Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 30, 2026

1. Who We Are

Billing Desk LLC, trading as BestTripsNow.com ("BestTripsNow," "we," "us," or "our"), operates the website BestTripsNow.com (the "Site"). We are an independent rail travel search and booking-assistance service. We are not a rail carrier, we do not operate any train service, and we are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Amtrak or any other rail carrier, or by any government agency.

This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect when you use the Site or contact our reservations team, how we use and share it, how long we keep it, and the choices and rights you have. It applies to the Site and to bookings our team makes on your behalf. It does not apply to the operating carrier's own website, or to any third-party site we link to — those have their own policies.

For the purposes of the UK and EU General Data Protection Regulation, BestTripsNow.com is the controller of the personal information described in this policy. Our contact details are in section 16.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information you give us on the Site

• Search inputs — origin and destination station, travel dates, trip type, and the number and type of passengers, when you use the search tool. You do not need an account and you do not need to identify yourself to search.
• Contact form details — your name, email address, the subject you select, and the content of your message.
• Newsletter signup — your email address, if you choose to subscribe.
• Accessibility or complaint reports — whatever you choose to include when you report an issue to us.

2.2 Information we collect when you book with us by phone

Fares on this Site are confirmed by phone, so if you ask us to complete a reservation for you we will need to collect and pass on the information the operating carrier requires to issue a ticket. This typically includes:

• Passenger details — the name of each traveler as it must appear on the ticket, and, where the fare or the carrier requires it, age or date of birth (for example, to apply a senior, youth, or child fare).
• Contact details — the email address and phone number we use to send your confirmation and to reach you about the booking.
• Travel details — route, date, service, and class of travel.
• Accessibility or assistance requirements, if you tell us about them so we can request them from the carrier. Information about a disability or a health condition is treated as a special category of personal data under UK/EU data protection law, and we collect it only with your explicit consent and only to arrange the assistance you have asked for.
• Payment details — the card or payment information needed to take the payment you authorize. Payment card details are captured and processed through a PCI DSS compliant payment provider. We do not store your full card number or security code after the transaction has been processed; where we retain anything it is limited to the last four digits, card type, and the transaction reference, so that we can identify the booking and process any refund.

Telephone calls. Calls to our reservations line may be monitored or recorded for training, quality assurance, and to keep an accurate record of what was agreed on a booking. Where a call is recorded, you will be told at the start of the call, and you may ask us not to record it. Recordings and call notes are treated as personal information under this policy.

2.3 Information collected automatically

• Device and usage data — IP address, browser type and version, operating system, referring page, the pages you view on the Site, and the time and duration of your visit.
• Approximate location derived from your IP address (typically city or region level). We do not collect precise GPS location.
• Cookies and similar technologies, as described in section 5.

We do not buy personal information about you from data brokers, and we do not build profiles about you from sources other than those described above.

3. How We Use Your Information

• To run the Site and its search and train-status tools, and to keep them working correctly.
• To answer questions you send us through the contact form, by email, or by phone.
• To check fares and seat availability with the operating carrier, quote you a total, and complete a booking you have authorized.
• To take payment for a booking you have authorized, and to process cancellations, changes, and refunds.
• To send you booking confirmations, tickets, and service messages about a trip you have booked. These are not marketing and you cannot opt out of them while a booking is live.
• To handle complaints, and to keep records of what was agreed on a call.
• To send you our newsletter, where you have asked to receive it. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any newsletter, or by emailing us.
• To understand how the Site is used, measure which pages and routes are useful, and improve them.
• To serve and measure the performance of our advertising, including through Google Ads. This is done on Google's platforms; we do not currently run any advertising or measurement technology on this Site (see sections 5 and 6).
• To detect, prevent, and investigate fraud, abuse, security incidents, and technical problems.
• To comply with our legal, tax, accounting, and regulatory obligations, and to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

We do not make decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects about you by automated means alone, and we do not use your information to profile you for purposes unrelated to those listed above.

4. Legal Bases for Processing

If you are in the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, we rely on the following legal bases under Article 6 of the UK/EU GDPR:

• Performance of a contract — to make, change, or cancel a booking you have asked for, take payment for it, and support you afterwards.
• Consent — for non-essential cookies, for advertising and analytics technologies, for the newsletter, and for any special category data such as an accessibility requirement. You can withdraw consent at any time (see section 10); withdrawing it does not affect processing already carried out.
• Legitimate interests — to keep the Site secure, prevent fraud and abuse, understand how the Site is used, keep records of what was agreed on a call, and defend legal claims. We balance these interests against your rights and freedoms, and you may object at any time (see section 11).
• Legal obligation — to keep transaction and tax records, and to respond to lawful requests from authorities.

