hi everyone,
because of the fire in the eurotunnel they%26#39;ve cancelled our train from london to brussels which was due to go to 2.34pm on tues 16 sept. The next one leaves at 3.34pm and gets there over an hour later, which means we miss our 5.59pm train from brussels to Oberhausen (via koln). We%26#39;d booked tickets in advance for this train, which is an ICE. I looked and the only other trains running now that we can catch are at 7.24pm, with the part to Koln being a thalys train. I%26#39;ve been on these before and know they are reservation only...my question is, do you think they%26#39;ll let us use the ticket we%26#39;ve bought already, to go on the thalys train? or will we have to buy a whole new ticket?
please, any advice would be great, thank you!!
lucy
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1) If you have only PURCHASED your ICE ticket from Brussels to Oberhausen in advance, then you can re-use the ticket on another ICE train. However if what you have is a reservation (with carriage and seat number), your ticket is valid only on the train in question, and to tell you whether you can change it and with what conditions, it would be necessary to know when you bought it and at what sort of price (full-price tickets are fully refundable: cheap ones cannnot be changed at all and you would normally have to buy another ticket). I have no idea whether Belgian (or German) Railways or Thalys are accepting special arrangements for people whose Eurostar bookings have been cancelled - Eurostar is a separate company.
2) Your ICE ticket would certainly not normally be valid for the Thalys from Brussels to Köln, Thalys requires a reservation showing a carriage and seat number on the Thalys departure in question.
3) I would advise you to contact Belgian Railways since a) presumably this is who you purchased your Brussels-Oberhausen ticket from, therefore when you give them the details they will know what conditions apply to changing it and b) as they are partners in both the Eurostar and Thalys consortiums, they are best-placed to decide whether they can take the first problem into account as regards the second. Contact details on www.belrail.be/E/informations/contact.html (from outside Belgium, add 32 and drop the first 0). Note that under %26quot;how to contact me%26quot; you can also click on %26quot;send me an e-mail%26quot; (not me, obviously, but Belgian Railways!).
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thank you so much for your help!! I just emailed D.Bahn as I bought the ticket via them. I did purchase one with a seat reservation. I got it on 3 September and it cost 19 euros without the reservation, with was 2 euros extra. I expect this is the cheap ticket that I can%26#39;t exchange now? The trouble is, there%26#39;s no other ICE trains so I guess the best option is for me to buy a ticket for the thalys train when I get to brussels and hopefully try and use the ticket I%26#39;ve already bought, for the rest of the journey, if they%26#39;ll let me.
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Probably a bit late in the day now but you could get there early and try and see if they%26#39;ll put you on the 13:25 - it%26#39;s a long shot but if you explain you%26#39;ve got the ICE booked they may, may let you on that. It%26#39;s worth a try. The Brussels trains are never anything like as full as the Paris ones, particularly mid-week, so you may get lucky.
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