Not So Golden in Brussels

My sister, my nephew and I took a weeklong vacation to London to celebrate Christmas and decided to take a day trip to Brussels. Europe is like a story book with medieval villages and cobbled stone alleys full of little souvenirs shops, outdoor Christmas markets, the Christmas lights, the jolly atmosphere brought out the Christmas spirits, it is the BEST TIME of the year.  Brussels is beautiful as usual, though bone chilling cold the day we visited. We managed to have a good visit, did the sightseeing thing with one HUGE hiccup.

We signed up for a day trip to Brussels with Golden Tours based in London. The package provided round-trip Eurostar tickets and Hop-On Hop-Off tickets in Brussels so you can travel at your own pace. I had used Golden Tours before and never had any problems.

It was a good day visiting Brussels, though I had this "thing" going on in my head even before I left the US..."Shirley, don't miss the train, don't miss the train". It just kept repeating in my head to the point that I became worried and decided that it was a warning of some sorts so I shall take heed. We were at the Brussels Eurostar station at 6:00pm for the 7:52pm departure back to London; unless all 3 of us felt asleep in the departure lounge, there was no way I would miss this train.

WELL, being so early at the check-in, we handed our boarding passes to the gate agent and were told our boarding passes were invalid, our boarding passes do not exist in the Eurostar computer system. The gate agent referred us to the customer service for further assistance. The customer service guy said "Let me guess, you bought these tickets from some tour company that starts with the word "Golden"?" I produced the welcome package from Golden Tours and the guy said there were 8 people issued with fraudulent tickets from the same tour company last week. He photocopied our tickets, called the line manager and referred us back to the gate to see if the line manager can offer us any help.

Eurostar refused to redeem our boarding passes and I completely understand. It is not their responsibility to honor any fraudulent tickets. However, learning that was the last train from Brussels back to London and that we had a plane to catch the next morning back to the US, I had no choice but to purchase genuine Eurostar tickets at the gate for the price of €686 so we could get on this last train to London.

We met 2 other tourists on the same self-paced tour at the departure lounge and learned that their tickets were fraudulent as well. They too, had to purchase tickets at the last minute to get back to London; WORST, they signed up for the same self-paced tour with Golden Tours from London to Paris with departure date the next morning.... Good Luck to them. I regret not asking for their email address, perhaps we could have exchanged info on the tickets situation.

It was a 2-hour train ride from Brussels to London. After an hour ride and once I calmed down, I took a walk to the seats of my original boarding passes, yes, those fake ones issued by Golden Tours, to see if those seats were double-booked, to see who was sitting at those seats, just to satisfy my curiosity. Those seats were empty. I asked the family sitting across from “my” seats to see if may be those people were at the dining car or went to the bathroom, etc. The family said nobody was sitting at those seats.

I had written up a document with photocopies of the fake boarding passes, the real boarding passes I purchased with receipts and all. I intend to request a reimbursement for my €686 extra expenses.  The outcome is yet to be determined, will see how that turns out. Stay tune…..

3 months later......

Is it possible a big outfit like Eurostar make a mistake? 

Eurostar was gracious enough to own up to a mistake in their system, which nullified Golden Tours' tickets. Eurostar issued me a full refund of €686. I was glad the issue was resolved. I wonder how many of the other tourists who did not file the complaint, thus never get their refund and never know the truth, even though the truth is out there.