Barrie
Traveller
26 comments
Posted 1 month ago
Just a heads up that I've learnt the hard way. From my observation Trainline simply acts a a reseller and is not interested in helping out once a ticket is bought. I've been caught out by not thoroughly investigating the cancellation of ticket conditions. I have a bunch of tickets booked throughout Italy this month and the next but I can't use them as my flight to Europe was cancelled because I was transiting through Dubai.
Rather than deal with Trainline I went to Trenitalia, Italia and OBB direct. The first two there's been no response and OBB says sorry no refund possible. So if you're using one of these 3rd party platforms burrow down into the weeds for the cancellation conditions.
MisterSteve
Traveller
1168 comments
The fact that Trainline aren't very good at processing VALID refund claims has been well publicised since the start of covid lockdowns 5 years ago and isn't news.
HOWEVER, many cheap early booker fares are not refundable unless the train is cancelled (which was what was happening 5 years ago). In this case the trains are not the problem, it's your flight. If you bought non refundable tickets you should have had insurance to cover this.
Trainline DO show these conditions and as soon as they show the price, they don't hide it pages into the booking.
Barrie
Traveller
26 comments
Yes as I wrote I learnt the hard way. I wasn't taking notice of the cancellation conditions because I had travel insurance if something went wrong and I had no intention of not traveling (and I had travel insurance anyway). I made these bookings not expecting a war to intervene, I made several SNCF bookings after the war started but I made sure I read the cancellation fine print and they were all fully refunded. As I wrote this was just a heads up if others were as careless as I was.
If Trainline is bad who is best for on-line 3rd party - Omio, Rome2rio? I don't seem to get a good experience with Trenitalia or SNCF on-line.
MisterSteve
Traveller
1168 comments
What is it with people who insist on using 3rd parties???? Atthe end of the day, if it goes worng how can a 3rd party possibly sort it out better than the actual company?? Yes they may help you avoid having to read something foreign, or with iffy english, when you do the simple bit of buyingthe tickets- but if you need help doing the simple bit how can you expect it to be easier when things go wrong? Rome2Rio is an Australian bot, in my expereince of just looking at what it suggest as itineries I wouldn't touch it for actually buying tickets. Omio is probably no better than Trainline, both are used as software providers by some train companies (usually pages branded as the train company) but neither are likely to be able to offer the level of help you need when things go wrong.
Posting heads ups on any forum is usually a waste of time unless part of already an active discussion. Nobody goes looking for it otherwise - you proved it because others had already posted about Trainline when you gave them money. Even worse on the big sites like Tripadvisor or Rick Steves, standalone warnings will be buried with 24 hours.
MisterSteve
Traveller
1168 comments
What is it with people who insist on using 3rd parties???? Atthe end of the day, if it goes worng how can a 3rd party possibly sort it out better than the actual company?? Yes they may help you avoid having to read something foreign, or with iffy english, when you do the simple bit of buyingthe tickets- but if you need help doing the simple bit how can you expect it to be easier when things go wrong? Rome2Rio is an Australian bot, in my expereince of just looking at what it suggest as itineries I wouldn't touch it for actually buying tickets. Omio is probably no better than Trainline, both are used as software providers by some train companies (usually pages branded as the train company) but neither are likely to be able to offer the level of help you need when things go wrong.
Posting heads ups on any forum is usually a waste of time unless part of already an active discussion. Nobody goes looking for it otherwise - you proved it because others had already posted about Trainline when you gave them money. Even worse on the big sites like Tripadvisor or Rick Steves, standalone warnings will be buried with 24 hours.