Buying Italian train tickets on the web
 

I am looking at the trenitalia website. After i punch in the cities and dates there is a drop down menu for me to choose which type of ticket to buy.

Which should I choose? The standard ticket, I am assuming is the regular priced ticket. Can I get any discounts?

I ahve read on this forum that sometime people have difficulty booking train tickets on the website.

Should I wait until I'm in Italy to buy the tickets?
Thanks in advance.

You can select Amica for a discount. It's not available on r trains and is limited on others so can sell out. Amica must be purchased 24 hours in advance of travel. What is your itinerary?

Can you buy these discounted tickets if you do not live in Italy? I live in Canada.

Yes, but Trenitalia is not very user friendly. Many people have trouble getting their purchase to go through. You can't purchase more than 60 days in advance. You still haven't listed your itinerary. On some routes there won't be discounts.

No need at all to buy these tickets in advance. Just use trenitalia site to have an idea about timetable of the trains.
It is so easy to buy tickets in stations!

Thanks for the helpfule comments.

Sorry, kybourbon, I overlooked your queston.

I will be travelling from Venice to Rome, or from Venice to Florence to Rome.

Hi S,

For Venice/Florence/Rome you want Amica tickets on the ES*. These are reserved seat only trains, and the reservation comes with the ticket.

There is a train every hour.

You can try booking through www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html, but it has become increasingly difficult.

You can always get your tickets after you arrive in Venice.

((I))

Sorry to jump in but i have a similar question. is there a benefit to waiting til you get there? is it cheaper? do they run out of seats though? i am travelling from Rome to San Gimignano to Como. Do i run the risk of not getting train tickets if i wait?

Lazytraveller,

Unless you are traveling on a major holiday or the Friday of a holiday weekend, most likely you could buy tickets just before you board. Your routes are popular ones and have frequent trains. I always wait until I arrive in Italy to purchase my tickets, though I usually buy them a day or two ahead so I won't have to worry about it on my travel day.

On the website or when in Italy, the fares are the same. The Amica fare, a 20% discount, is the one discount you might get if you book online, since the fare is subject to availability, like frequent flyer seats. However, you might also get an Amica ticket once in Italy. I've managed to get Amica fares when I was in Italy by buying a few days ahead--you can try to buy one up to midnight of the night before departure.

I've never bothered with purchasing ahead for another reason--the innumerable complaints about how difficult it is to book tickets at the Trenitalia website.

I am also trying to use the trenitalia web site to book tickets for a family of 4 traveling in late July/early August. Should I also consider the family fare? If we all want to sit together, is it still ok to wait and buy our tickets when we're there? We are traveling from Milan to Florence and from Florence to Rome. How important is the first class/second class decision? Is first class worth the extra $$?

1st class IMO is always worth the extra money - that's why many folks pay more to ride first class and that's why they can charge more.

Use the same criteria you would with a hotel

you can get an adequate hotel and get a night's sleep or pay more and get a really comfortable hotel with fancier digs, beds, etc.

Hi IL,

>Should I also consider the family fare?

If one of the kids is under 11, yes.

>If we all want to sit together, is it still ok to wait and buy our tickets when we're there? <

Unless you are traveling on a weekend or holiday, probably.

>Is first class worth the extra $$?<

Depends on the length of the trip and the difference in price.

((I))

I have never travelled first class and have always found second class to be fine, even on longer rides such as Rome to Venice. Apparently, first class has slightly wider seats with a food cart which rolls through (but you pay for snacks, of course).

You do get gratis beverage and roll in 1st class on Eurostar trains i believe - unless this has changed since last year - and a free Italian newspaper

but the big benefit to me of 1st class is more room for luggage as there are 25% less people traveling and vying for luggage space in overhead racks in 1st class compared to 2nd.

but 2nd class as i said before is perfectly adequate - first class is more perfectly adequate and that's why the railways can get away with charging more for it

thank you ira, mirella and palenQ. Helpful information and opinions. My husband would take the PalenQ perspective and want to take first class. Since I'm the one planning everything and can see daily what this is all going to cost, I'm trying to convince myself that we can "tough" it out in 2nd class, which I'm sure we could. More than that, I'm shocked at how much the tickets cost. The trenitalia tickets see reasonable, but I priced our trip from Amsterdam to Paris on Thalys for four and found that it could be as much as 450E if we take the morning train first class. If we wait until the afternoon, go second class, and use the family discount, it can go down to 200Euro. That's significant. Second class morning train is 330E.