5. Cookies & Tracking Technologies

Cookies are small files stored on your device. We use them in the following categories:

• Strictly necessary — needed for the Site to function and to remember the cookie choice you made. These are always active and cannot be switched off.
• Analytics — would help us understand which pages and routes are used, so we can improve them. We do not currently use any analytics cookies.
• Advertising — would be used to measure and personalize advertising. We do not currently use any advertising cookies, and no third-party advertising or analytics tag is installed on this Site.

As of the date at the top of this page, the only cookies this Site sets are strictly necessary ones. No analytics or advertising cookie is set, and no information about your visit is sent to Google or to any other advertising or analytics provider. We still show a cookie banner so that your preference is recorded in advance: if we later introduce analytics or advertising cookies, they will be set only for visitors who have accepted, and we will update this policy and the date above before doing so. Declining does not stop you using the Site.

You can change or withdraw your choice at any time using the Cookie Settings link in the footer of any page, or by clearing this site's data in your browser. You can also block or delete cookies through your browser settings, though some parts of the Site may then not work as intended.

6. Advertising & Google

We advertise this service online, including through Google Ads. That advertising runs on Google's own platforms, not on this Site. We do not currently place a Google Ads conversion tag, a remarketing tag, an analytics tag, or any other third-party advertising or measurement code on this Site, and we do not build advertising audiences from your visit.

We never share your name, email address, phone number, passenger details, or payment information with any advertising platform for ad targeting, and we will not do so in future.

If we later introduce conversion measurement or remarketing, we will update this policy and the date at the top of this page first, and those cookies will be set only for visitors who have accepted advertising cookies on our banner. Should that happen: third-party vendors, including Google, may use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this Site or other websites; and Google's use of advertising cookies would enable it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this Site and/or other sites on the internet.

You have the following opt-outs at any time, independently of the choice you make on our banner:

• Opt out of personalized advertising from Google at Google Ads Settings.
• Opt out of personalized advertising from participating vendors at aboutads.info/choices (US), optout.networkadvertising.org (US), or youronlinechoices.eu (EU/UK).
• Read how Google uses information from sites that use its services at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

We honor the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal where your browser sends one, and treat it as a request to opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.

7. How We Share Information

We do not sell your personal information for money. We share it only as described here:

• Operating carriers and booking partners — the passenger, travel, and contact details needed to issue and support your ticket. The carrier is a separate controller of that information and handles it under its own privacy policy.
• Payment processors — to take the payment you authorized and to process refunds.
• Service providers acting on our instructions — website hosting, email delivery, telephony and call recording, customer support tooling, and analytics. They may use your information only to provide the service to us.
• Advertising and analytics partners — none at present. We do not currently disclose any information to an advertising or analytics provider. If that changes, it would happen only in the limited way described in sections 5 and 6 and only with your consent.
• Professional advisers, auditors, and insurers, where necessary.
• Legal and regulatory authorities, where we are required by law, or where it is necessary to protect our rights, your safety, or the safety of others.
• A successor entity, in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets. We will tell you if your information becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

Note that under some US state privacy laws, allowing advertising cookies is treated as "sharing" personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. No such sharing takes place today, because we run no advertising technology on this Site. See section 12.

8. How Long We Keep Information

We keep personal information only as long as we need it for the purpose we collected it for, and then delete it or anonymize it:

• Booking and transaction records — retained for 7 years after the date of travel, to meet tax, accounting, and legal-claim requirements.
• Payment card data — full card numbers and security codes are not retained after the transaction is processed. Truncated card details and the transaction reference are held with the booking record.
• Call recordings and call notes — retained for 12 months, unless a recording relates to a live complaint or dispute, in which case it is kept until that matter is resolved.
• Contact form and email correspondence — retained for 24 months after the enquiry is closed.
• Newsletter subscriptions — retained until you unsubscribe, plus a suppression record so we do not email you again.
• Website analytics and advertising data — none held, because we do not currently operate analytics or advertising cookies. If we introduce them, retention would be up to 26 months, in line with those providers' standard settings.
• Server and security logs — retained for up to 12 months.

Where we are required to keep information for longer by law, or need it to establish or defend a legal claim, we keep it for that period only.

9. Data Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards to protect personal information, including encryption of the Site in transit (HTTPS), access controls that limit booking and payment data to staff who need it, and the use of a PCI DSS compliant payment provider so that full card details are not stored on our systems. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. If a breach affects your personal information and is likely to result in a risk to your rights, we will notify you and the relevant regulator as required by law.

