Rail Europe Coupon Code?
 

Raileurope.com is unbelievably buggy to navigate. After comparing prices between Trenitalia and Raileurope.com is was remarkably a draw.

Does anyone have a coupon code by chance? We'll be spending about $450 on trains through them in Italy.

Any help would be appreciated! Thank you!

-KC

You could sign up for their coupons and have them sent to your email address.

>>>We'll be spending about $450 on trains through them in Italy.<<<

In the past, RailEurope didn't show all available trains/prices (haven't checked them lately). They made up their own train names/numbers so it was a bit hard to compare.

Trenitalia has a lot of discount tickets for advance purchase (SuperEconomy, 2 for 1 Saturday, etc.), but without knowing your itinerary it's hard to advise you. Many cities are better served by bus such as Florence to Siena (faster and cheaper than the train) and other small towns that have no train service.

Additionally, a new train service, Italo, started in Italy two years ago and often has discounts. They currently only operate between major cities. They were allowing booking further in advance than Trenitalia. Schedules change in Dec. and June. Italo lets you book to the end of their schedule (6 months) when they release them. Trenitalia only lets you book 4 months in advance.

http://www.italotreno.it/en/Pages/default.aspx

For train tickets between smaller cities mostly served by regional trains (slow trains), you don't want to buy these in advance as there are no discounts, no reserved seating and more restrictions if purchased online than at the station.

No, it most certainly was NOT a draw!

Try it again, looking more closely this time.

First we try Raileurope.com, looking Milan to Rome in a couple of months' time: $122 (€90) on this train, $122 on that train, in fact it's always $122 (€90)on EVERY Trenitalia train. NO, those $68 fares are on NTV's ITALO trains, not on Trenitalia's train.

Now we try Trenitalia.com, same date, Milan to Rome: €29 on this train, €49 on that train, €39 on this other train, etc. If you want immediate flexible travel, only then is it ever €90 for a full-rpice 'base' fare.

Now, here's why:

Raileurope.com is the US subsidiary of SNCF (French Railways). Who own a 20% stake in Italo, a private open-access operator which competes with Trenitalia's trains on the same route.

RailEurope Inc has no link to Trenitalia's ticketing system, so cannot sell any of Trenitalia's complete fare range.

They can only sell the full-price fully-flexible 'TCV' rate advised by Trenitalia to each other European national railway administration. Which is why ever train is $122, even booking in advance, when Trenitalia might show €29 for the same train and date.

And RE charge a fee, when you book direct there's no fee.

And booking direct you can choose your exact seat, with RE you take pot luck and one is allocated without giving you any choice at all, not so much as 'aisle' or 'window'.

If you want Trenitalia, I'd book at www.trenitalia.com

If you want Italo, book at www.trenoitalo.it with a full fare range and seating options.

For the record, I should add that the above refers to Raileurope.com, Rail Europe Inc, based in New York.

The UK-based Rail Europe (Rail Europe Ltd) is in the same boat, and also has no link to Trenitalia's system so can obly sell full-price tickets in Italy.

However, the third Rail Europe, www.raileurope-world.com, known internally as Rail Europe 4A selling to Australia, Africa, Asia & S America HAS enabled a link to Trenitalia's system (and Renfe's in Spain too, for that matter), so CAN sell Trenitalia's complete fare range including their cheaper Economy and Super-economy fares.

>>>We'll be spending about $450 on trains through them in Italy.<<

If spending that much you should look at the Italy Eurailpass which probably would be cheaper than that just based on your $450 for two I presume - even with the mandated extra seat reservation fees with passes, especially in first class, it could be a great deal and gives you the freedom to chose any train once there - even often right up until the train.

For lots of great info on Italian trains check out www.seat61.com - Man in Seat 61 who posts above - his commercial site that he also posted; www.ricksteves.com http://www.budgeteuropetravel.com/id12.html.

discounted tickets are hard to change or refund and as they are sold in limited numbers must be booked weeks in advance to get - a pass allows full flexibility to chose what trains you want to take once you are in a city.