Using ITALIARAIL for booking reservations
 

I cannot help to notice that Mark Smith---the man in seat 61---suggests using Italiarail for booking train tickets in advance http://www.italiarail.com/rail-promotions.

I tend to agree since it seems to be more user friendly for novice travelers to Italy.
There is a small fee[$5] and you cannot change your day or times, but it sure seems simple for people how can set their schedules in advance.

So, tell me who has used it and your expereince. I sedom book trains for myself since we usually rent a car.

TTT

When you link a site through another site, there is usually some type of payment involved.

There are problems with booking on Italia Rail as they are essentially a reseller and you aren't dealing directly with the train company.

It's like using Expedia to buy a plane ticket instead of booking directly with the airline. If you have a problem, Expedia is not much help and the airline won't deal with you because you have to go through Expedia.

From the comments I've seen, anyone having problems with a ticket purchased on Italiarail are out of luck.

Understand---the typical reseller limitations.
But the process seems easier than Trenitalia, and that will be appealing to novices.

This thread is about an Italiarail purchase.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...wrong-date.cfm

The Italiarail website continues to change. They create fare names that aren't the actual fare names. They now want your e-mail before showing low fares, etc. if you click on search the discounts (like Travel Zoo Top 20). The fare rules on Italiarail are their rules they've created for each fare, not the actual fare rules.

Another problem using Italiarail is you can't pick your seat. On Trenitalia, for all the fast trains (AV Freccia trains), you can select your actual seats from a seat diagram (like selecting a plane seat). I prefer seats with tables (some Freccia seats don't have tables) and away from the stinky bathroom. You don't have this option with Italiarail.

The main problem I see on Trenitalia these days is people selecting the wrong date, but you can see by the above thread that the same thing happens using Italiarail. I would only use Italiarail if I found I couldn't complete the booking on Trenitalia.

I am the owner of ItaliaRail and I would just like to clarify some points made here.

There are several advantages in booking through Italiarail and there are some disadvantages we are working on addressing.

Firstly - we are a partner of Trenitalia and set up ItaliaRail.com almost 10 years ago to better service the non-Italian market with the complete support of Trenitalia. We connect directly to Trenitalia's reservation system and as such have the same discounted fares as offered on Trenitalia.com - some key benefits include:

1) You can pay in one of 4 currencies (USD, CAD, GBP and EUR) this means that:

a) you don't have to call your bank to inform them that you are making a foreign transaction
b) you don't incur any foreign transaction fees
c) the exchange rates used are competitive and close to or better than what many credit cards/banks charge

2) We have english speaking customer service representatives who are readily available if you have any issues with your order. Not only that if you have any serious problems you can contact the owner (me ;-))

3) If you email your order number to our customer service department and reference "Fodors Forums" in the subject line, and enter "Booking Fee Refund" in the first line of the email we will credit you back the small booking fee.

4) Our site is considered by most users to be easier to use than Trenitalia's site (although Trenitalia's site has improved considerably over the past couple of years).

5) Our prices are the same as Trenitalia's except for the booking fee (see point 3).

6) We advocate on your behalf with Trenitalia if and when in the rare instance there is a customer service or other issue that occurs while traveling.

7) We specialize in servicing non-Italian travelers (this represents 100% of our business) whereas Trenitalia specializes in servicing the Italian market (this represents 95% of their business)

Here are a few temporary limitations in booking with us:

1) We have a technical issue (not commercial) related to the connection with Trenitalia which does not provide us a change code for Economy fares - this is a known issue that is being worked on. Standard fares CAN be changed when booked through us and Super-economy are non-changeable and non-refundable with Trenitalia as well.

2) We charge an extra handling fee on changes, cancellations and refunds when handled through our call center. We are implementing a system to allow travelers to change their tickets themselves and in fact this can be done with our tickets in Italy or on Trenitalia.com.

3) You can't pick your seat with us (yet) but for most people this is not an issue. The bathrooms are nowhere near the seats (like on an airplane) they are outside a closed door, in-between the cars. All the Freccia seats have tables as far as I am aware - most have free-standing tables the rest have tables that come down from the back of the seat in front.

Most travelers - especially first-time travelers (and many veteran travelers) to Italy appreciate the benefits in booking with us - we have tens of thousands of satisfied customers annually.

We have had a handful of cases where a traveler searches for a train and chooses a departure time that is after the last train of the day and in this case the system defaults to the next days trains - we are either putting a clearer warning or changing the logic to not show the next days trains. We have changed the customers tickets when this has been brought to our attention in the past.

WE DO NOT ASK YOU FOR YOUR EMAIL before showing you the low fares. We ask for an email when the searched fare is outside the 120 day search window and it is voluntary so that we can notify the traveler automatically when the tickets become available.

