Neotraveler6,

You could book your ticket by phoning the Trenitalia call center. See here: http://tinyurl.com/5kscjd.

Preface: I have always in the past waited until I get to Italy to purchase tix, but because we want to get an overnight sleeper from Rome to Palermo, I wanted to do it ahead.

So...now...I don't know WHAT I just did...

After about 3,000 unsuccessful attempts, I gave up. Five minutes later, I receive an email from my BofA Debit card saying:

<i>Dear [LucieV]

Thank you for registering to Verified by Visa services. This free service provides added safety when you shop online.

Activation Details:
Activation date: 09/14/2008
Merchant at which activation took place: Vendita Biglietteria

Amount of purchase: 250.00 EUR </i>


The problem is that it has now been over 3 hours, and I have received NO confirmation email from Trenitalia. In fact, the last transaction that I had with them on their website said &quot;transaction denied&quot; (or whatever the verbiage is.)

I have called BofA and they're looking into it, but I'm pi$$ed off &amp; confused.

Hello ALL,

Ok no such luck with vitural credit card number (ugh)...I am going to have to call (ahhhhhhh)

LucieV-I had the same thing happen with my card however no money was withdrawn. Visa has a extra security protection that will make you verfiy before you can book some items online...I don't think you were charged even with the item summary. Visa show you the item summary to ensure you want to contiue however that does not mean it went through. I hope all is well. You are not the only one (hope that helps).

Neo

Absolutely fabulous..and guess what? When you click on the English version you get the &quot;this page does not exist&quot; message.

I think I'll wait and have the hotel concierge do it.

Pantheon Travel and Marco's e-mail is '[email protected]'
This is in Rome.

He can buy the tickets for you and send them via e-mail.

This may be of interest to Australians.

I too tried to buy tickets online through Trenitalia, with no success, even though I tried everything that has been suggested on this and many other threads.

I heard back from my Australian credit card companies today (Mastercard, American Express and Diners Club). They have all told me that they have had so many cases of fraudulent activity resulting from their customers placing orders online with Trenitalia that they have blocked all online transactions through this site.

boomark

Michael T - most entertaining post. Today was the first time I looked at the train schedule and only wanted an idea of the cost to take the train between cities. I was surprised their wasn't drop down boxes that listed all train stations to select your departure and arrival cities. I quickly realized that I needed additional information and did a search for &quot;train ticket&quot; on this forum that I had bookmarked. I had a great time reading this post and think that you could have excerpts published somewhere. As for anyone who claims Trenitalia's website is an easy, transparent website - I would have to disagree. But please by all means keep the argument going as it makes for some good reading.

Thanks Pumkin. It is a kind of an amusing post when I look back at it.

Ok -I admit that I didn't have the time to read all 68 responses so forgive me if I'm repeating.

I just got back from Italy. Before we left, I read this original post over and over - then I was unsuccessful at buying tickets over the web. After a week of worrying about it, I gave up and just decided to buy the tickets once I got to the Italian train station.

Everything worked out great - and the tickets were about the same price as they were on the internet - and much easier.

Hi SavTRav

That's great news, especially for me as I have also been unable to buy the tickets online and am going to be purchasing them once I get to Italy in a few weeks' time.

Would you be able to tell me if you were unable to purchase the tickets online because your credit card company wouldn't authorise the transaction? Did you pay for the tickets using your credit card when you got to Italy, and if so, did you have any problems getting the transaction approved?

Ozziez,

We tried to use our credit cards while in the USA. We tried many different ones MC, Visa and even Amex even though they said it wasn't possible.

I never knew exactly why the transaction didn't go through. We even called our bank to let them know the amount that we were about to charge.

Once we got in Italy, we made sure to go to the train station the first day and bought all our tickets at once. We used the exact same credit card that we were unsuccessful with in the States. And we found the DIY machines fairly easy to use. We never waited in the line to talk to an actual person.

I would still recommend letting your bank know that you will be in Italy - that way you will have no problem on any purchase, not just the train tickets.

Another thing we noticed at ATMs (this was not a problem at the train station) that if we tried to get out too much money from the ATM, the warning message said that our cards were not allowed to do International transactions, but if we lowered the amount we were asking for we had no problem.

Don't sweat the train tickets and have a great time.

Isn't that what some of us said to start with ? :-) Why bother with the hassle of Trenitalia, just buy your tickets at the station.

Thanks so much for the info SavTrav. Very useful.

Hi Caroline - Yes, I am going to buy the tickets at the station in Rome, however I was asking whether SavTrav had trouble using a credit card to do so. The whole reason I ( and most people who have trouble using Trenitalia) cannot buy tickets online is because the credit card authorisation won't go through. Just wanted to find out if the credit card transaction is accepted once one is in Italy.

Oz - Some of the ticket machines use credit cards and some are cash only. I had no problem using my credit card in the machines. If you enter Termini from the front there will be rows of machines right inside the front doors. If you are arriving by subway, just go up to the ground level.

Thanks Kybourbon!

Thanks for the in depth report. I tried to get tickets through the web and finally gave up since everyone said it was easy to just do it there.

Just another tip if buying tickets at the Italian train station machines.
The machines that accept cash are not the same ones that take credit cards. Look for the machine with an extra machine to the right side of it - that's the cash box. We found it pretty easy. It was surprising how cheap train travel was in Italy.
Happy trails.

bookmarking...and thanks!

This is all very interesting. I have never had a problem and the transaction has always gone through with no glitches.

I only buy tickets ahead of time if I know there is going to be a problem like a strike the next or previous day or heavy holidays, etc.

I have only had a problem once with a machine and that was in Caen. I think it might have been the Visa CC problem that many people experience in Europe. But when I went to the ticket counter it went through fine.

Michael,
Great thread - and started exactly a year and a day ago!

Thanks for the info. I was trying to purchase tickets just this morning and stopped when I got to the seat # selection. I posted a question on another thread, but it looks like you've answered my question, so I guess I'll just take pot luck.

I'll try tomorrow and report my results.