If traveling on Thalys before Aug 31 2008 RailEurope is having a 50% off regular fare sale - for travel thru the end of August. As usual i always recommend calling BETS 800-441-2387 for any RE product - experts and lower mailing fee. Check www.thalys.com and www.voyages-sncf.com of course to and compare.

As for 2nd class on Eurostar in Italy i would not at all say it is 'roughing' it as you think - just that there is a difference in comfort and that's why folks pay more for 1st class - but 2nd class is not a cattle car.

> I'm trying to convince myself that we can "tough" it out in 2nd class, which I'm sure we could.

Well, if you can tough it out in the business class instead of first, then you are hardy enough to survive 2nd class on Eurostar Italia...

I just saw this on the trenitalia website. Does that mean the discount is in addition to the Amica fare option?


FROM 1 JANUARY, HIGH-BAND TRAIN PRICES CHANGE
Price discounted by 5% for those who buy tickets on-line



Since 1 January 2008, the prices of the higher price tickets have changed: Alta Velocità, Eurostar, Eurostar City, Tbiz.

Starting from that date the tickets of these trains will rise by 15%, in keeping with the provisions of the Italian state railway company's Industrial Plan. There will instead be no increase for the Intercity, Express and all commuter trains. The fares of these services will therefore remain the same.

The new price of the high-band tickets (for the provision of which Trenitalia receives no state subsidies) will be reduced by 5% for tickets bought on-line, the Call Center
89 20 21 or at from travel agencies with the ticketless procedure. .
Despite this rise of 1 January 2008, the prices of Italy's high-band trains will remain cheaper than comparable French (TGV) and German (ICE) services by a minimum of 50% up to a maximum of over 140 per cent. This is despite the quality of the services offered in this sector by the three transport companies being practically the same (source: UIC - International Union Railways).

Is it true that trenitalia only works during the week days for international online transactions?

Looks like Bank of America and American Express do not work for this website....

Tried many times and says payment denied

ssc2299, you should call your credit card company first and let them know you will be charging the ticket on trenitalia.

Thanks Susan. I did try that but no luck. I join the thousands who cannot buy tickets on this website :(

Oh, sorry that didn't help! I guess I'm one of the few who has never had a problem buying them ahead of time on trenitalia!

what bank card did you use? I wonder if only certain credit cards work with trenitalia.com?

I think I used by CapitalOne card a few years ago. They are much stricter now about fraud overseas, so last July I used my Keybank card with no problems.

ssc2229 - Trenitalia's website says not to use American AmEx.

I know. I tried a visa - actually 3 different bank of america Visas. I even called my bank to get temporary online virtual cards with new numbers for online transactions. No luck..

Well you may check with BETS 800-441-2387 if you really want to have a ticket and reserved seat in your hands before leaving - a natural desire for many. Though they work thru RailEurope i've noticed RE has some seemingly not bad fares for Italian trains and the extra few dollars could be priceless for folks who like to have everything pegged down and just have to board the train.

This was a LONG time ago, but I do remember booking sleeper train tickets through STA Travel.

I just checked their site and it looks like you can book train tickets and reservations through them if you're within 60 days of your travel date.

Btw, I wasn't a student when I booked those tickets, so don't be thrown off by the "Student" in STA Travel.

PalenQ - thanks for the tip to call BETS. They helped me arrange my trip from Amsterdam to Paris. They found a good price and explained everything to me. Much less painful and much more informative than navigating a web site that kept changing languages. Thanks again.

May I revive this useful thread with a question more tailored to our own interest in finding discounted train travel.

Father (63) and son (25) traveling for a week across Italy south to north. This time we don't care for 1st class seat reservations, would like to get on / off as we please as it suits our fancy.

On a previous trip we were able to buy a 50% discount (promozioni, tariffe speciali), tied to age and to two traveling together. And cheaper than a Eurail Pass. But it had to be purchased in Italy 3 days before the trip, for specific days known in advance.

I don't see any option to do this on the web before arrival.
Any precedents would be appreciated.

Trenitalia is always changing the type of promotions they offer. Here's the latest ones.

http://www.trenitalia.it/en/promozio...rte/index.html

Ellenem, thanks for your reply. I was aware of this website: Amica, Argento; I didn't know that getting off a reserved train now requires a FlexiFare premium.
Unfortunately it doesn't offer anywhere near the discount level from 2 years ago.
I suspect that such fares may still be available once in the country. That's what I am fishing for.

On my visit to Italy this past March the promotions available within the country were the very same ones as one the Trenitalia web site. The promotions change all the time. In fact my Italian friend I was visiting had no idea about the Amica fare until I told her about it. On my previous visit with her a few years before, there had been a much deeper discounts available--no longer.