advance booking for train travel Venice to Florence
 

We are travelling between these cities on 15 May this year.Is it advisable to buy our tickets through Rail Europe ahead of time and is it cheaper to do this?From their site it looks like premier seats are not availible just economy and comfort seats.Does this indicate the premier seats are already all sold out?
We want to travel on the 11 or noon trains.
Thanks for your help

Rail Europe is a lot higher than buying the tickets through http://www.trenitalia.com/ There is an English version, so click the Union Jack symbol to get to it.

We are taking trains all over France and Italy this spring, and I booked directly through the sites themselves and saved, literally, hundreds of dollars. As an example, I checked a ticket from Avignon to Turin through Rail Europe, and the cost was upwards of $200 per person for economy. Through the French site, I paid around $129 for BOTH tickets.

One word of advice. . . . You may find that you can't book the tickets on trenitalia yet. They may consider that a regional trip, and those you can buy only 7 days out. I'm finding that with a trip from Spoleto to Sulmona.

RailEurope is a reseller that mainly sells rail passes and marks tickets up. Makes no sense to buy from them as they don't list all trains or prices. No such thing as "premier" on this route on Trenitalia (RailEurope makes up train names/numbers, etc). There are two classes on many trains and a couple of extra business classes only on certain lines.

Venice to Florence takes 2 hours and has only 1st and 2nd class. There are discount tickets for 2nd class for your date/times for 19€ on Trenitalia. No discounts available for 1st class so it will be 63€.
http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...0080a3e90aRCRD

This is what 2nd class looks like on those fast trains. First class has three seats across instead of four, but looks the same (perhaps a different fabric on the seat).
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ssainterno.jpg

>>>One word of advice. . . . You may find that you can't book the tickets on trenitalia yet. They may consider that a regional trip, and those you can buy only 7 days out. I'm finding that with a trip from Spoleto to Sulmona.<<<

This isn't accurate. You can normally purchase the fast trains (AV,ES, ESCity, IC) on Trenitalia 120 days in advance. They don't have summer schedules loaded yet so you probably can't book past the 2nd Saturday in June yet.

The slow R trains are only bookable online 7 days out, but you never want to buy these tickets online as they have much more restrictions than a walk up purchase. R trains do not have reserved seating and cannot sell out. In the past there were no discounts on these trains so there was no point buying in advance although they are supposed to start offering a small discount, but I don't see any yet (these tickets are normally very cheap so it won't be much).

As mentioned, Rail Europe is essentially a travel agency selling limited tickets on limited routes at mark up prices for their "services." The only reason to buy tickets in advance is to take advantage of the discounts, sometimes significant, but like all discount tickets locks in a specific schedule with limited to no rights to exchange/refund the ticket should you want to change your schedule or miss a train. All trains in Italy, except for Regional trains, require a reservation (includes a specific seat assignment). Regional trains are open seating. Just get on, if you cannot find a seat, you stand.

It is very rare to find second class sold out on any train and never in first class. Our experience is that second class is never sold out but am sure there are some occasions when this could occur.

Second class on a train is close to business class on an airplane. There is nothing on a train that approaches coach on a plane.

So buy in advance if you want to save some money but locks in a non-change schedule.

True. I am also traveling in May from Venice to Florence. I got two 2nd class tickets on the fast train for a total of E38. Great bargain!

>>>So buy in advance if you want to save some money but locks in a non-change schedule<<<

Not so as you can change base (unlimited changes until time of departure) and economy discount tickets (once). You can change an economy ticket (in advance, once only), but you will have to pay the difference from the discount to the base fare.

Economy discount ticket change:

***Booking/ticket changes
Changes are allowed once from the issuing date up to train departure, only at ticket desks or at the issuing travel agency (with the exception of web agencies), in accordance with the opening hours of same. The departure date or time can be changed only for the same train category or service purchased, subject to a change fee (which is equal to the difference to the corresponding full Base price).The new ticket (called "e;Economy ticket change"e;) has the same characteristics of the Economy ticket.
For tickets requiring collection at self-service tellers, you must first collect your printed ticket and then apply at a ticket desk.***

You can't change the super economy ticket.

Thanks everyone.I have booked our tickets on Trenitalia as suggested.We have e tickets.It looks like I have to present the pnr booking code to the train staff.We have pre assigned seat numbers.It says on the email from Trenitalia that the pickup procedure is Biglietto Elettronico.Does that mean we have to enter our booking code in an automated machine at the station to receive actual tickets.I would be gtrateful if someone can clarify this.

The website says (translated in Babelfish):
il biglietto elettronico - - Ticketless purchasing mode that lets you climb aboard without the need to collect your ticket but just with the booking code PNR ... Once on the train will simply provide the PNR to the crew ... By purchasing Ticketless mode you can choose whether to get the payment receipt via email or on board the train. In this case the crew you will issue the receipt ...
http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...003f16f90aRCRD

Bookmark