This is not a rant about something that went wrong, because while it did go wrong I have only myself to blame.
A few blogs ago I spoke about having taken a delightful train journey from London to Valencia, but I was shocked to find that I could not claim the tickets I had paid for, so had to re-purchase. This is an update to that story.
It was way back on April 1, (April Fool's Day) that I originally bought my tickets from London to Barcelona for travel on August 9th. In buying so far ahead I got very nice discounts that the company really intended that I made good use of. The lady at the agency impressed upon me that I had to get my tickets from the rail company before the start of my journey. The start of my rail journey was in London. I got to London by plane. I thought, what a strange thing to say. If I didn't pick up my tickets how else was I to start my rail journey.
What she meant was that I was to collect my tickets before leaving Spain, and that was underscored by the written notice on the voucher that was headed: IMPORTANT! A lot of time had passed between buying the tickets and travelling, but if only I had read the voucher to refresh myself as to what was required of me. Well, I didn't and off I went expecting to key in my code at the machines at EuroStar, London, and out would come my tickets. They didn't, so I had to scramble and buy same day travel tickets without any discounts at all.
Fortunately, there was space and I got to Barcelona as scheduled. That was just as well as I had not realised that I had paid for a night's stay in a very nice hotel in Barcelona, which was in danger of having been lost as well.
The next day I caught my train from Barcelona, which was also pre-paid and arrived back home as scheduled. That was important as I had my pets to collect.
So, I have said all that to say this: We enter into a number of contracts when we make a journey like this, and each one has its own terms and conditions. We really do need to observe our roles to the letter. If we don't not even insurance will bail us out.
By failing to have acted exactly as I should have, my original journey costs of 464 euros, including all rail, hotel, and transfer costs, ultimately cost me 923 euros, including new tickets and lost purchase that was not refunded. It could have been worse had I needed to stay in Paris, thereby losing my night's stay in Barcelona and having to re-purchase a seat from Barcelona to Valencia. That could have come to 1,056 euros, plus an additional night's boarding for my pets.
There's nothing else to do but suck it up and learn from my mistakes.
Copyright (c) 2015 Eugene Carmichael
