Travel annoyance: Vacationers report rental car rip-offs and train chaos

travel hassles
“Terrible start to the holiday”: Travelers report rental car rip-offs and train trouble

Travelers need strong nerves at the moment. At the airports there is sometimes sheer chaos: Endless queues, canceled flights and left-over suitcases are driving holidaymakers crazy. Unfortunately, other means of transport do not always get you to your destination as stress-free as you had imagined. Because: Trains and long-distance buses also let some travelers down. And dubious rental car providers pull more money out of their customers’ pockets than previously agreed with dubious tricks on the spot. This is reported by vacationers with whom the star spoke, in this part of our travel hassles series.

Rental car rip-off in Ibiza

Stefanie Seyfried from Karlsbad was looking forward to a girlfriends holiday in Ibiza. At the beginning of June, the 45-year-old non-medical practitioner wanted to pick up her previously booked rental car at the airport. She should pay 390 euros for five days including fully comprehensive insurance from a smaller, supposedly cheap, online provider. At the counter in the airport, however, the provider suddenly demanded that you take out fully comprehensive insurance. He denied that it had already been booked in advance: “He told us we had to book it again for 180 euros, otherwise we wouldn’t be covered,” recalls Seyfried. The man had built up pressure, she and her friend were afraid that they would have to pay much higher costs if they were returned in the event of damage.

They briefly considered booking with a larger and much more expensive rental car provider. “But the employee told us that our money would be gone.” In the end, the girlfriends have to pay 260 euros more than initially agreed. Instead of the booked four-door Citroen, the two get a two-door Fiat that hasn’t been filled with washer fluid and cracks and jerks when driving. “It was a really terrible start to the vacation for me, I was so angry,” says Seyfried. A scam like this, she says, can ruin your entire vacation.

“It was late and we had to rely on the car”

With this scam, the same rental car provider also pulled the money out of Karin Sprinzing (52) and Georg Wörnle (58). Finally Mallorca again – the self-employed fitness trainers from Bavaria had been looking forward to this since the beginning of the pandemic. The couple has been going to the island for eight years, and it should be their first vacation since the pandemic. However, when they wanted to pick up their booked car at the counter, they said: You can’t get that. Because the booking was made via an external agency, a completely new contract had to be drawn up: “It was late and we had to rely on the car,” says Georg Wörnle. “We couldn’t get away at that time and the other car rental companies were closed.”

So that they can still pursue their vacation plans, they reluctantly agreed. The new contract included insurance and extra fees, which cost the couple just under €500. The money paid before the holiday (180 euros) will not be refunded. Wörnle says: “The hassle with the provider and the online agent kept us busy for the entire holiday week. Through e-mail correspondence, phone calls or simply mentally.” The couple only found out afterwards that the rental car provider had extremely bad reviews online.

With the Flixbus to Paris – but not until the next morning

Seeing the Eiffel Tower once in a lifetime – for Anton Lukow it was a dream city trip after he had just passed his Abitur. “I’ve set myself the challenge of getting to Paris as cheaply as possible. And using the 9-euro ticket as far as possible,” says the 18-year-old. So on June 4th at 6 a.m. the Brandenburger shoulders his backpack and video camera, with which he wants to document the city trip and upload it to YouTube. Anton’s journey from Berlin takes him via Magdeburg, Braunschweig and Bielefeld to Cologne. But then, shortly before the planned departure of his Flixbus to Paris at 10:30 p.m., his cell phone flashes. An SMS: “Dear Flix passenger, unfortunately your trip is cancelled.” The next bus is not scheduled to leave until 8:30 the next day. “I was so angry,” says Anton. “They must have known beforehand that the bus is cancelled.” Flixbus says this at the request of the star, Passengers would be informed “as soon as possible” about timetable changes. “Due to short-term operational problems, it was unfortunately not possible for us to send earlier information to the passengers in this case.”

During the night, Anton stays with a friend in Cologne, barely sleeps four hours so that he can be on the bus on time the next day. Shortly before arriving in Paris, a storm warning pops up. And indeed: when Anton is finally standing in front of the Eiffel Tower, the rain is beating down on him. Nevertheless, he beams into the camera in the video and later says: “It was really worth it for the sight.” Even the failed bus? “Especially the one that gave me 20 euros back.” Anton made it to Paris for 49 euros. He has his video on the YouTube channel Seox uploaded.

“Bahn security and police had to secure the platform”

Train driver David Oehlmann from Hamburg found out that the run on the 9-euro ticket for regional transport can also bring the long-distance rail network to its knees. The 29-year-old social media editor went to Cologne on Pentecost to see “Die Ärzte” at the big stadium concert. But the return trip turned out to be a chaos trip. “I missed the train I had actually booked because the regional train to the station was completely late. The next one was over an hour late.” During this time, the platform filled up more and more menacingly. Long-distance drivers waiting for the delayed Intercity met hordes of 9-euro ticket drivers who wanted to catch regional trains on the same platform. “At some point, the railway security had to secure the platform with the help of the police and no longer allowed people on it,” says Oehlmann.

Oehlmann makes it onto the next train. But of course it’s completely overcrowded – there aren’t any free seats – and it only slowly makes its way towards the finish line. “I arrived in Hamburg three hours late, although I was able to drive through without having to change trains.” He was particularly annoyed that he had to pay a whopping 95 euros for a return trip despite having a BahnCard 50. His conclusion: the performance of the railway was “very much in need of improvement”.

When the night train doesn’t come at night

“The trip to Italy with my husband is the first since Corona. It should be something very special,” says 53-year-old Angelika Baum (name changed). But it begins above all: particularly annoying. “We booked the Nightjet from Munich to Venice.” The Nightjet is a night train operated by the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), which also offers sleeping cars. And it is precisely this car that “is not provided,” as the teacher and her husband found out by text message on the platform. Instead, they should travel to Salzburg and board the Nightjet with sleeping cars from there in the middle of the night. “We were in Salzburg at midnight and waited for hours for the night train. Besides us, there were families with small children. That’s not possible,” says the Munich resident.

At 2 o’clock he finally arrives. With sleeper. But the next morning he has neither electricity nor water. And with that, the toilet also fails: “No toilet in the morning is special,” says Baum. But the passengers would have taken it with humor. “At least it’s curious and we have something to tell.” The couple enjoys Venice for a week. But then the sleeping car back to Munich should also be omitted. According to an ÖBB spokesman, the complications with sleeping cars are isolated cases, there are currently “no major problems in the night train business. But “due to the particularly long distances of night trains, reacting to irregularities is particularly challenging”.