Thalys Reviews 677

It was seriously so filthy. I can’t believe I’m really paying a lot of money for such a horrible experience. And they have such nerve, putting a note in the restrooms saying “sorry, we know it’s nasty, we’re working on it”. Just do something about it then.. it’s not that hard. I wish there was a better alternative. Thalys is definitely way past their glory days. Eww. 💩

If you will make the baby changing room a little bit bigger. And not blow on warm air inside. That will be great. On the paper we can use the lounge. But the lounge is closed. You pay extra things but cant use this. Its like getting legally scam. Premium. So closed lounge, a very hot diaper changing room. And prehistoric aircondition. 128 euros for single trip. From paris to antwerp.

VERY RUDE staff on train. Outright arrogant and clueless about how one should behave with customers. We traveled from Amsterdam to Brussels on Thalays train on 4th of July by 13:15 train. While the train was about to reach Brussels, many passengers got ready with baggage, so did we. This big woman staff was so rude to raise her voice way too much to instruct “leave way for train manager to pass” - and selectively to us as we seemed to be the only non-Europeans there. The tone was very arrogant and rude, never ever experienced by me so far. In fact, this woman was herself blocking the passage with her two bags! It is absolutely NOT acceptable service standard by Thalays.

I happened to miss my transfer in Paris, due to delay from Thalys. When I told the Thalys staff about my situation, they took immediate and appropriate action; looking for alternative trains, and because this was not possible, they provided me a hotel in Paris and a train for the next day. I'm very satisfied!

Just boarded in Antwerp for the 2:15 transit to Paris. 19h25. No food left in buffet car. Poor planning Thalys.

This company deserves a minus score! On the hottest day of June (nearly 100 degrees), the train from Amsterdam was two hours late, which meant 2 more hours in steamy Gare du Nord. When the train finally arrived, it was coupled to another train that had technical difficulties. Nevertheless, they boarded us onto it, where we discovered there was no air conditioning. They advised us to go stand outside ( in 100-degree sun) while they worked on the problem. Older folks were red-faced, sweating, exhausted from the heat. Finally after a half hour of this torture, we were told that our train was broken. We had to dismount and drag out luggage back down the sun-struck platform to another platform where, finally, there was a working train. They did apologize for this hellish three-and-a-half hour delay by offering us a snack box.

One star is being generous. Their system is riddled with glitches. No point in buying an expensive ticket as app won’t allow you to change. Flexible means nothing!!!

The travel starts with constants unnecessary announcement to interrupt you every 5 minutes to ask you to mute your phone or not to jump the train when it is moving.
Then when the train stops because of an object obstructing the train path, a brief announcement is made, saying that we will be kept up to date on while they free up the track.
From that point silence, the lateness accumulate with no information whatsoever and the train stops at the next station for about 10 minutes without any explanations.
Also seats are too small
Also still no option to travel with a bike on a train.
The onboard wifi is probably link with some kind of a 2G link, the speed is soo slow, that even basic emails/internet browsing is very painful. (I am filling this form from the train, and loading this very page took about 5 minutes.)

Horrible service!!!! I purchased a ticket that had flexibility to change the ticket but I found out the hard way that I actually couldn’t change the ticket. We were departing from Paris to Amsterdam and no body wants to help with questions or help navigating the station. I waited in line to exchange ticket for over 45 minutes where I was told not our problem, but new to new tickets??!! We had 3 tickets and paid over 500$. They just plant don’t care !!

They don't even deserved a 1* . the train is always late and you can't get a refund. The worst train in the universe!!!

Worst train experience ever !! Too unprofessional !! Always late when taking this train

Really bad customer experience. I was in a hurry to Amsterdam so I bought a ticket. The train was late so I had to take an Intercity (and be late). When I requested a refund, they refused because the train was only 51 minutes late (lol) instead of an hour. Never using them again.

