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62
« on: November 05, 2010, 05:57:22 pm »
I found a post No.3 in this topic on Thorntree forum ( http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=1567084). It's about combining CityStar ticket with MPT sleeper reservations. It looks rather complicated but not impossible to do so, as explained in this post: The ticket should be bought best from Wasteels in Bratislava, in my opinion the railway station office is not as good.
Reason: Wasteels issues hand-written tickets and will have no problem with border points like Naushki(GR), Mandschuria(GR), Tumangan(GR).
However, the border points are not in the Slovak ticket computer, only Naushki (as station), Zabaikalsk (as station) and no Tumangan.
They can issue to border-points as well, it just takes 24 hours and a lot of red tape.
In my opinion legally - looking at SMPS legal guide book - the CITY-STAR tickets to borderpoints are LEGALLY more beneficial even as from price point of view it's the same.
Besides, the large white envelops Wasteels office would write you look more cool than boring pieces of cardboard or the railway 
The Wasteels in Bratislava is at the railway station, it's just a different office. The price is the same 172 Euro for the round-trip, they accept credit cards.
I did not buy tickets from Wasteels in Bratislava, I bought from a small rural railway office in Sturovo (was closer to my house in Hungary and I was lazy), I got them within 5 minutes and paid with c/c.
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The tickets issued to borderpoints rather than to stations can save you money and some trouble. Why? Because you can save precisely on the sleeping car supplements. The CIV tickets issued till borderpoints point behind the last station of Vostok-Zapad tariff are the argument the traveler can argue and expect to pay sleeper supplements according MPT/EMPT tariff of SMPS, not the significantly more expensive Vostok-Zapad/TCV. According SMPS "Tariff Handbuch" ("Тарифное руководство") the traveler has to get the bed reservation according the tariff of his goal. Now, let's take the "goal" called Naushki. With a CITY-STAR "Bratislava-Naushki" some Russian ticket agencies will argue, the "goal" of the passenger is to reach the station of Naushki, settle there, get roots, marry a girl or so Because the station of Naushki is just a station: you can de-train there and so on. One agency in Moscow, the TSI will issue supplemental MPT tickets to CIV tickets and MPT bed supplement will be issued for the through tariff, but some are reluctant.
The situation will immediately change if you have a CITY-STAR to Naushki(GR) instead of Naushki. There is no physical station called "Naushki(GR)", that is the tariff break-point between РЖД (Russian Rail) and МТЗ (Mongolian Rail), it's a singularity, a single point on the rails which is the same as the border. The station of Naushki is in the tariff a different thing that Naushki(GR): Naushki(GR) is 6 km further from Moscow than Naushki.
At the moment you have the ticket to Naushki(GR) immediately you can argue with right: your goal is somewhere in Mongolia or behind, the Naushki(GR) indicated in your ticket is a point closed to passenger de-raining, you have to stay on the train. That puts you in entirely different legal position, you can demand all your bed reservations even within Russia to be issued according MPT tariff, not the more expensive "Vostok-Zapad".
This is probably what happened with Utti precisely last year. Utti bought the CITY-STAR ticket to Ussuriisk and had supplemental tickets from Ussuriisk to Tumangan (Korea) with single through reservation from Moscow till Tumangan in NKorean sleeping car. That was fine. As he de-trained in Russia earlier, he was surprised he got all his further reservations even ones going back to Moscow according MPT tariff, not Vostok-Zapad and saved quite a bit of money.
Indeed: the Russian ticket agency took his pre-existing CITY-STAR together with his pre-existing supplemental ticket to North Korea as one whole thing and as a proof, his "goal" was Korea. Hence - correctly - they sold him the Irkutsk-Moscow bed reservation as MPT, not "Vostok-Zapad"/TCV.
Sorry for this long rambling... anyway, to summarise: everyone should buy CITY-STAR tickets till "GR" points if possible. On the Far East there are three "GR" points in the tariff of "Vostok-Zapad"/TCV. These are: Naushki(GR), Mandschuria(GR), Tumangan(GR), precisely in that spelling. Don't ask me, why "Наушки" got English spelling and Man Zhou Li got German or why they use Mandschuria(GR) instead of Zabaikalsk(GR) which would be the same. That's how it is there in the book... :-/
Why would like one to get MPT instead of "Vostok-Zapad" bed supplement?
While RZD did raise the prices of Vostok-Zapad and also multipliers for MPT many times, this was not the case with МТЗ, ЗЧ, КЖД. Hence, using CITY-STAR combined with cheap MPT sleeper supplement of МТЗ, ЗЧ, КЖД, УЗ (УЗ did not change the multiplier either!) you still can get the best of both worlds. It is just more tricky. What I would like to do is to get a CityStar ticket from Bratislava to Naushki or Naushki(Gr) , and combine it with return ticket Naushki or Naushki (Gr) - Beijing and MPT reservations Moscow - Beijing, Beijing - Irkutsk and Irkutsk - Moscow, all MPT ticket and reservations bought in Moscow. Do you maybe have any information about mentioned TSI agency in Moscow? And also information about prices of return ticket Naushki - Beijing or Naushki (Gr) - Beijing (I presume that 20% discount for Russia - China tickets isn't valid for ticket from Naushki (Gr)?), and information for prices of MPT sleeper reservations above.