I hope this helps clarify any questions or concerns. Our goal is to be the best place to book train tickets for Italy and the feedback from our customers and potential customers is much appreciated. We wanted to be th eeasiest place to book and offer the best customer service.

Mike Fuller
President
ItaliaRail

Hr

Hmmm !
Thanks Mike---right from the horses mouth.
Does a new customer need to register to book a ticket?
Are you hoping to be able to pick your seat---when?

I just finished ordering two tickets from Trenitala for our September trip ..I didn't have any problems at all and was able to choose our seats.

I speak zero italian and with a little help from kybourbon here, I booked most of my trip ahead of time on trentalia. I had zero problems and had a guaranteed seat on the longer train rides where we had all of our luggage with us. This was very important to us since the trains were packed and most often, we had people move out of our seats (with the table). If we had not had ticketed seats, we would have had to scatter all over the train and with 4 people, 6 suitcases and 4 backpacks, this would have been more difficult.

Book the tickets where you can book the seats!

Oh and I did it all online. You can translate the website to english.

Good feedback---grazie !

You do not have to register on our website to book.

Yes - we are working over the next few months on a new version of the connection to Trenitalia that will allow people to pick their actual seats.

We will also be allowing people to enter their complete itinerary and we will automagically calculate the cost of the best Italian rail pass so the traveler can know whether to by tickets or a pass.

We have a number of other innovations that we will be introducing before next summer as well.

I JUST WANT TO BE CLEAR THAT ALL OUR TICKETS INCLUDE RESERVED SEATS JUST LIKE TRENITALIA - girlonthgo seems to be under the impression that if she booked on Italiarail.com she would not have had a seat - this is NOT the case - we don't allow you to pick a specific seat we automatically give the best seats available relative to the size of the group - the seat numbers are generated by Trenitalia's reservation system at the time of booking. The only time you don't get a reserved seat with us AND Trenitalia is on regional trains - ALL HI-SPEED TRAIN RESERVATIONS INCLUDE A SEAT NUMBER.

I never have understood why people think it is better not to use a Travel Agent or so-called "middle man" especially now that the Internet creates almost complete transparency. In fact in many cases it is better to use an expert, especially when it involves a vacation in a foreign country - I have been in the travel business for over 30 years and have been on "all sides of the desk" - travelers almost always save money, time and aggravation when using an expert.

Speaking of regional trains - I forgot that one of the benefits in booking with us is that you can book regional trains up to 120 days in advance - on Trenitalia.com you can only book a regional train within 7 days of the trains departure.

Italiarail - I just did a dummy booking on your site - it did seem easy to use - I stopped before I made payment. Will I see the assigned seat numbers AFTER payment? Will there then be a page to print or will I verbally give the PNR number to the conductor? Grazie!

I used it for the Italian segment of our trip when we started out in Italy 3 weeks ago. The site worked perfectly. All the tickets were paperless and we simply handed the printed out results to the "conductor" who scanned them on each ride.

Only one segment required me to get a ticket out of a machine and that was for the segment from Milan to Brig. I retrieved that one when we first arrived in Rome. You simply use the ticket machine "collect tickets" option, input your name and the Italiarail-supplied PNR and the tickets print out.

No need for validation on the p;atforms either for any of them.

>>>I cannot help to notice that Mark Smith---the man in seat 61---suggests using Italiarail for booking train tickets in advance<<<

Bob - Since you started this thread and don't even book train tickets, I'll explain it to you. Websites get paid for linking to other websites. Government websites usually don't. So it's more than likely he's getting a banner fee. Every time Italiarail shows on the page or you click it (pay per click), money is paid. Trenitalia is most likely not paying (most governments don't often pay for that type of thing). There is a also a transaction pay you can get from some links (if you make a purchase the other website gets some money).

Some people buy from Expedia,Orbitz, RailEurope, etc. Does that make it the best or cheapest option for your purchase? Unless they are offering something you can't get if you buy directly then likely not. If you are able to complete your purchase on Trenitalia, it is still your best option because you are not adding fees and a middleman. Just like Expedia has all their own rules and FEES about changing/cancelling tickets that aren't the official airlines rules about changes/cancelling so does Italiarail.

>>>Speaking of regional trains - I forgot that one of the benefits in booking with us is that you can book regional trains up to 120 days in advance - on Trenitalia.com you can only book a regional train within 7 days of the trains departure<<<

Absolutely useless. There is no need to buy a regional train in advance at all unless you don't have a couple of minutes at the station to purchase it. In that case you can buy it a day or two ahead at any station or business with the Trenitalia logo without any fees, etc. There are no advance purchase discounts for regional trains, no reserved seating and they can't sell out. There are more restrictions on these tickets when purchased in advance (shorter use window, etc.). Most people taking a regional train are often paying less than $10 for a ticket (usually a short ride somewhere) so it would be silly to pay someone a fee to buy this.

