Way to Russia Talk Lounge

bmoliver · Just Starting Joined: 28 Jun 2007 Posts: 2

I was disappointed by the high markup that waytoRussia charged for our train tickets from St. Petersburg to Helsinki. The price marked on the tickets we received, including the cost for reserving seats, was 113.40 euros (about 3639 rubles). However, we were charged on our credit card for 7885 euros, for a markup of about 100%. We picked up the tickets ourselves from City Realty in St. Petersburg.

We purchased another set of tickets from Moscow to Novgorod through a separate online agency, and the markup for those two tickets was only about 30% (5994 rubles versus 7896 rubles), which was much more reasonable.

Based on this, I am not sure I can recommend waytoRussia for train ticket purchases. Sad

greg222 · VIP Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 521

Brian, I am sorry to hear that you weren't happy with the service. But please note that Way to Russia is a travel guide so we do not sell any train tickets ourselves. Instead we list companies on the website that we think provide good service.

For train vendors we offer three choices and we give information about each of the three vendors, including the mark-up they charge. It is noted that Express to Russia, the one you chose, is the most expensive of the three. However, we have their mark-up as 40%-60% so we apologise for the incorrect information. We will change it.

bmoliver · Just Starting Joined: 28 Jun 2007 Posts: 2

Thanks for the reply. It was some months ago that I first inquired about the train tickets. Perhaps I overlooked the choice of service provider, but I don't recall actually choosing a specific provider.