Trenitalia website: A Torture Device
 

I've been trying to make reservation in the trenitalia website for 3 days in a row now (for an overnight train to Paris), and have ran across problems with the site.

Tonight, I got as far as entering my CC# and sending the order, only to be told they are having technical problems.

Has anyone successfully made reservations on trenitalia? Currently, if I use the website, I'll save about $100 off the cheapest train fare on another site, and about $300 cheaper than raileurope. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Yes, I have, but not recently.

Kealoha, what time of day are you trying to make reservations? Try attempting it during Italian daytime hours. It is possible that they put the system down for maintenance during the (Italian) night. (I see, though, that your post is stamped 02:57 which I believe is New York time - this would make your attempt around 08:57 Italian time?)

Another possibility is that when I last bought tix on trenitalia, the system wouldn't sell one cross-border journey tickets, and you say this is a ticket to Paris. (I ended up buying our tickets to Austria on arrival in Italy.)I just took a peek at trenitalia and it is obvious that they have made improvements to the the system since I last bought tickets, but since you were asking for any possible clues to your mystery, I thought I'd throw that in.

What was the other site that quoted you a price (i.e., other than RailEurope?

Hi

I can't help but smile every time someone posts about the Trenitalia website. Don't get me wrong - I'm not laughing at your misfortune. If you do a search of this forum you'll discover you're not an orphan! What amuses me is that you'd think Trenitalia would be aware of the frequent problems and get it right. I do hope it works out for you. Good luck and happy travels.

Hi K,

It is not always possible to book Italy/France connections.

From where to Paris?

((I))

I haven't purchased from Trenitalia, but am hoping to in a few weeks. The only additional thing I can suggest to what has already been mentioned is calling their Call Centre directly, and asking for advice. Please let us know how you go! Hopefully it is only a temporary hiccup in the system.

Call centre info

http://www.trenitalia.com/en/area_cl...ter/index.html

Hi Nav,

Unfortunately, that call center number works only if you are in Italy.

((I))

I am not sure if this works, but you may be able to the get the tickets from the SNCF website (which DOES work well). IIRC , I did this 2 years ago. Might be worth a try...

Rick

So, after posting here last night, I decided to give up and go to sleep which was a good thing. Inspite of "technical difficulties", I guess my reservation went through because I received an email confirmation today from Trenitalia.

I guess if one is persistent enough (and does not throw her computer out the window--I was quite close to it), reservations can be made through trenitalia.com. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Sue, I looked at alleuroperail.com, and they only charge either $5 or $10 more than the trenitalia regular fare. But trenitalia has a special rate (which is not available all the time) for first class double sleeper ($370). Raileurope's fares are about $200 more (not $300 as I initially posted). I was so frustrated with the trenitalia site, my husband told me to just use alleuroperail.com but I really liked the option trenitalia gives to pick up tickets at the station--one more less thing to forget especially since we're traveling with a toddler.

Again, thanks for all the suggestions.

PS Ira, we will be coming from Venice to Paris.

That's interesting. I had a similar thing happen to me this week when I was buying tickets from sncf. I plunked in CC details, pressed confirm, and the next screen said "due to a time-out, your request has failed." But when I checked my email, there was the confirmation and directions as to how to print out the tickets (which is an option for many French rail tickets.)

I should have suggested you check your email from the outset, given my experience. I can't believe I didn't 'twig' to the possibility that a similar thing happened to you - sorry about that! I Glad it has worked out for you. (And thanks for the info on alleuroperail).

I had an uh-oh moment as well on the SNCF site last weekend. I booked tickets Paris to Nimes , put in credit card info , hit the button and got a "page cannot be displayed" message. Hit refresh, but nothing. Checked email for tickets. Nothing 3 hours later. Tried again (thinking- how am I going to be able to explain the duplicate tickets to somebody , en Francais), got same result, except that this time I got the tickets emailed (only the second set). Frightening.

I didn't think of it earlier , either. Perhaps because the last time I ever tried the Trenitalia site it was just about totally broken.

Rick

The Trentalia web site reminds me of the tired joke about Heaven and Hell.

In Heaven, the cooks are French, the lovers are Italian, the police are British, the engineers are German, and the Swiss coordinate everything.

In Hell, the cooks are British, the police are German, the Swiss are the lovers, the French are the engineers, and the Italians coordinate everything.

The Trentalia site is a mockery of efficiency and to top it off, the English version is poor.

If I want to know something I use three sites: Swiss, German, and Austrian.

I also had problems with trenitalia last summer. I was trying to book a ticket for my husband. The site never sent me a password to use. Raileurope did not even list the train I wanted to get him on. I accessed the Rome yellow pages and called them directly. They took my info and gave me a code to use in the machine. They never sent me a confirmation e-mail. I was nervous and called them back once and they claimed it would all be okay. The code worked. It may have helped that I speak italian. I am encouraged to hear that some people have managed to buy tickets that way.

Because of this thread and others, I decided to get myself a Trenitalia password <b>now</b> even though I'm not planning a trip. This way, I can log on when I need to book in the future.

And guess what? I got the password emailed to me basically <b>instantaneously</b>! And I can log in right away. I should go buy a lottery ticket! :D

Too late, RK.

The luck that would have allowed you to win the $100,000,000 lottery was used getting your password. :)

((I))

I spent 15 minutes this morning and another hour this afternoon on the Trenitalia website.

First, I tried to register and get a password with my primary comcast email address. No go. I waited a couple of hours for a password, then I tried again with my secondary comcast email account. No go. Then I tried with a gmail account and immediately got a password. I tried to buy tickets from Rome to Naples for four people using my American Express card. No go. The payment got denied a couple of times. Then I tried using my Visa card. On the second attempt, I got as far as the Verified by Visa step. I eventually dug up that password and managed to complete the transaction. I even have a confirmation email.

Emboldened by my success, I then tried to buy four tickets from Naples to Florence. No go. If I understood the Italian correctly, it told me I had exceeded my monthly credit allowance. Before I even got to the credit card screen.

So I registered another gmail account and got to the credit card screen again. My Visa was denied. And after three attempts to get it to go through, my second gmail account was disabled.

I think I'll try again tomorrow with the first gmail account userid --

Hi el,

1. It is quite likely that your comcast ISP was bouncing the email from Tren as spam.

2. It is quite likely that your CC company's computers have detected unusual activity and blocked transactions from Tren.

Call them and tell them what you are doing.

((I))

For some reason setting up a yahoo.com email account gets a lot of people out of that trap.

<font color="purple"> Thanks to the suggestion above, I checked on SNCF and found I can book my Torino/Paris trip there...thank you!</font>

Just to add to everyone's confusion about Trenitalia, I wanted to share my latest aggravating experience.

I already had two different e-mail accounts set up with passwords, so I thought I was &quot;golden.&quot; Wrong. No matter which credit card I entered on the purchase page I was denied repeatedly.

I called the banks and was assured that no Trenitalia activity had come through on my accounts.

After what I went through last year booking 10 people for two weeks on trains, I wasn't giving up trying to buy tickets for two people this year.

What ultimately worked was my Citibank Virtual Account Number. This is an icon that resides on my tool bar. I use it for most on-line purchases because it disguises my real credit card number. Apparently, the Trenitalia web site liked the fact that the credit card number was being inserted directly by the bank, not manually by me. Go figure.

I now have one leg of our travel booked, but tomorrow the next day when I can purchase the 2nd leg of our train travel.

I was able to purchase tickets last week but was denied yesterday and today. I get as far as the &quot;Verified by Visa&quot; page then it denies my purchase. I think I am going to have my other half register and try to order.

Very frustrating!