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Purchasing TransSiberian Train Tickets

Way to Russia Talk Lounge Forum Index -> Travel Advice (Practicalities)

Author	Message
lijekcar Just Starting Joined: 25 Feb 2009 Posts: 1	Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 8:29 pm    Post subject: Purchasing TransSiberian Train Tickets Hi, I'm new to these forums and trying to purchase tickets for the #004 train from Moscow to Beijing (via Mongolia). This has been a long, difficult process for me and I want to make sure everything is happening as it should be. I'll try to keep it short... I tried to purchase tickets about 6 weeks ago from Andrei with Grint Travel. After some communications, I sent him a wire transfer. I am in the U.S. and can only send the money in USD. Apparently the account I was told to send the money to wasn't set up to accept USD. We then went back and forth for about a month trying to get my money back so I could resend the money to another account that accepts USD. I finally got the money back and asked him for some clarification on where to correctly send the money. I heard from him this week that the tickets are now $565 (we originally agreed to $465). Surprised and discouraged that they had gone up so much, I decided to shop around again. I got quotes from Way to Russia and some other places. I finally decided that I'd have to cut my loses and go with a quote from TransSiberiana for $540. It turns out that I'm dealing with Andrei again. I guess Grint Travel and TransSiberian are the same company. Andrei has been fairly responsive, very nice, and I have no problem working with him again. I just have some issues that I'm not sure about and I'm not sure how well he understands my questions. Why all the price differences? I know that you can't actually purchase tickets until 45 days in advance of the trip (mine will be in September), so how do I know that the price won't go up again after sending the money now? Any help from those that guarantee "backup in dealing with providers" will be appreciated. This is my first major purchase for a 6-month trip and I'm afraid of getting scammed and hassled every step of the way. Not so short, sorry. But thank you for any help. Carol
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greg222 VIP Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 599	Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 6:24 am    Post subject: Hi Carol. Firstly, I'm not sure why they offered you $465 to start with - as I'm sure you saw from the other quotes you got, that's well below what any other company offers. Maybe they had some confusion about how low they could sell for while the ruble was dropping in value so much. I guess there is no way to guarantee the price won't change again. If you're worried about that, I would recommend you wait until about 2 months before your travel date to purchase tickets.
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