toontown

I'm booking tickets through the Trenitalia website from Canada for 3 trips in April. I would like to book ahead to take advantage of the Mini fares. We have figured out our itinerary so I am comfortable booking ahead. Here is my problem and maybe I am just missing something obvious, I choose the date, pick the time, then my journey summary and shopping cart show me booked for the day following what I originally selected. Has anyone else encountered this problem? I don't know which date to believe and don't want to commit to the purchase until I'm certain it is for the correct date.

Thanks.

travelinB

Trenitalia websites are a pain to deal with. I just booked my tickets when i was in italy, gave me a little flexibility that way. and honestly the trains arent that impressive. eurostar is a little more expensive but worth it. much cleaner and newer.

toontown

It is a pretty good savings to book the Mini fares so I would like to use the website. I contacted Trenitalia on-line with my question. I'm thinking the date issue is a bug. The message said that they would respond within 30 days. In 30 days we will be in Italy on the last few days of the trip. Hopefully I hear from them sooner (or someone on this forum).

Thanks anyways.

kybourbon

What are your dates and routes you are trying to book?

worldinabag

Hi

Yes I had some problems with Trenitalia but not the same as yours. I kept trying and after awhile the page loaded properly. I suggest to keep trying. Also is it possible that the day you're trying to select is booked out so it auto defaults to the following day. It may be that all the mini fares for that day are sold so as a test try booking one of the more regular type fares. I can't recall if there was a "Dates Flexible" option on the site but if so check that you haven't selected this. As KY suggests post your dates and routes here so others can test the site for you.

toontown

One of the 3 tickets that I tried was April 12, at 12:57, booking the Mini fare from Venice to Florence. I just tried it this morning and the correct date shows. I'm wondering if it pushed the day ahead when I tried it last night because Italy was a day ahead at that time. I will book this while it's still working! I am going to test this tonight again. I tried it quite a few times last night and with various trips. Every one of them pushed the date of the ticket ahead a day in the cart summary.

Thanks.

kybourbon

Are you using the regular Trenitalia link or the Le Frecce link? On the Le Frecce link, you can see all the fares for about five trains at a time including mini fares. The regular Trenitalia link only shows regular fares and you have to select a train to see any discounts.

paris1953

I read Ron in Rome's postings and followed his instructions to the letter and was successful in purchasing. It is tricky. And he has some excellent tips. http://www.roninrome.com/%20transpor...italia-website

kybourbon

It does have some good tips, but it doesn't show purchasing on the LeFrecce link which is a bit different. With the Le Frecce link, you see more fare options, can search for cheapest fares (over a 3 day period) and select seats from a diagram similar to when you buy airline tickets.

worldinabag

Thanks Paris, great link provided. Bookmarked.

toontown

I was using the Trenitalia site to book. If I book in the morning/early afternoon, I have found that the ticket date is the same as what I have requested so I do think there is a glitch in their system when someone is booking a ticket in a timezone that is a day behind Italy. I made it right up to the very end, using paypal, saw a message that said I was successful, but at the top there was another message saying that they could not send an e-mail. Checking my paypal account, I can see that the transaction did not go through. I'm still baffled since my e-mail information was correct.

I'll try the Le Frecce site, thank you for the suggestion. I'll also zero in on Ron in Rome's notes regarding payment. Lot's of good information there. Thanks for the link!

PalenQ

Trenitalia websites are a pain to deal with>

Well we hear from Italy train experts all the time that all the snafus are gone from trenitalia.com and it is a snap to use!

Not! apparently!

iowamom

Interesting. I didn't have any problem booking train tickets on the Trenitalia site in early February for our trip later this month. (Actually that's not true - the first credit card was declined because the credit card company thought it was fraud.)

toontown

It's possible my Canadian credit card may be the issue.

Iowamom, did you use verisign or paypal?

PalenQ

trenitalia.com obviously makes it as difficult as possible for novice foreign users to successfully buy discounted tickets - seems to jive with talk I have heard of with Trenitalia perhaps limiting the sweet sweet low specials to Italian nationals?

kybourbon

I think the problem is Trenitalia is doing an update to their website and schedules. I've noticed the last few days they are adding auto-fill to areas of the website that didn't exist before and I imagine they are trying to get summer schedules online.

I attempted to enter a train from Milan to Brig under the regular Trenitalia English link and it auto-filled to Milano and would not show Brig at all except for Genova Brig (must be a different stop). I clicked through to another English page (not the home page and not the Le Frecce page) and could enter the two cities I wanted, but Milan still auto-filled to Milano (something it didn't do in the past on the English part of the website, but always has on the Le Frecce link). I think everyone is going to have to give them a week or two to get the bugs out of their updating.

I would use the Le Frecce link unless you want to look at R train schedules/prices.
http://www.fsitaliane.it/cms/v/index...003f16f90aRCRD

kybourbon

One of the changes Trenitalia has made the last few days is to the regular Trenitalia link. Now, after you select trains, the next screen appears in the same format as the Le Frecce link.

toontown

Success! ...finally. Persistence is key I think. Also, I noticed the website changed from when I started the process so maybe it has improved. The date is something you still have to watch for. I booked my tickets early in the day so that it was the same day as Italy.

sharonliz

I'm also from Canada and booked Trentalia tickets a few days ago. It took two days of trying as the website kept deleting saved trips and then it locked my credit card. A call to the bank to release it and the next day all booked successfully with the mini tickets.

kybourbon

>>>website kept deleting saved trips and then it locked my credit card.<<<

Trenitalia didn't lock your credit card, your bank did.

They have been updating their website for about a week. It will take them awhile to get the kinks out.