Trenitalia
 

Has anyone else been having trouble buying tickets through the trenitalia website recently? I've been watching tickets for Venice to Florence over the last week and when the tickets first come on sale the "super economy " ones are already sold out.
Is it because it's a popular route or is someone buying in bulk?

Sold out? Or not offered in the first place on a popular date or departure so Trenitalia don't offer the cheapest rates on that service?

I suspect it is airline-style pricing: they have no obligation to offer the full range of discounted tickets, if they think the market will buy at higher prices they will start with higher prices.

I do not think there are people buying in bulk, as it happens with airlines, as I never heard about consolidators selling cheap railway tickets. But there could be groups buying 100 or 200 tickets at the same time on the same train, I have been in some of these groups, and I can tell there are very few discounts for them.

Also, I know some people commuting on long distances that are able to tell their schedules months in advance. They have a strong incentive to check the website very frequently and get hold of the offers. In a few cases I have seen some commuting friends exchanging tickets on facebook.

That just happened to me on a trip from Rome to Florence. I thought is was probably because I am buying just 6 weeks out.

>>>I've been watching tickets for Venice to Florence over the last week and when the tickets first come on sale the "super economy " ones are already sold out.<<<

What does this mean watching tickets over the last week? Fares for the fast trains are available for purchase 120 days in advance so what date are looking at? Prices don't fluctuate so I'm not sure what you expect.

Trenitalia does sell group tickets at a discounted price (not the same as the super or economy - 10+ get 20% off and 50+ get 30% off) so it's possible a tour group buys out some tickets. It's also possible they simply didn't offer the lowest fare for that particular train. I find less super econ tickets during rush hours.

Just because the super econ is sold out for 2nd cl, check the other classes as sometimes the super will be available for a higher class and is often equal to the regular economy price in 2nd.

If you list your travel date, you might get more help. Also check Italo (not Italia!) as they will sometimes have their discount tickets left when Trenitalia doesn't. They use the same stations in Venice/Florence as Trenitalia.

We recently booked train tickets for our upcoming trip in May on Italo. It was pretty easy to do. (We were able to purchase months in advance with Italo.) Good luck!

I've only been able to get the super economy fares by buying 2-3 months out from my travel dates. No problems with the transaction side of the website, either. These are fairly recent purchases.