Brit Rail Problems

Well, with one week to go we hit our first snag.  It’s a minor inconvenience but an inconvenience none the less.

We bought a Brit Rail pass for the UK portion of our vacation.  This gives us eight days of travel on the British Rail system during a thirty-day period. 

When bought a similar pass on our first trip to England, there was a single pass card, which the conductor knew how many days were left on the card.  So, when we bought the pass for this trip, I incorrectly assumed that the same process would be in place.  Much to my horror, when I printed out the pass, it said that the pass was only good for one day.  I tried to call the Brit Rail agent in Canada, only to find out that they don’t accept telephone calls, and only respond to emails.  I contacted a local travel agent but they did not have a “backdoor” telephone number.

Luckily for my blood pressure, the Brit Rail agency did respond to my email within two hours.  It now seems that I have an online account and I need to go into that account and activate a new pass for each of the eight days.  Because this pass is electronic and stored on my phone, we won’t be able to print a paper copy as a safe backup.  So here’s hoping I don’t forget to charge my phone each night.

Some day I’ll figure out why companies feel the need to fix things that aren’t broken.