PKP sells more expensive tickets? “The ticket for the same train and bought at the same time on the website of the Polish carrier is around 110 PLN more expensive than the one bought on the Czech page” – Journalist Łukasz Grzesiczak is surprised. Calculates that the ticket for the connection on February 4 from Warsaw to Ostrava on the Polish carrier's website costs PLN 192.17, and on the Czech railway website its price is 490 crowns, i.e. the equivalent of approx. PLN 82. In his post on Platform X, he attaching screenshots on the parties of the carriers.No, this is not an exception. I regularly go to Ostrava and it always looks like this ” – he adds.
Not only the Czech Republic: Another user of the X platform, Marcin Trzaska, complained about the same problem, but in connections with Germany. “Why a ticket for the same train PKP Intercity costs almost twice as much if I buy it in PKPand not at the competition from Deutsche Bahn? In the selected connection, only about 25 minutes of the route is on the German side of the Oder ” – he asked. Screenshots from the pages of carriers also joined his entry, where you can see that for the same train from Frankfurt to Poznań you have to pay PLN 150.77 on the PKP website or 18.99 euro (approx. PLN 80) on the German carrier's website.
We asked PKP about this difference in the price: – As a rule, the base prices of international train tickets, for which PKP Intercity is responsible, are similar with a foreign carrier. But each of them has its own pools of promotional tickets, a The price changes depending on the interest of travelers – explains Maciej Dutkiewicz, spokesman for PKP. He explains that in the case of a Czech carrier the difference in prices “may mean that the train in Polish passengers is more popular and the pool of cheaper tickets has run out faster.”
Can it be cheaper? PKP assures us that due to the mentioned rules “there is often the opposite situation”. – When a passenger buys a ticket for an international train, it may happen that Price at PKP Intercity will be lower than at a foreign carrier – emphasizes Maciej Dutkiewicz. We checked this and indeed (in a way) you can agree with PKP. For the connection already mentioned from Warsaw to Ostrava (at 13:34 per week on Wednesday, February 12) you have to pay PLN 63.77 for a ticket in the second grade. Meanwhile, on the Ceke Drahy website, the same ticket is for 486 crowns, i.e. approx. 82 PLN. In this price There are first grade tickets on the PKP website. Interestingly, however, tickets from the German carrier for connections Poznań Główny-Frankfurt are still much cheaper. For the train on February 12 at 11:30 you have to pay on the PKP website PLN 149.37, and on the website of the German carrier “only” 19.99 euros, or approx. 84 PLN. The difference is almost twice.
Important advice: – Each carrier has its own sales system. It works slightly similar to sales airline tickets, They can be bought in many places and find price occasions. Both CD and PKP IC channels have their own offers for international journeys with independent limited pools of promotional tickets – emphasizes Maciej Dutkiewicz. So it is worth checking before an international trip that the tickets from a foreign carrier will not be at a more favorable price.
Read too About the Czech railway: “We dream at stations, they get in and go. And everywhere. How do the Czech Republic do it? “.
Sources: Marcin Trzaska [X]Łukasz Grzesiczak [X], eBilet.intercity.pl, bahn.de, cd.cz