Trenitalia Website Problems
 

I'm having a great deal of trouble with the TrenItalia website. I booked and paid for one set of tickets with no problem, but I could only do two (DuePerUno), and I need two more on the same train. I then booked those and went to pay for them and the system said my card was denied. It did this twice. Three times and they will lock the account. I then used Postoclick to reserve for 24 hours without paying and tried again the next day. Same problem. I tried another time with a different card, and same problem I've tried sending TrenItalia a fax but no answer.

My credit card company said that they did not deny any charges. It must be a problem with TrenItalia. At this point, I'm making the reservations with Postoclick on a day to day basis. Any ideas would be much appreciated. Thanks! -John

Hi JG,

A. Open another Trnitalia account and use the same CC.

B. Use a different CC.

C. Keep trying.

((I))

I know how frustrating that web site can be, and I've had the same problems.

Ira gave you good advice. The only thing I can add is to ask you if you have a CitiBank credit card. CitiBank offers a Virtual Account Number program on their web site.

I won't go into the logistics right now, if you don't have a CitiBank c.c.
However, if you do, please let me know, and I'll help you out.

Trenitalia has liked the Virtual Account number for the past two years I've used it(as though it's a person, duh!), but you get my meaning. The process sllows the bank to insert the c.c. information directly, not you.

Let's see these type of snafus have been reported now for several years by scores and scores of complainers

why can't Treinitalia get it straight - no way to run a railroad!

I think there could be a cottage industry of someone who books tickets for folks on trenitalia.com and gets a modest service fee for saving folks what seems like immense aggravation many times.

Hey PQ,

>why can't Treinitalia get it straight - no way to run a railroad!

Because it's trenITALIA. :)

((I))

Thanks all. As an update, though the Mastercard people had no record of anything, the Amex people did (called them after my first post). They said there was a block on the account due to possible fraud. The only thing I can think of is that the TrenItalia site for no reason I can think of has my last name as both my last and middle name. While I specified a name on the ticket on the one that went through, I did not on the new ones. So that extra name may have had something to do with it. Anyway, supposedly Amex has cleared the problem on their end. So I'm waiting until tomorrow when hopefully I'll have another three tries and see what happens.

FYI, the 10:30 Florence-Venice ES* train on May 26 (a Sat) appears to have very few seats left in 1st Cl. (where all my weekday trains seem to be empty). So don't wait to book this one.

Credit card companies may and have in my case automatically blocked foreign transactions unless you contact them first and inform then what countries you are going to.

Oh, this sounds SO familiar! I tried and tried last month prior to our trip to Italy, hoping to get 4 tickets at the due per uno promo rate for Rome-Naples. We had planned to visit Pompeii. I could pull up the first two, but couldn't get the other two.
So I waited until we got there, went to the train station and the clerk could only give me two for the promotional rate. The other two would be at normal fare, so I decided against it. We went to Ostia Antica instead!
We tried to gracefully suggest to the clerk that my husband could buy one set of tickets, and I could purchase the second set, making it two different purchases. But no go. The clerk was really gruff and offered no explanation.

I still don't think I understand the logic behind any of it, but it so ticked us off we just said to heck with it. Keep your tickets!

JGraham, you mention the train you want is almost full. How can you tell that? Thanks!

Mary09, I can't really tell in the sense of a seat map of an airline, but the system seems to assign seats on a consistent basis. On our other trains, if we ask for a window seat in 1st class, we consistently get assigned car 4, Seats 53,54,55,56 or (63.. or 43..). I check every once and a while to make sure the train is not filling up.

On the Venice train, however, we are already to car 2 if I ask for a window without specifying a car, in row 1 or 2, and the seats assigned are often things like 21,22, 23, 25 (which are still basically next to each other if I understand the numbering system).

If I specify car 4 or car 3, I get assigned seats that are not even in the same rows. This indicates to me, not necessarily that the train is getting full, but that there are many bookings on this train compared to other trains (at least in first class) which makes it much harder to find four seats together. This is what I meant and should have stated.