63
« on: November 01, 2010, 02:23:09 am »
It's stated on http://www.rhb.ch/Bernina-Express.33.0.html?&L=4#splash100 that return ticket Chur - Tirano costs 114 CHF (83 EUR), and also the same price is stated on SBB website. There is also an obligatory 9 CHF seat reservation for Bernina Express Chur - Tirano - Chur (it's not clear to me, is it for one-way, or for return trip?). So, my question is, can I use TCV ticket for this route, and for Bernina Express specificaly? It will be much cheaper, because according to jizdenka, TCV ticket with RailPlus discount should be 74,40 EUR for Zuerich HB - Tirano - Zuerich HB, or 51,30 EUR for Chur - Tirano - Chur.
64
« on: October 30, 2010, 06:56:20 pm »
It's stated that there is a 20% to 40% discount on East-West tariff for groups of 6 and more. How much is discount for Serbia - Russia tickets, or more correctly Belgrade - Moscow via MAV and UZ? And also, is it possible to use 25% RailPlus discount for ticket Belgrade - Moscow?
65
« on: October 18, 2010, 07:37:19 pm »
Is it possible to use this train within western Europe part only? For example, on route Nice Ville - Innsbruck or Nice Ville - Wien Meidling? If yes, how much is sleeper reservation on those two routes? I'm plannig to use this train on my Interrail trip next year.
Thank you for your answer!
66
« on: October 07, 2010, 09:56:01 pm »
Do you know until when this upper berth discount will be valid? If you don't succed with RŽD website you can try with this one: http://ticket.poezda.net/I heared it's better in terms of accepting cards, but they charge a 6 EUR commission.
67
« on: September 02, 2010, 11:01:55 pm »
Yes, that is a problem. There was some talk about ŽS connecting with RDŽ tariff system, probably as a part of Russian government 800 million $ credit for modernisation of railway infrastructure in Serbia. But probably, I'll have to wait few years for that...
68
« on: September 02, 2010, 06:16:03 pm »
Well, first I planned to go to Vladivostok with stops in Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Irkutsk, since Serbian citizens don't need visa for Russia, but need return ticket for China to get Chineese visa, so it looks realy difficult to get Chinese visa here in Belgrade, without flying there. I'm still considering my options. Since I plan in it for next summer, I will wait and see maybe some prices change till then.
69
« on: September 02, 2010, 04:05:06 pm »
Oh sorry, I just forgot I already asked that...
So, if I understand correctly reservations with Citystar are more expensive then those with MPT tariff? For example, if I buy MPT ticket Moscow - Beijing and brake my trip in Irkutsk,Ii will pay less for reservations then using Citystar till Naushki or Zabaikalsk and then MPT till Beijing? Even the reservation Moscow - Irkuts will be less?
70
« on: September 02, 2010, 02:38:09 pm »
I found out that from 1st September Moscow - Žilina through sleeping car is running all the way to Bratislava. Now I have a set of questions  What is the price for T3 reservation Kiev - Bratislava and Lviv - Bratislava for UZ coach on train 7KJ? Which trains from Moscow to Lviv are with UZ T4 carriages, and how much reservation for them cost? Is it possible to make reservation on Transsiberian route with CityStar ticket, for trains continuing to China, Mongolia or North Korea? In a mail ŽSSK representative send me, he said that in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia if using CityStar ticket and breaking the trip, ticket has to be validated at that station up to 3 hours after schedule arrival. Is it true? And where it should be validated? At international ticket desk? Thank you very much for your help!
71
« on: August 09, 2010, 08:41:01 pm »
Yes, my mistake, it was 45 UAH, not 40UAH. Well, now 1 EUR is 10 UAH, so it's 4,5 EUR.
Don't be sorry, you couldn't now that.
You said in some earlier post that member of your team bought Kiev-Budapest one way ticket + reservation 800 UAH, which also more than it should be, so there are obviously some hidden costs.
And also one thing that can help. We paid return ticket Budapest-Lviv 53 EUR (arrond 14 500 HUF), but the lady, who was in our compartment paid one way ticket Budapest-Lviv arround 10 000, and she also bought it in Budapest as we did. So it looks like it is not 50% reduction for one way ticket MAV-UZ. It's more like 25% or something similar.
72
« on: August 09, 2010, 06:05:07 pm »
Almost got melt. We payed unofficially, no receipt. Well, we saw that commission for international ticket/reservation is 40 UAH, and there were some more few smaller "taxes", written on reservation. But that was maybe because we bought Lviv-Budapest reservation in Kiev. And, also, the cashier needed 25 minutes to issue the ticket. I just called my friend who kept the the reservation, but he couldn't find it. He probably trown it away. If he find's it, I'll post it.
73
« on: August 09, 2010, 02:42:46 pm »
We came back from Ukraine. Had no problems buying tickets for domestic train, except the language barrier, but I used some of my russian, learned years ago. We payed 20 euros for UZ 2/3 carriage Budapest-Lviv, directly to provodnik, but for return we bought it at the station it was 32 euros (it was 19 euros reservation, and 13 euros of taxes). So, it's better to get it directly from provodnik if you go from Ukraine back.
74
« on: July 09, 2010, 01:09:22 pm »
I checked at http://www.e-kvytok.com.ua, for 3 days ahead, and there are no places left available for any train Lvov - Odesa. Is it only internet availability, and there are some tickets left only to buy at station?
75
« on: July 08, 2010, 05:11:49 pm »
How much in advance domestic tickets in Ukraine has to be bought to secure kupe place, or at least platskart? I plan to stay in Lvov only 3 days (2 nights), and then move to Odesa by night train. Will it be too late? It's late July. I will also buy tickets Odesa - Simferopol, and Simferopol - Kiev in already in Lvov to secure place. Also, is it possible to buy ticket Kiev - Budapest in Budapest already, and then buy only reservation in Kiev?
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