As for Italiarail being on this thread and continually linking their website,IMO, that is advertising and against Fodor's policy.

I never said you can't book seats on Italiarail. I never used Italiarail before. I said you CAN book seats on Trentalia, which is the website we used for our trip this past May.

Thanks ky, you make good points.

My only motivation is to have a simple process for my clients, most of which are novices. I have always thought of the Trenitalia site as being more difficult to use, but perhaps that is no longer true.

bookmarking thread

suec1 - You will see your seat numbers BEFORE your card is charged but you need to enter your CC info first - once you enter it then it will make the provisional reservation which blocks off the seats, once you confirm your order then it charges the card and creates the confirmed PNR. You will get a confirmation email with the PNR, you can print the confirmation page at the end of the booking - all you need is the PNR to give to the conductor but having the confirmation email printed is always a good idea.

girlonthego - I apologize, you are right, in rereading your post I realize that I should have just confirmed that we offer reserved seats - you did not say or imply that we didn't - I was a little on the defensive from the previous posts I think :-)

KY and Bob - I simply tried to list a number of points to give a clearer picture in order to let travelers decide for themselves who to book with.

We are not a "middleman" we are a small business that contributes to the local and national economy - supporting small business in whatever country you are in is usually a positive thing.

We in turn support other local businesses and contribute to the overall health of the economy. We are also starting a Study Abroad Scholarship in 2014 to help college students who couldn't otherwise afford the experience of studying a semester in Italy.

As stated above my team's # 1 objective is to provide the best train experience possible for travelers to Italy. We re-invest heavily in achieving this and have innovated for the past 10 years thereby raising the bar for everyone in our space which in turn helps improve the experience regardless of where one books.

As far as the links - they are unintentional - there are just as many links to Trenitalia - it seems the system automatically creates them if you add .com at the end -I have no way to edit the post so can't go back in otherwise I would do it myself.

The only reason I am participating in this thread is to address the issue of incomplete or misinformation being spread about my Company. I am not trying to create controversy or be confrontational or violate any guidelines.

As far as the comments on the regional trains - there are MANY people who do want to book in advance and appreciate the peace of mind that comes with that - ESPECIALLY first time travelers - so it's not useless to them to know this.

I personally book all my regional train tickets in advance because I have had trouble at the self serve machines in the past accepting payment - not necessarily the machine - has been my credit card because I forgot to tell them I was going to Italy.

what is wrong with kybourbon?

Excuse me, but I travel in Italy all the time -- more than kybourbon does I am certain -- and it is a tremendous advantage to be able to book and have in hand regional train tickets if you are making a tight connection.

There is nothing more aggravating than to be traveling with suitcases to a small town in Italy and when you get off at the main city train station to switch trains, if you must now buy a regional ticket to the small town you are actually going to, the amount of time that takes can end up meaning you miss a train and then have to wait a huge amount of time for another one.

I speak Italian, but many people coming to Italy for the first time and getting on a train do not. It really helps them to be able to buy ALL their tickets in advance and it really cuts into the opportunities pickpockets have in train stations.

Kybourbon acts like somebody who thinks she is going to be out of a "job" if people go to this website and don't end up not needing her on Fodor's anymore. Why so territorial?

ItaliaRail works with Trenitalia and vice versa to provide another dimension of help to foreign travelers. There is nothing against there being links to these websites in this thread.

bobthenavigator,

If you never personally buy train tickets than yes, the Trenitalia site is a pain to use, especially since they reconfigured it to push their Freccia trains. And yes, if one's tickets get scrwed up in purchase, it is almost impossible to deal with Trenitalia's non-responsive, non-English speaking staff.

The entire present moment in Italy is all about opening up state controlled services so that consumers have more options. It is a wonderful thing that ItaliaRail and Trenitalia are being discussed here, and that the MISINFORMATION posted by kybourbon is being corrected by other people, including someone who works for ItaliaRail.com.

Give it a break, kybourbon. This isn't your "job" to post endlessly about trains on Fodor's --unless somebody is a paying you. Quit trying to get in the way of new information reaching people just because you've been here 10 zillion years. Don't feel so THREATENED that things change and get more modern.

I am delighted to think there is somewhere I can book a regional ticket in another part of Italy in advance, and I am happy to pay for the help.

bookmarking

TTT

>>>is a wonderful thing that ItaliaRail and Trenitalia are being discussed here, and that the MISINFORMATION posted by kybourbon is being corrected by other people,<<<

Just to be clear, I didn't post any misinformation on this thread. Italiarail is a reseller/middleman based in the US which adds their own restrictions/rules to tickets purchased from them that aren't the same as if you purchase directly from Trenitalia. They are like purchasing airline tickets for a Delta flight on Expedia or Orbitz. They charge a fee to purchase, a fee to cancel, etc.

