European ticket booking sites, any recommendations?

[UBoot]

Does anyone have good/bad experiences with ticket booking sites such as Raileurope, Trainline or Omio?
I'm not asking about your experience of sites for individual countries,
just when one needs a cross border journey.

UB

 

[30907]

RE seems fine, no idea what the booking fee is compared with others.

However, in general I would try the national operators (worth checking both "ends" as the offers may not be identical). I can't off-hand think of a case where this wouldn't work (Seat61 would tell me!).

 

[bspahh]

Does anyone have good/bad experiences with ticket booking sites such as Raileurope, Trainline or Omio?
I'm not asking about your experience of sites for individual countries,
just when one needs a cross border journey.

UB

I would start by checking www.seat61.com

The best ticket booking site depends on the route that you want to use, whether you want to pick a seat for a reservation, how you want to pay, and whether there is an extra fee on top of the price of the tickets.

 

[Gordon]

Never use third party resellers. They claim to be the 'perfect solution' but booking with the 'national operator' is always the safest. Where are you planning to go?

Try and find out who operates a cross border train and book with the operator, eg for Munchen - Zurich book with DB or SBB. For Aurtrian Railjet and Nightjet, book through Railjet

 

[bspahh]

Never use third party resellers. They claim to be the 'perfect solution' but booking with the 'national operator' is always the safest.

It is more complicated than that. It depends which route you want to use, how you want to pay and what functionality you want. Some national operators have WWW sites which can be hard to use in English, which might not take the way that you want to pay, or which don't let you pick your seat for a reservation.

For example, Eurostar don't sell Interrail reservations for their trains. Rail Europe do, but have a transaction fee, and didn't take my company credit card, (its registered in Canada). For that transaction http://www.allaboard.eu/ was better.

For a trip from Madrid to Lisbon, its best to use Omio as you can do it in one transaction, even if I wouldn't pick them for a UK journey.

 

[UBoot]

Another point.
Do the third party resellers take into account those countries that offer free travel for the over 65's?
If I was travelling from Salzburg to Budapest, do I get charged a rate that recognises this discount?

UB