italigo

Hello

So I booked a ticket from Rome to Bolzano using Trenitalia. I ended up with a 2nd class economy ticket on the frecciargento to Verona, then a Regionale to Bolzano.

Now, it looks like my trip plans have changed, and now I wish to make a stopover in Modena to visit the Ferrari factory. This means I have to change my train itinerary from Rome>Verona>Bolzano to Rome>Bologna>Modena and then buy an additional Modena>Bologna/Bolzano.

Is it possible to change my existing ticket, so that I can apply the money paid on the original ticket to the new itinerary? It is not just a time change but an actual itinerary/destination change- I looked around for info on that but it did not seem obvious if it was possible. "Economy" tickets say they are changeable but not refundable, but I don't know if changeable means just picking a new time, or if you can change the destination too.

I logged into trenitalia and selected my trip, then chose "exchange solution", but when I went through it had an error saying that the ticket class must be "economy cambia biglietto". I don't know if it is some random error or a consequence of a limitation of the Economy ticket.

Would this be possible if I called trenitalia on the phone? (Do their agents speak english? I know no italian) or, can I get this changed at a train station once I arrive in Italy and am able to speak to someone at the ticketing desk, or would I have to simply eat the price paid for the previously booked ticket and just book new ones to reflect the new itinerary?

Thanks, not sure how best to proceed from here

worldinabag

Hi

Try here - http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...003f16f90aRCRD

worldinabag

If that doesn't work you'll find English speaking assistants - http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...003f16f90aRCRD

kybourbon

Details about changing tickets are on this thread.
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...train-tips.cfm

It's not a good idea to buy regional tickets online as they have more restrictions than purchasing in Italy. I don't believe a ticket that costs less than 10€ can be refunded.

Jean

Do you have reservations to tour the Ferrari factory? Those are not easy to come by unless you own a Ferrari or are in serious negotiations with a dealer to buy one.

Or do you mean the Ferrari museum and track tour? Even that isn't so simple anymore. You must get the museum ticket confirmation before you can book the shuttle tour, and there are only a couple of shuttle tours each day. The tour takes you to the test track and (I believe) inside part of the factory, but you can't get off the bus or take pictures.

And this is in Maranello, not Modena, so you'll need additional time to travel between the two.

Unless you have a factory tour reservation, I would look into all of this before you start changing train tickets.

Jean

http://museo.ferrari.com/museum/

GAC

You cannot change the destination or origination with an ECONOMY ticket. However, if your first travel date has not changed, you could simply get off the Frecciargento train in Bologna Iinsdead of Verona), then purchase a separate regionale ticket to Modena. Afterwards (next day?), you can purchase a regionale ticket from Modena to Verona (via Mantoa), and from Verona to Bolzano. Alternatively, you could return to Bologna with a regionale train, then take a Frecciargento train to Bolzano.

italigo

Thanks all

First off- yes I meant the museum and track tour, not a personalized factory tour. Unfortunately I am not a ferrari owner . Anyhow I have looked in to all of that and right now I am focusing on what options/costs I had as far as changing my already-existing train reservation.

I did some more looking and it looks like in order to make any kind of reservation change on the Economy ticket class, you have to pay the difference between the economy price and the Base ticket, then you are allowed to go and change your reservation. So if I wanted to make a change to my existing reservation it would still cost me extra euros anyway, and it may actually work out to be not that different cost-wise to just suck up and buy new tickets.

GAC: your idea sounds interesting. I had not thought of this before- it may be possible for us to simply just get off the originally booked train in Bologna, then complete our detour with newly purchased tickets for the remainder of the trip. This might work, with the one caveat that I wished I could get on the earlier train from Rome to Bologna since that would give us more time to visit the museum. Since the museum tours only start at certain times of the day, and we are aiming to not spend a night in the area, rather just schedule a late arrival to Bolzano, it may make us more pressed for time. However, it would seem to be the cheapest option since we would be able to at least utilize the existing train reservation.

GAC

With the ECONOMY ticket, you are allowed to change the date or departure time of your booked train, (KEEPING THE SAME CITY POINTS as originally booked), by paying the DIFFERENCE IN PRICE between what you actually paid and the "BASE" fare to the destination city.

It may actually cost you less to discard the reservation (Roma/Bolano) entirely, and buy another ECONOMY or SUPER ECONOMY ticket from Rome to Modena.

You could then take a regionale train from Modena back to Bologna, then take the late afternoon Frecciargento from Bologna to Bolzano (using another ECONOMY or SUPER ECONOMY ticket).

Remember that you CANNOT modify the origination or destination cities when you modify an ECONOMY ticket.

Run the numbers for your various options to determine what will cost you less.

kybourbon

Does your regional ticket have a time limit? If not, it could still be used for the Verona/Bolzano.

GAC

If your regionale train ticket is ELECTRONIC instead of PAPER, it is valid for only 4 hours beyond the departure date and time reflected therein. In that case, it would also be non-refundable. This is an example of why buying an ELECTRONIC ticket for a regionale train is often a bad idea.