10. Your Choices

• Cookies and advertising — accept or decline non-essential cookies on the banner, and change your mind at any time using the Cookie Settings link in the footer of any page.
• Marketing email — unsubscribe using the link in any newsletter, or email us. We will act on it promptly. You will still receive service messages about a live booking.
• Call recording — ask us not to record when the call begins.
• Optional information — you are never required to give us an accessibility requirement or any other optional detail; it only limits the assistance we can request on your behalf.

11. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• Know what personal information we hold about you and get a copy of it.
• Correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete.
• Delete information we no longer have a lawful reason to keep.
• Restrict or object to how we process it, including objecting to processing based on legitimate interests and to direct marketing.
• Receive information you gave us in a portable, machine-readable format.
• Withdraw consent at any time, where we relied on consent.

To exercise any of these, contact us using the details in section 16. We will ask for enough information to confirm who you are, and we will respond within the time allowed by the law that applies to you — within one month under UK/EU GDPR, and within 45 days (extendable once) under US state privacy laws. We do not charge a fee, and we will not treat you differently for exercising a right.

If you are in the UK or EEA and you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to your local data protection supervisory authority. In the UK this is the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk). We would ask you to raise it with us first so we can try to put it right.

12. US State Privacy Rights

If you are a resident of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, or another US state with a comprehensive privacy law, this section applies to you in addition to section 11.

Categories of personal information we collect

In the last 12 months we have collected the following categories, as defined by the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA): identifiers (name, email address, phone number, IP address); customer records (payment information, passenger details); commercial information (bookings made, refunds requested); internet or network activity (pages viewed and search inputs, from server logs); approximate geolocation (city or region, from IP address); audio information (recorded reservations calls); and, where you volunteer it, sensitive personal information in the form of an accessibility or health-related travel requirement.

We collect these from you directly, automatically from your device, and from the operating carrier or booking partner in connection with a booking. We use and disclose them for the purposes listed in section 3 and share them with the categories of recipients listed in section 7.

Sensitive personal information

We use sensitive personal information only to provide the service you asked for — arranging assistance with the carrier and completing your payment. We do not use or disclose it to infer characteristics about you, and we do not use it for advertising.

Sale and sharing

We do not sell your personal information for money, and we do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of anyone under 16. We also do not currently share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising or targeted advertising, because no advertising technology runs on this Site. If we introduce advertising cookies in future, accepting them could be treated as "sharing" under California law and as "targeted advertising" under other state laws; we would update this policy before that happened.

To opt out of that sharing, decline advertising cookies on our banner, use the Cookie Settings link in the footer of any page to withdraw a previous acceptance, enable the Global Privacy Control signal in your browser, or email us at info@besttripsnow.com with the subject "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information."

Your state rights

You have the right to know, access, correct, delete, and obtain a portable copy of your personal information; to opt out of sale, sharing, and targeted advertising; to limit the use of sensitive personal information; and not to be discriminated against for exercising any of these rights. We do not offer financial incentives in exchange for personal information.

You may use an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf; we will ask for written proof of their authority. To make a request, email info@besttripsnow.com or call +1 (888) 413-4712. If we decline a request, you may appeal by replying to our decision with the word "Appeal"; we will respond to an appeal within 45 days.

13. Children's Privacy

The Site is intended for adults. It is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from a child under 13. You must be 18 or older to make a booking with us. We do collect the name and age of a child traveling on a booking, but we collect that from the adult making the booking, not from the child. If you believe a child has given us personal information directly, contact us and we will delete it.

14. International Data Transfers

We are based in the United States, and information you give us will be processed there. If you are in the UK or EEA, this means your information may be transferred outside your country to a jurisdiction that may not offer the same level of data protection. Where we make such a transfer, we rely on appropriate safeguards — typically the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, together with additional measures where needed. You may request a copy of the safeguards we use by contacting us.

15. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the updated version on this page and change the "Last updated" date above. If a change materially affects how we use information you have already given us, we will give you notice — by email where we hold your address, or by a prominent notice on the Site — before it takes effect.

16. Contact Us

For any question about this policy, or to exercise a privacy right:

• Privacy enquiries: info@besttripsnow.com
• General & bookings: tickets@besttripsnow.com
• Phone: +1 (888) 413-4712
• Address: 1309 Coffeen Ave, Ste 1200, Sheridan, WY 82801, United States

We aim to acknowledge every privacy enquiry within 1–2 business days.