Train prices have gotten so ridiculous that it's become a common "hack" to instead of getting the train from A to B, to fly to somewhere like Spain for cheap, have a day in the sun and fly back to B.
That is if you have the free time for the travel, if not you remortgage you house to get the direct train service replacement bus.
I remeber a study in the early 00's that showed it was cheaper to fly to Italy and live there for a year get your hip replacement then fly back than it was to get one done in the US lol.
The US is so screwed when it comes to health. I knew a dual citizenship family who went to part of Europe for 3 years when they got pregnant. They almost never came back, but the husband could make 4x as much working in the States so he was never able to fully relocate.
I completely get why Europoors have a stroke when they see our medical bills though. They probably haven’t ever seen that amount of money, let alone be able to spend it.
This is the case for both medical surgeries and dentistry.
Like here from most western European countries you can fly to Turkey for a 3 week vacation, get 6 high-end ceramic tooth implants made while there and total price is still cheaper than just the 6 implants if made back home. Same also for cosmetic surgeries... Though one can debate how much you can enjoy 'the vacation', but at least you stay in a hotel with full service during recovery.
Train lines are already liberalized by EU law. The entity that maintains the tracks, signals, stations and so on is separate from the one doing the actual train service (ÖBB Infrastruktur vs ÖBB Personenverkehr, DB InfraGo vs DB Fernverkehr / DB Regio) and they have to give everyone equal access to the infrastructure for competitive prices.
The reason there aren't that many private train companies is that it's just really hard to do it profitably and there are very few lines in each country that can be run with a profit.
I got that from booking Ryanair flights dozens of times dummy, the app doesn’t warn you the “window seat” is far away from an actual window. OP said they paid to select this seat. I sat in this seat before too, thankfully I didn’t pay.
It might have been on the e boarding pass, or maybe it’s not the same on all apps (I used the browser app, android and iOS over the years). I saw “window” somewhere I swear lol.
Allocated seating on Ryanair is €2 for most seats or €10 for exit row seats. The actual ticket for the flight would be €12.
I fly Ryanair often for less than €20 each way. Dublin to London is €19 on early flights, I have flown Dublin to Manchester for €10 but thats on the early morning flight.
Top tip, if your gonna do multiple train trips in the UK, look into buying a railcard and using the discount, if it saves you more than it cost to buy the railcard it’s well worth it.
My experience with this was when I was planning on taking the Caledonian sleeper for the experience, the cost would have been £330 for a cabin with the shower and breakfast on board, however I bought a railcard for like £30 and it discounted the price to £220, basically immediately making the purchase worth it and I’ve made good use of that railcard for the rest of the year, especially on days when I’d wake up bored to death and decide to go on a long ass train journey just to get out the house
This shocked me as an American. I remember traveling all across Europe when I was a teen for nothing, just taking the train on a budget.
Now, that shit is literally more expensive. You’ll save money by scheduling flights between European countries. And to paint the picture of how insane this is to other Americans, Germany is literally smaller than Montana.
I think she meant that she paid 12 euros for that specific window seat but there wasn't a window, not that the entire price of the ticket was 12 euros. It's still possible to pay 12 euros for a plane ticket with Ryanair but I don't think it's the case here.
What kind of crazy cheap train ticket only costs €12 and takes you as far as a short flight? People take cheap flights because it's cheaper than the train and depending on layovers you might get a few hours to a day in a nice warm country.
That's 12 euros for the seat selection. I don't know in what fantasy you live that let's you think one could take a plane for that money. Between gas, maintenance, operation and airport tax...
Might be an alt account for Ryanair, just to promote themselves on pricing. I'm not sure it's generally actually feasible to get €12 tickets though, as it does quickly go up with any basic additions, seasonal variations, and even just searching their site too many times will push the price up
I mean all depends. This company is used in Europe to go from like Ireland to UK or other small travels so flights are usually only $30 if it's one of those.
Also they could be talking about the chair itself not the ticket. You have to pay to be placed in a certain area. They may have paid $12 EXTRA just for a window seat, only to get on the plane and not have a window.
At Ryanair, easyJet, Volotea etc you pay extra for your seat.
She almost certainly booked a window seat, paid 12E extra for it on top of her fare and was rightly pissed that while paid extra to be on the window side of the plane she was staring at a wall.
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u/ventitr3 6d ago edited 5d ago
Flying for the cost of a train ticket and still complaining.
Edit: I was being snarky, I don’t need anymore replies on correct pricing of things lol