TexasAggie,

Oh, how discouraging!

Hi TA,

Have you tried opening a Yahoo or hotmail email account and using that.

>I'm pretty close to giving up and just purchasing the tickets upon arrival in Rome. <

That won't be difficult.

Hi everyone,

I've opened 3 new Trenitalia accounts and I've now used several credit cards (but all Mastercards). I've tried the Citi autofill as well. Still no luck. What seems so strange is that I have successfully purchased Trenitalia tickets online before, in 2004 and 2005. I've also just bought them at the self-service machines at the train station (2002 and 2003) so that is what it looks like we'll probably do. We don't have a completely rigid schedule, so as long as we can get on a train from Rome to Naples (and vice versa) any time on our travel days, we'll be fine. Thank you again for the suggestions. I'll keep trying up until we leave next month and report back if I'm ever successful!

There is something wrong with their reservation system. I even tried using an agent website and it will not accept reservations. It will tell me to select another Itinerary.

Hmmm... well that makes my attempts over the past several days make a little more sense. Hopefully the system will get back up and running soon.

I have been having the same sort of problems as TexasAggie with Trenitalia and found this Fodor thread very helpful. It was nice to know I wasn't alone! I thought you might like to know that I was able to complete the purchase with my Visa. I had tried several times with my Mastercard and the card company assured me the problem was with Trenitalia.

Good Luck!!

Guys, I suggest you try Amex. I had tried both MC and Amex and could not purchase. MC advised that they had not blocked it. Amex advised that they had blocked it as potential fraud. They put me to an account specialist, who set it up so that the transaction would go through, and it went through fine for two purchases. Also, make sure the name on the ticket matches the name on the credit card (first and last name, anyway). Do this by choosing "name of person travelling" on the very bottom of the screen where you pick your fare and class and seat type. Just enter the name on the credit card. I don't know if this was the problem for me or not, but it always worked when I did this once I got the fraud note cleared and once before.

I've also been having problems with registering at Trenitalia. Have used two different email addresses but never received the password that Trenitalia claims they send out. Has anyone had similar problems or know how to resolve this? Grazie, grazie

yah lots and lots of Fodorites report similar poblems - no way to run a railway or a railway web site. Persevere seems to be the advice and keep asking helpful Fodorites like Ira that seem to be able to advise you how to navigate the site successfuly/

Not sure if you have seen this but sardog10 posted it on another thread - it is a seating shart of the ES trains, SO helpful!

http://downloads.raileurope.com/pdf/...escription.pdf

I'm so excited to report that I have finally succeeded in booking our train reservations at trenitalia. once I created a new email account at Yahoo the actually received a password after registering at the site. I did encounter the problem of have two different credit cards denied. So today I called the 1-800 number of a new Visa CC and told them that I needed to purchase these tickets from an Italian website and would they please make sure the transactions would go through. The person I spoke with told me that my two "card denied" experiences were likely due to security not allowing those purchases be they raised a fraud alert alarm. So when I went back to try the new Visa card tonight (this morning!) everything went through smoothly. This "feat" took several days to accomplish. I'm wondering if the problem I had with registration was because my email addresses ended with .net. Because once I gave my Yahoo address that ended with .com, everything proceeded quickly and easily. Also, I think it made a big difference to call the credit card company first. I'm so happy I could scream! and definitely breathe a sigh of relief. That's one of the last major reservations I needed to make for our Italy trip; we leave on May 19. Hope this helps any other of you who are having problems with the Trenitalia site. I'm glad to be able to give something back.

one more thing about seats. I left those boxes blank and Trenitalia assigned seats that were next to each other (or opposite for our party of 3). Good luck to who are working through this process, and thanks to all posters who help me get through it. O happy day!

That's great news, kk! So glad you were able to buy your tickets. I also successfully purchased mine on Friday. The only thing that surprised me was the "Verified by Visa" site that came up as soon as I tried to complete the transaction. I hadn't seen that discussed on a Fodor's thread so I called my credit card company 1-800 number to make sure it was legitimate. They said yes, so I typed in the information requested (last 4 digits of SSN, etc) and then the trenitalia site same back up confirming my purchase. I assume the "Verified by Visa" was created so that purchases could be made on websites that would usually raise the fraud flag. So anyway, mu purchase went through on the first try! Thanks to everyone for all your help.

I am having problems similar to everyone else who has reported Mastercard problems. I have called the company, and they say they have not denied any payments etc.

I want to try other cards now, BUT I only have one card that is linked to my parents' account (I am 18), and all the visa and amex cards are in their names only. If I buy a ticket for an overnight train from Venice to Nice with their card, will I have trouble picking up my tickets? DO they require the person whose name is on the credit card to pick up the tickets?

If so, does anyone have any other suggestions for how I can get around this? I only want to use an agency as a last resort. Thanks in advance, everyone!

Hi UNC. While the only experience I have with the site is the one transaction I completed last week, I do not think using a credit card with another name will be a problem if you use the ticketless itinerary option. The ticket confirmation for my sister and I appeared as 2 people under the name I used to register on the site. In other words, I don't think the site pulls the ticket name from the credit card, I believe it pulls it from your online profile register name. Again, this is the ticketless option, where you will not pick up any tickets. Rather you will print out the confirmation you receive after your purchase is completed, and bring that confirmation with you on the train. Hope this helps.

Hi UNC,

As Mary says, you will get an email confirmation with your name on it. That and your passport are all you need.

Try using the same card once or twice more.

Also try opening another email accoount and using that.

I was finally able to purchase our tickets online today using our Credit Union Visa card. My guess is that there is some hitch with Mastercards, as I tried 3 and was never able to get any of them to work. Good luck to everyone else having trouble!!

Thank you for the help everyone - but where are you seeing this ticketless option?

Here is exactly what I have done to try to buy tickets:

Went to www.trenitalia.com, used the little boxes for dates and locations etc. that are on the main screen to search for my tickets (and clicked on "international" before submitting my query).

I was then given a few options for different trains and clicked on the icon in the "buy/acquista" column for the train I wanted.

This brought me to a page where I filled out the class, number of guys/girls, smokers/nonsmokers, youths/adults, etc.I then clicked on "avanti/next".

Then on the next page i get to pick between the full, youth, and smart fares. I chose smart, but before doing so I had to pick a way to get tickets. two of the three options involved mailing the tickets to an address in Italy. They third one was picking up tickets at a major station once in Italy.

After choosing the pickup option I always get to that bank transaction that never seems to work with the mastercard in my name.

Where in this process am I overlooking the ticketless option that sounds so promising?

Thanks for your help!

HI UNC,

What train are you taking?

On what date?

I am looking to take the 22:52 Night Train from Venice S. Lucia to Nice on July 12(arrival the next morning around (9:45 in Nice).