Trenitalia for Dummies
 

So I can purchase the Amica fare online, which is cheaper than the standard, since I know what trains I want to be on.

Do I just present my reservation number which I receive by email - I think - to the conductor or do I have to do something at the station prior to boarding the train?

Thanks.

Present your PNR code and you will get a receipt. Here's the link on Trenitalia about ticket issuance.
http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...003f16f90aRCRD

ky is correct.

orangetravelcat, please report if you were able to purchase the tickets at Trenitalia. We spent hours trying to buy tickets using AMEX, Visa, MC (Chase, Citi), every card we have but transaction did not go through. DH called Trenitalia, but they accept only italian credit cards over the phone.
Hope you had better luck.

Don't even attempt to use AmEx. Trenitalia states on their website you can't use AmEx. Any other credit card you want to use you should notify them in advance that you will be making a foreign charge for train tickets. Give them 24-48 hours to flag your account and call back to make sure they have before trying to purchase. Even after doing all of that, you will still be lucky if your purchase goes through.

kybourbon, thank you. We called Citi and Chase - no luck:-(

I'm going to call my cc company this weekend so will try to book next week and will report on my success or failure!

I posted on another thread about how I was not successful in buying tickets on the Trenitalia website. (I called my cc company and advised I would be making foreign charges for train tickets). I also tried to buy tickets on the German rail site and was able to buy one set of tickets, but then was not able to buy the others I needed. I tried again a little while ago, and my purchase of the German rail tickets went thru. So, to sum it up; Go figure.

orangetravelcat,

This is exactly why I never purchase my tickets before arriving in Italy--it's much easier to wait and sometimes you can still get the Amica fare.

My experience is that not being able to buy online tickets at Trenitalia has nothing to do with whether cc company authorizes a foreign purchase or not.

The cc companies never received request for a charge approval in the first place even though Trenitalia error message was something in the effect of that my charge was not authorized.

When I called cc companies, their responses were "What charges from Trenitalia? There was NOTHING to deny charges from Trenitalia or any other entities of any kind."

The last time I was able to buy Trenitalia oline ticket was in 2006. I now buy Trenitalia tickets in Italy only because the other choice, Raileurope, is quite expensive. This is not necessarily the best as I have to forego Amica or online discount fares, at least for the first leg of the trip since I need to buy tickets and travel immediately after the purchase.

Can you purchase/reserve Eurostar tickets on the same day as the train trip?

I'm arriving at FCO at 8:30 a.m., will take the train to Roma Termini and want to take the Eurostar to Foggia that departs at 2 p.m. that same day. Can I purchase/reserve the seat when I arrive at the station? I've never left a city by Eurostar on the day of arrival and have always been able to purchase in advance at the station.

Another question. Are there any diagrams of seating on the trains? I tried booking on the TrenItalia website and got stumped when they asked for particular seat # requests. I don't care which seat or which car, except that I like to face forward. I searched the whole website and didn't see any seating charts. Thanks.

Hi Pan,

Since you know which train you want, why not try to book it online?

If you are not successful, you can purchase your ticket at the train station at FCO when you buy your ticket to Rome TE (If the agent is in the mood) or at Rome TE.

> got stumped when they asked for particular seat # requests<

That's only if you want to sit near someone who already has a ticket.

Otherwise, your choices are aisle or window (mostly).

((I))

Since you know which train you want, why not try to book it online? >>>>

Yes, I intend to, but seeing all the problems people seem to have, I just wanted to be sure I can reserve the same day in Rome, just in case. So I'll take your word that I can. I aborted my booking this morning when I ran into the "seat # selection" feature and couldn't figure it out.

>>>>That's only if you want to sit near someone who already has a ticket. >>>

Ah, I see. Thanks for clearing that up. I just wanted a forward facing seat, but I'll be so jet lagged by that time I'll probably fall sound asleep anyway and it really won't matter.




Otherwise, your choices are aisle or window (mostly).

You should have no problem with your reservation. For future reference amica is usually available up to 24 hours in advance depending on space available.

My credit card company told me there is alot of fraud in Italy and especially for train tickets- so that they always deny first time around. I admit though there are problems beyond this. We live in Italy and I have given up trying to buy online. But my credit card company did recommended calling them with the exact amount of the purchase prior to making it so they can approve it.

A while back someone posted a handy seat map - which believe it or not was quite accurate (surprising for Italy). I am hoping they will post it again!

Have a good trip.

After several futile attempts,I have given up on trying to book my Trenitalia tickets online. I will just wait till I am in Italy.

Thanks, Petunia.

I'll try tomorrow. If I have a problem I'll just wait till I get to Italy.

I just spent 2 hours trying to buy tickets on this site....ARRGHHHH!! Just will not accept my payment though I alerted my cc company etc. Hope the Amica rate is available when in Italy. Not worth the aggravation to try and buy from the US. If anyone had better luck, please let us know!

After weeks of reading about issues getting credit cards to go through on Trenitalia's website messing around all day myself trying to purchase tickets, calling my bank a few times, trying to purchase again, risking getting locked out of my account.... I finally found a good solution!
Paypal offers a Virtual Credit Card feature that is free to its users. It's called "PayPal Plug-IN"
and gives the user the option of having a single use credit card number with a limit of $1000 or you can have a credit card number for use on one single website over the course of several transactions.
This Plug-In works on either PC or Mac; I believe the PC version you have to download but the Mac version you use straight off your web browser.

I believe this is the correct link:
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/we...c-plugin-intro

Just saved myself $15 on train tickets since I could get the Amica fare in advance!
Hope this helps others!!!

I have a couple questions that i need help with and dont know where to post them so i figured what the hell.Here is my story. I am headed over to Italy for my honeymoon in a few weeks and I am having trouble with trenitalia. My father currently has a home in umbria with a car that I can use though it is out of the way from where we are going (Florence, Cinque Terra, Rome) and picking up the car will require much wasted time to/from. I am trying to figure whether the cost of gas and parking will offset the cost of tickets though everytime I try to find a price from my needed train a price of NA comes up. Does anyone know why this is? Am I just a moron?

The Trenitalia site will only give schedule and ticket details for day within 60 days. Just use a fake date for next week for the same day you want to travel.