Early bird discounts and other railpass news

A European railpass roundup of dual-country passes, 2003 travel at 2002 prices, and winter discounts

By Reid Bramblett
ARTHUR FROMMER’S BUDGET TRAVEL

Dec. 11 — As the year draws to a close, there’s a flurry of railpass savings, and some news, coming out of Europe. A few months ago, we discussed the imminent demise of Europass and subsequent expansion of SelectPass (recapped below). Now we’ve also got a winter-time discount on Britrail passes, the new two-country railpasses combining France with Spain and France with Italy, plus a loophole that’ll let you travel in 2003 at 2002 prices.

BY THE WAY, don’t forget to take the kiddies on your next trip to Europe. With Eurail, children under 4 don’t pay at all, and those aged 4 to 11 get to ride half-price. BritRail is even more generous: kids under 5 travel free, as does any child between ages 5 and 15 provided they’re accompanying an adult BritRail pass holder (one kid per grown-up allowed).

THE EURAIL GROUND RULES
Standard Eurail passes come in two flavors, “continuous” (say 8 or 15 straight days of unlimited rail travel) and “Flexi” (10 or 15 days of travel spread out any way you’d like over a two-month period).
In the case of a Flexipass, a “day” starts the evening before so you can take advantage of overnight trains (so if you board one at 8pm, you write the next day’s date on the pass).
Adults passes are sold only for first-class travel, youth passes—which cost about 20 to 30 percent less for those under 26—are for second class. There are also “Saver” versions of the adult passes that allow from two to five people to travel together on one pass for about 15 percent less each. There are also rail-and-drive versions.
A “Eurail country” is any of the 17 nations covered by the granddaddy Eurail pass: Austria/Liechtenstein, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France/Monaco, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland. (Note the glaring exception of the United Kingdom.)

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EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT
You can take advantage of 2002 prices and still travel in 2003 if you buy your railpass for next year now, before the prices go up in January. That’s roughly a three-percent savings, just for planning ahead.

Planning a European trip that will start before about mid-June, 2003? Though the new France-and-Spain pass and some versions of the SelectPass won’t be introduced until January (we’ll get to those in a minute), the other Eurail products are available right now. Since you have a full six months in which to validate (that’s Eurail-speak for “begin using”) any pass, you can take advantage of 2002 prices and still travel in 2003 if you buy your railpass for next year now, before the prices go up in January. That’s roughly a three-percent savings, just for planning ahead.
Speaking of pass validation, here’s a tip to help stretch out the duration of your railpass. Try to plan on beginning and ending of your trip in major cities where you’ll spend at least several days each. See, you needn’t validate your pass until you’re done with the first city, several days into the trip, and will be done with it as soon as you arrive at your last city, several days before you fly back home. This way, a 15-day railpass, say, can still work out on a three-week trip.

THREE TO FIVE COUNTRIES ON SELECTPASS

The new-and-improved 2003 Selectpass will allow travel in your choice of any three, four, or five adjoining Eurail countries (Italy and Greece count as “adjoining” because of the ferry connection).
The Selectpass is always a FlexiPass. You can opt for one good for five ($356), six ($394), eight ($470), or ten ($542) days of unlimited rail travel within a two month period (if you choose five countries, you can also plump $794 for a 15-day version).
Those prices are for the three-country version. For four countries, add $42 to any price; for five countries add $82. And note that, for Selectpass purposes, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg count as just one country lumped together as “Benelux.” There are also Saver and Youth versions available.

TWO COUNTRIES FOR THE PRICE OF, OH, ABOUT ONE-AND-A-HALF
This year’s France ‘n Italy pass was such as hit it’s being brought back for 2003—they’re not even raising the price—and will be accompanied by a new baby brother, the France-and-Spain pass.

These are flexi passes, and the second-class version offers four days of travel in either county covered within a two-month period, and you can add up to six additional rail days. The France-Italy version is $239, with additional rail days at $25 each. The France-Spain pass will cost $252, with additional days $28.

WINTER DISCOUNTS ON BRITRAIL
Britain often has a problem playing well with the other children, and has never taken part in the Eurail pass scheme hatched by its Continental cousins. Even though Britain’s train tracks are governed by 36 different warring (and often financially challenged) regional companies, they’ve managed to pull it together enough to offer their own set of U.K.-wide railpasses that cover some 2,400 destinations across England, Scotland, and Wales.
Using a 4-day Flexipass just to get back and forth to London from the airport and for one round-trip to Edinburgh would save you money over purchasing individual tickets.

That’s old news. The new news is that you can get Britrail passes for 25 percent off the regular price until Feb 28. (That’s not the “purchase-by” date, it’s the last day you can actually use the pass, so you’ll have to buy it even earlier.) It’s a good deal, though, as the pass even covers such trains as the Heathrow Express to downtown London. In fact, using a four-day Flexipass just to get back and forth to London from the airport and for one round-trip to Edinburgh would save you money over purchasing individual tickets.
The BritRail Classic is a regular pass allowing for unlimited use of the British rail system for 8 days ($139), 15 days ($199), 22 days ($374), or 1 month ($449). The BritRail FlexiPass allows you a set number of days you can use any time within a two-month time window; each time you board a train, you just tick off one of the day boxes with the date, and the pass is good for the rest of that day. There are versions worth 4 days ($176) 8 days ($254) and 15 days ($386) within the two-month period.
All those prices are for “standard” (second) class passes, and already reflect the 25 percent discount. There are first-class passes available as well, but traveling in a first class train car won’t get you where you’re going any faster than in the second class cars, so why pay more for a marginally cushier chair? Youth passes for travelers under age 26 cost from 20 to 30 percent less on a sliding scale (the longer/more expensive the pas, the higher the discount). Seniors do get a discount as well, but only on the first-class version of the pass.
As with Eurail, prices will go up about two percent next year, so buy now if you know you’re going to use it.

GETTING YOUR HANDS ON SOME PASSES
To see whether you a railpass will save you money on your trip, use the search engines for point-to-point tickets at www.raileurope.com and, for Britain, at www.rail.co.uk. Plug in the data for all the train trips you plan to take, jot down the prices for each, add them up, and if the total is close to or greater than the cost of the railpass that will do the same job, the choice is clear.
The family of Eurail passes is available in Europe from major city train stations (though most guide books and travel agents, including Eurail itself, will swear up and down it isn’t), however you pay up to 150 percent the price you would by buying it in the U.S., so obtain one before you leave home.
You can buy any Eurail pass from most travel agents, or order it on-line from Rail Europe (www.raileurope.com) or CIT Tours (www.cit-tours.com).

For Britain, buy direct from the BritRail folks at 877-677-1066 (how cool is it that a British company’s phone number should end “1066”?) or on-line at www.britrail.net.

original link to the story:
http://www.msnbc.com…