Railpass insurance

This item appears on page 54 of the January 2010 issue.

I write regarding the letter “Staged Distraction” from the gentleman whose railpass was stolen from his jacket on the seat (Nov. ’09, pg. 51).

First, railpasses, along with everything else of value, belong in a neck pouch or money belt except when the train conductor asks to see them!

Second, Rail Europe (phone, in US, 800/622-8600 or, in Canada, 800/361-7245, www.raileurope.com) sells railpass protection coverage.

My wife, Roberta, and I are going from New York to Cologne via Brussels on American Airlines on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26 (2009), and returning from Zürich on American on Dec. 12. We will take the train from Brussels to Cologne on Nov. 27.

The passes and seat reservations that I had to buy from Rail Europe came to $1,550. The rail protection plan cost $41 — reasonable, considering the cost of the passes. (Ten days and four countries is about $1,200. You have to include Austria if you go from Munich to Zürich.)

We’ve purchased this railpass coverage several times. It was free when we bought the pass through our local AAA travel agency, but within the last year Rail Europe started charging a service fee for railpasses purchased through the AAA travel agency in addition to the usual charges for shipping by second-day UPS or FedEx. If you buy at least $400 worth of tickets/passes/seat reservations from Rail Europe, the shipping is free.

(The actual passes come from Rail Europe’s Chicago [Rosemont] office, which is somehow connected with SNCF [French National Railways]. The SNCF-Rail Europe connection causes problems because, apparently, you sometimes can’t get seat reservations on some non-SNCF trains, i.e., Deutsche Bahn [DB, in Germany], Trenitalia [Italy] or SBB [Switzerland]. I once wanted to make seat reservations from Paris to Brussels on a Thalys train while in Milan. It couldn’t be done at the Milan train station or at a travel agency. I actually had to find the Rail Europe/DER/SNCF office, which was in an office upstairs in a shopping passage.)

Fortunately, we have never had to use the railpass coverage. If you lose your pass, you need to get a copy of the local police report (good luck!) and then buy point-to-point tickets for the remainder of your journey, sending the police report and your used tickets to Rail Europe when you get back to the USA.

Also, you need to read their fine print, which sometimes is difficult to find. I had to call their sales line to find out that if you buy full-fare, first-class DB, SNCF or SBB point-to-point tickets from Rail Europe, then those tickets are not changeable, exchangeable or refundable in Germany, France, etc.!

If you buy full-fare point-to-point Deutsche Bahn tickets online from DB, itself, or while in Germany, however, you can get a refund or change them there. Ditto for SBB and Trenitalia in their countries.

I get my DB seat reservations online directly from DB using a Visa card, but DB won’t or can’t let you make international seat reservations online even if the train originates in Germany.

RICHARD MILBERG

Easton, PA

The Rail Protection Plan™ allows pass/ticket exchange or cancellation due to medical illness, injury, death, railroad strikes and loss or theft in Europe.