One of the train staff was yelling at travellers and really aggressively whistling when we walked to the right entrance. I mean I get it that you don’t want to be delayed but it’s the travellers own responsibility to get in the train. Not costumer friendly and rude😵 (Thalys 12:19 paris to Amsterdam, 16th march 22”)

We were booked on the 08:58 train from Rotterdam Centraal to Antwerpen Centraal on 19 February. This was the day when all train traffic throughout the Netherlands had been cancelled due to Storm Eunice and there had been notifications the night before that trains would be cancelled on the 19th due to repair works. Although NS had stated that there was no train traffic throughout the Netherlands, both the Thalys app and website continued to state that our train was on time and had not been cancelled. We called the Thalys call centre to enquire about this and were told that our train was indeed operating and on time (despite us asserting that NS and Prorail stated otherwise on their websites). As we of course wanted to get to Antwerp, had to believe in this instance what Thalys had directly told us and did not want to lose our money if the train was indeed running, we decided to go to Rotterdam Centraal. As there were no trains running this meant we had to take a taxi there costing us €48. When we arrived, all information boards confirmed that there were no trains running. Despite this we went onto Platform 2 just in case the Thalys train did turn up. It did not. We were not the only ones, as people throughout the morning continued to come to Rotterdam Centraal believing that their train would be departing as Thalys still had not updated its website or app to inform passengers that trains were cancelled. We actually came across other passengers who told us that they too had been informed by Thalys customer service representatives that their trains would be running. Understanding that we would not be getting on a train any time soon, we went to the Thalys desk at Rotterdam Centraal, got a refund on our tickets (thankfully our hotel in Antwerp was very understanding and waived the cancellation fees) and again incurred €48 in taxi fees to return home. Why am I writing this here? Well, there is no way of contacting Thalys unless we want to incur yet further fees of €0.30 per minute to call Thalys or we have social media in the form of Twitter or Messenger which neither of us has. We had always trusted in excellent service from Thalys. However, after such poor showing we would rather double our journey time and use NS International which is at least reliable and does have actual customer service.

Extremely disappointed with this service. I was directed by staff in Antwerp Central to speak to the train manager when the train arrived because they couldn’t change my ticket for me. I did - she was extremely rude and told me to board the train for the extra fee of 37,00€. I boarded. After 20 minutes of my standing on the train while it moved, she returned. She asked how I would like to pay and I said contactless. She told me they don’t take contactless and then proceeded to fine me another 75,00€ - amounting to 110,00€ fine. I had already bought a ticket for a later train, departing from Brussels (just one stop before Antwerp) for 100,00€ but I had to leave in an emergency. The customer service has also informed me that they only take payments of up to 50,00€ contactless on the train so WHY wasn’t my payment accepted? The worst service with even worse customer service. They take weeks to respond. I will never be using Thalys again.

Extremely unprofessional experience! I booked 4 tickets on the official site of Thalys some days ago. I filled in the information of my card and I received a booking reference number from them. Some days later I checked if I received my tickets, but I did not. I called their custom service and they told me that since the money was not taken from my account, the transaction is not complete and I should fill in a complain through their official site. I booked again the same tickets, but since the prices for the days that I wanted were higher, I asked for a refund for the difference in price, which they denied.

Since I received a booking confirmation from them, and since they did not inform me that something went wrong with my transaction, I was expecting to receive the refund. That way of operating business is on the expense of the customer.

Worst post sales service in my life. Impossible to reach them by multiple numbers. When you ask for help via social media, they ignore you. Once they have your money, they’ll treat you like garbage and make you feel like nothing and waste lots of time and nerves. It’s shocking considering their prices.

I can only confirm other reports here. They seriously let vouchers expire during a global pandemic where they had very limited service. And not enough - they blame customers for not having contacted them before expiration. Wow. Awesome service. Never again!

Its absolutely unfair and unjust that I cannot get a refund or exchange my tickets to Paris, the big companies (Thalys) always win and still get their money at the expense of the poor consumer. Its BS.
I will never use Thalys again and I urge everyone else not to by tickets that are on sale.

I am telecommuting between Brussels and Paris. I have taken the Thalys every week since 2019. The level of reliability is just amazing. I would say that 95% of the trains operate on time. Taking into account everything that could go wrong at 300km/h between two countries, it is quite incredible. They were also very supportive during COVID, extending frequent travelers status and operating as many trains as possible. Kudos for the great work Thalys and thanks for extending my status today!!