Most people will advise that you don't need to prebook these trains by more than a few days, and that certainly seems true of our other routes (Friday Rome to Sorrento, and Moday Naples-Florence), but for this particular train, if we want to sit together in first class, it really looks like we need to book now. Perhaps there is a tour group or something, or their are less 1st class cars on this train. Perhaps it is just a spring weekend when Florencians(?) like to travel to Venice. I just thought I should let people know.

Thanks, J, that is great information! My sister and I will be going from Florence to Naples on a Thursday in May. I had planned to buy tickets ahead of time online, since there is only 1 non-stop from Florence in the morning that day. In your experience do you think 1st class is necessary?

Mary, I have no experience with Italian trains at all. Reading many links on this site, the reviews are mixed, but it is clear that on the ES* trains both classes are decent, at least. From what I can gather, you get 3 across instead of 4 across and more room for luggage in 1st, the AC is somewhat more likely to work, and you are more likely to be seated next to businessmen and American tourists than locals. There seems slightly more reason to book 1st on IC (Intercity) trains.

The difference in cost between 2nd and 1st class is not all that much, and we will have a decent amount of luggage that we want to keep an eye on, so we kept in 1st.

BTW, I was able to pay for my tickets this morning with AMEX after I called them and got them to clear it to go through. I think somehow when I registered, I put my first and last name as my first name, and then my last name as my last name, which may have resulted in the charge being bumped. There is a small blue place to click near the bottom of the purchase screen that lets you type in a name, which I did not do for these tickets the first time, and that may have been the issue. I really don't know.

Also, I played around with the site a bit, and while I'm pretty sure the Venice train is booked more than the others, I did find that if you put Window seat and specify a Car number without a set number, you can get some really odd results. Better to specify a car and seat number directly (I belive seats 3 and 5 are windows on the 4 seat side, and 1 and 2 are windows on the 2 seat side).

Lastly, for anyone who has not noticed, Trenitalia has changed there site. If you go to www.trenitalia.com (or .it), you now come to a page in Italian which is some sort combined page with another site. There is no link for an english page. About 1/2 down on the left side you will see "Trenitalia" in red. There is a link near by reading something like "Val a Sito>>" (very small, can't read). Just click on that to go to the old Trenitalia site where on the right side there is an "English" button to press.

Today marks Day 3 for me trying to purchase Trenitalia tickets online. I keep getting the payment denied message. I've tried 3 different credit cards (all Mastercard) and all of the CC companies say they have not blocked the transaction. I've bought from Trenitalia before but it was in 2004 and 2005. I'm going to keep trying for about a week before trying to call.

TexasAggie, let us know if it works out. I am going to try and purchase my tickets in a few days...and I'm an Aggie, too! :)

Hi Mary,
I'll post back and keep you updated. I've purchased in the past and haven't had many issues so I'm a little surprised at 3 straight days of problems now. I've only been trying Mastercards though. I may call my Mom and see if her Visa works.
Good Luck with your purchase!
-Jill (class of 2002)

TexasAggie,

If you have a CitiCard Mastercard, you may want to log onto their web site and get yourself a Virtual Account Number set up.

This is the only way I have been able to purchase tickets on the Trenitalia web site for the past two years. The bank inserts the information about your "virtual number." You do not enter any info manually.

Apparently the Trenitalia web site really "likes" this program, because I have had success with every leg of my trip this coming May.

Thanks for the tip, i_am_cane.
I'll try that this evening!

TexasAggie,

Were you successful?

I have still not been able to complete the purchase, even with the Citi card auto fill. I haven't tried yet today. I'm pretty close to giving up and just purchasing the tickets upon arrival in Rome.

Jill, sorry it isn't working! If you don't mind paying a fee of about $20 (I think), Context Rome will book any train tickets you need and have them waiting for you at your hotel. Here is the link (http://rome.contexttravel.com/cart/getaround.php), or just go to the Context Rome home page and click on "Transportation" on the left hand column.

If I can't get my card to work I may use this service - I hate to spend the money but it may be worth the peace of mind to know we have seats!

Mary (Class of 2000!)