites that’s what. Finally I found what I thought was the best price through the site that caters to North America. The only things is that this website only sends the tickets to a U.S. address so it added an additional complexity and annoyance to everything but the price was so good I was willing to deal with it.
I booked the tickets from Paris to Chamonix and Geneva to Bologna and waited for the confirmation email. Got it.
So I shoot off some emails because I’m feeling so happy to be done with the whole thing when I get another email from the site that reads:
“Thank you valued customer…. [blah blah blah more sucking up]… the ticket you requested is no longer available. We do however, have another ticket for double the price! [they didn’t say this but essentially it was so]. Please let us know if this is ok and we’ll send the tickets immediately. “
I close my laptop and don’t use the internet for three days.
After I regain my composure I again check out all the websites possible. By this time I started to get good at things and found a really cheap overnight train ticket from Paris to Chamonix for 40 euros. Score.
Two down, one to go. But this last one, she was tricky.
Basically if you search for Geneva to Bologna you get one possibility and that’s to leave Geneva at 11pm and arrive in Bologna the next day for 105 Euros.
Um yeah. Sorry but I only buy crap for cheap. Not for expensive. Then the “highly motivated to save money Asian” in me gets a bright idea. I search from Geneva to Milan and then Milan to Bologna. It was then that I found the 19 euro ticket from Geneva to Milan. Unfortunately the 19 euro ticket leaves either really early or really late.
Being the veteran budget traveler that I am, I know that a cheap ticket is cheap for a reason and usually that reason is because the person purchasing the ticket is naive as to what it actually entails. For example, short transfer times when there are a million platforms at the train station or a really far away airport that takes more money to get to and kills your savings margin. The thing about cheap tickets as well is that they are high risk meaning they are nonrefundable so once you buy them you are stuck dealing with whatever problems they bring.
Not knowing the transport system from Chamonix to Geneva I couldn’t risk getting the early ticket. That left the late ticket. It arrived at Bologna at 10:35pm. Unfortunately, according to the SNCF website (which is where I found the 19 euro ticket) the last train to Bologna was 7pm.
I contacted my friend in Bologna and he reassured me that the last train leaving from Milan to Bologna was at 11pm. Still a 35 minute wiggle room made me a big uneasy especially when the fallout is that I would be in a foreign place by myself in the middle of the night. Still a 19 euro ticket is a 19 euro ticket and the alternative was 60 euros.
I checked out the Italian train website to see for myself and realized that he was right, the last train was 11pm. I also realized I could purchase my Geneva to Milan ticket from this site and get a train that left at a decent time if I was willing to spend 10 euros more . Hells yeah. I searched for Milan to Bologna. 18 euros. Score!
I quickly registered with the website, double checked my train dates and times (military time makes me uneasy), got out my credit card, entered the information and hit “buy.”
“Sorry your credit card has been rejected and your session as timed out. Please try again.”
So I did.
Only to find that the ticket I want is no longer available.
I close my laptop and don’t ever want to use the internet. Ever again.
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