Lost or stolen passes, Pass Returns and Refunds

If you never validate a pass, you have one year to return it to your vendor for an 85 percent refund. If you validate a pass, you own it. It used to be that if a rail pass was lost or stolen, you might get some sympathy from the rail company. No longer. You should treat your rail pass as if it were several hundred dollars in cash, because if it’s lost or stolen, you will definitely have to find some other way of getting around.

Rail Europe does offer “pass protection” insurance for USD 10, but the refund procedures are a nightmare, and the best you can get, months after you lose your pass, is a partial refund of whatever your pass “should” have been worth on the date you lost it, but only if you buy another pass, or buy rail tickets to get around. (I guess continuing to travel by train “proves” that you still intended to use your pass.) Contact Rail Europe or go to their website (®www.raiieurope.com) for more information.

If you are reading this after your pass was lost or stolen and you didn’t have pass protection, it’s gone forever. If you did buy pass protection, you need to file a police report within 24 hours and get a copy of that report, then file a claim within 30 days of returning from Europe. As far as getting around Europe for the remainder of your trip, all I can say is that a pass is not a requirement for a great time. You may not get to ten countries, but you can see a whole lot of France for not much money, or spend a month in Rome followed by a month in Vienna and pay very little to get from one to the other (either by ride-share, meeting someone with a car, or by bus). DON’T GIVE UP AND GO HOME! Do like the Marines do: adapt and overcome. Good luck.