Purchasing European Thalys Train Tickets in the US

Ever since I was a kid, I've loved trains. When I was 12, I saved my allowance all summer and bought an "N-scale" Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV) set. Twenty years later and I will be riding on the latest generation of this train, on the Thalys Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam (PBA) route. Needless to say I am very excited, but when I began planning this trip I did have some trepidation after hearing about problems purchasing European train tickets from the US.

In the end I did not have any issues, but I did follow a few simple steps before I purchased:

1) Used the Thayls website to determine the available trains, times, and purchase prices.

2) Compared against the fares advertised on RailEurope, which tend to be higher. Sometimes a discount code is available that can make these fares very competitive.

3) Contacted my credit card company and informed them that I would be making European purchases

4) Placed the order, direct with Thayls, after confirming they were the cheapest option. I had to make two seperated purchases because I will be departing Amsterdam and stopping in Brussels for a couple days before continuing on to Paris. I selected the "Book paper ticket" option, selecting the appropriate starting country as the country of collection. After providing my credit card information and confirming payment, I was able to open the ticket in an Adobe PDF reader window. I made sure to not only print a paper copy of the ticket, but I also saved a copy of the *.pdf file to bring with me on my phone/iPad. I then repeated the process for my second ticket.

5) After purchasing my ticket, I logged onto my credit card account and confirmed the proper amount was charged.

Thayls customer service can be reached at +32 70 66 77 88 (international tarif applies), from 02:30AM (EST) to 12:30 PM (EST) from Monday (Sunday evening/Monday morning) to Friday (Thursday evening/Friday morning). They can also be contacted online at: http://www.thalys.com/be/en/practical-travel-guide/after/suggestions-and-complaints?section_aide=information