Train ticket dilemma from Zurich to Milan
 

We are flying in from USA to Zurich and booked a train from Zurich to Milan on trenitalia.com. However it says that our ticket is Self Service which means we need to print the ticket from a machine Self Service Station which can be done only if you are in Italy. So, how do we get hold of our ticket and what are our options? Any ideas? Thank you!

I hope that someone else can help you.
For the future, I'd suggest that if you want to travel from country A to country B that you use the website of the train company in country A.
In your case:
www.sbb.ch

If all else fails, ask for help at the railway office in Zurich on arrival.

do you know anyone in Italy that could retrieve the ticket for you and send it to your in the States?

Contact Trenitalia? Perhaps try to get a refund? Then book from Zurich, or better yet buy when you arrive in Zurich.

http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...008916f90aRCRD

Thank you everyone for sharing.

@cowboy1968 Yup. Had I know this was the case I would have booked from the country of departure :)
@marg Do you know anyone who has experiences with the Zurich railway office or officers and how easy going they are? I have a confirmation email with PNR and other details would that be enough for them to consider my situation and help?
@PalenQ Unfortunately I don't know anyone yet in Italy, now I wish I knew :)
@Melnq8 I can try the refund approach but the prices have shot up and are almost double than what I paid for. Again I don't know how smooth this will go since this one didn't have option for refunds.

How about if I can find someone who can print my ticket from Italy and scan and email me the ticket? Kinda like if someone would loose their ticket but if they have a photocopy of their ticket, do you think the railway officers would accept it? This would be fastest and the cheapeast option since I am leaving in 3 weeks.

You've already figured out that this ticket needed to be purchased from the departing country's rail company. Did you register on Trenitalia first? Did you pay full fare or was this a Smart Fare?

@kybourbon I had tried but there's a section where you have to enter your Italy home address, which I don't have, without which you can't register. Yup, it is 'SMART 2' Fare.

I've always found SBB employees in Zurich very friendly and helpful (and multilingual). If there's anything they can do to help, I'm sure they will, but whether or not they're able to help in this particular situation is anyone's guess.

If you bought a discounted Smart Fare instead of the base fare, there are no refunds.

If you are staying in a B&B in a larger city, you might be able to get someone from there to print/mail your ticket. You will need the ticket, not an e-mail. For some reason, they treat these international tickets differently. If you buy tickets for travel within Italy, you only need to show your PNR e-mail printed out.

If you take a loss and decide to buy a ticket from the SBB website, you might still get a discount purchasing from SBB. I find their site difficult to get the discount to pop-up sometimes It takes some effort. The last time I booked this route, I had to retrieve my ticket at a train station office in Zurich (you had to select where you were picking up). Now, I think you can print them yourself (some self print say the size paper they use in Europe - don't know if it would really matter).

>>>@kybourbon I had tried but there's a section where you have to enter your Italy home address, which I don't have, without which you can't register<<<

You needed to select Stati Uniti d'America in the country drop down box. You should only need to fill out the first section (personal data), second (user id/password), fourth section (e-mail - shouldn't need to put a phone #). Once you select Stati Uniti, you will see you can no longer select province, etc. The third section is to get a loyalty card mailed. I feel sure you can leave that blank, but I registered before they went to this form.

I suggest you leave a bit of time in the main Zurich station to get some food/drinks to take on the train. Food on board is typically not very good. There are several fast food places and a convenience store that has sandwiches,drinks. etc.

Thanks Melnq8 and kybourbon for some great tips and suggestions.

@kybourbon I didn't know there was an option for Stati Uniti... I did glance for some options but since it's in Italian I wouldn't have figured it out anyways :) That's good to know for the future. I was thinking about talking to friends of friends or the B&B too. Great minds think alike :) That was a good tip about picking up food before boarding the train.

I will keep you folks updated as soon as I have something.

Unfortunately, if you have booked at Trenitalia.com, there is absolutely nothing you can do to get Swiss Railways to provide a ticket sold buy Italian Railways. They can only be retrieved in Italy.

By all means ask a friend in Italy or even a helpful hotel where you've booked to retrieve and post tickets to you if you think this is an option, it may work, it may not.

But I think you should write it off to experience, and go online now and buy new tickets from www.sbb.ch from just 22 euros (around CHF38) advance-purchase rate if you pre-book.

This will be better than worrying about it and wasting valuable holiday time trying vainly to get SBB to get your tickets when you get to Zurich, and ending up buying new tickets for the full-price of 71 euros each on the day.

Put this behind you - It's a lovely run through the Gotthard Pass main line, just enjoy it!

I've bought a few tickets on trenitalia and have always been able to print them out. Are you sure you can't either?

schuler - You can print tickets out if all the travel is within Italy. If it crosses borders, you have to retrieve the ticket at a self-service kiosk which are only in the main/larger train stations in Italy only. It's not a problem if you are departing from Italy to another country because you would be in those stations with kiosks anyway. I'm not sure why Trenitalia allows purchases to go through departing from other countries to Italy with the requirement to pick them up in Italy, but it's been that way for a long time.

can writing trenitaia solve the problem? can trenitalia send them to her? I am surprised they offer no solution whatsoever when, as mentioned, they allow this to happen.. or don't make it clear you must be in the country to retrieve these international tickets. Hope something works out for you.

Thank you everyone for chipping in and your suggestions. I have contacted the SBB folks and hope to hear from them soon.

@Man_in_seat_61 I don't see the 22 Euros (around CHF 38) fares from Zurich to Milan on 05 April. How can I get that?

FYI - Our journey continues further from Milan to Rome right after we reach Milan, thankfully the print out will work here.

"from 22 euros" does not mean it is easily available - bit of a used car salesmanship there - always 'from xx euros)! What fares do you see for the train you want to take or need to take? There may be some 22 euro fares at odd times or different dates perhaps. In Italy Man says you can book tickets from 9 euros for any length of train ride! All these froms should be qualified as the lowest possible ticket but do not, like you, think it is generally available - maybe months in advance those limited in number fares could - could be available.

The direct 9.09am from Zürich to Milano is available for SFR 29.- at www.sbb.ch for April 5th.
Have not checked the other times.

I guess you can forget your Trenitalia tickets unless you find someone in Italy who can get them for you.

way2nottravel: How much did you pay for the Trenitalia Zurich-Milan fare? If not much it may not be worth all the effort and check out Cowboy's 29 Swiss franc fare.