Without getting into a spat I find kybourbon's serial posts on Trenitalia.com and Italian trains to be a great value - so so many times she/he has come to the help of flummoxed Fodorites trying to navigate the quagmire of trenitalia.com - so I will happily come to her defense.

she/he has obviously studied every little morsel of things about Italian trains and many Fodorites have benefited from her expertise.

I booked 90 percent of my train tickets prior to travel on trenitalia's website. I do not speak italian. There is an english icon to click and turns to english. I had zero problems booking. Without kybourbon, I would never have figured out half of the prebooking info and also how to save on the website. I credit her with saving us a ton of money and time by explaining to me trains in italy 101! Really saved me.
So, to kybourbon, thank you for all of your valuable information you gave me. I am sure others have found other ways to book trains as well. kybourbon was my ticket to getting tickets.

Many people have benefited from kybourbon's expertise in knowing all about the fickle flummoxing trenitalia.com site and she has saved folks beaucoups money - now perhaps ItaliaRail is easier to use - I do not know that but if and they charge a small surcharge that seems great - but unless you save a ton of money I always advice buying from the source and not a middle man in case of problems, refunds, etc.

as for the convenience of buying regional tickets that stevewith points out is it not possible to buy those regional tickets from any Trenitalia station well before the actual connection time - why pay $5 more for a regional ticket that can easily be bought in Italy - and again a problem with buying those in advance is if your trip plans fall thru then you have refund issues - wait until Italy to buy any regional ticket.

Bookmarked

As for Italiarail being on this thread and continually linking their website,IMO, that is advertising and against Fodor's policy.>

No I do not agree with that - there are things being said here about the company that apparently are not true and it is the right of the company in that case to defend themselves - so when the owner says:

<The only reason I am participating in this thread is to address the issue of incomplete or misinformation being spread about my Company. I am not trying to create controversy or be confrontational or violate any guidelines>

I have to agree with him/her/it.

Everyone has a right to defend themselves against charges that may or may not be true.

I found this thread when I was looking for information about Italiarail. I see that it's an old thread, so maybe no one will see this.

I had already attempted to use the Trenitalia website, but all I got were messages saying that no information was available for whatever trip I was trying to book. No indication as to why. I did not know about their 7 days in advance rule until I found this thread, and they did not tell me about it - just told me there was no information available.

So, I tried Italiarail. So sweet! It was extremely quick and easy to use. I opted to see and choose from only the lowest rates. I made reservations for two people on six different legs of our trip. I was amazed at how inexpensive it was to travel in Italy by train. That's so wonderful!

As far as "no refunds" goes, if something happens, and we can't make this trip, losing the entire amount for the train tickets will be annoying, but not at all devastating. It's a risk I'm willing to take because of the low cost, and to have this particular part of the trip settled.

Also, we are going to have six weeks in Italy, and we are not very picky travellers. We don't care where we sit on the train - we just want to get where we are going. Second class seats chosen by Trenitalia are just fine for us given that none of our trips are very long. I was relieved to see assigned seats on our order confirmation, though.

Regarding the $5.00 service fee that Italiarail charges, I don't think that is unreasonable at all. It was one $5.00 charge for all 12 tickets. They provided me with a very convenient and efficient service, and I was able to book the tickets in advance like I wanted - something I couldn't do on Trenitalia.

So, anyway, Mr. Fuller, if you see this, I was very pleased with the services your company provides. I found your website to be easy to use, and it was a very pleasant experience. The only thing I would recommend is that you state clearly at the start that when you purchase a ticket, seat assignment is included. Seat reservations should not be the topic of so many online threads:) I had to hunt all over to find out whether I would need to reserve seats and whether I would have to pay extra for that.

I tried using trenitalia to book my train tickets, it didn't work for one reason or another. I used italiarail and it worked perfectly. Just got all of my tickets from italiarail and got confirmed seat numbers.

Topping for good info on an alternative to the oft flummxing trenitlia.com site.

cjsc and others who have used ItaliaRail.com and have recognized the benefits, thank you for your kind words.

I haven't been on here in a while because I have had nothing new to add to the discussion - until now.

We have launched the newest version of ItaliaRail just two days ago and there are a some major enhancements that should make it clear that; a) it probably makes no sense to book your Italian train tickets anywhere else; and, b) addresses why the booking fee we charge is nothing compared to the savings we can now offer:

1) we now accept AUD, CAD, GBP, USD & EUR - you can pay in the currency of your choice this can save you time and money.

2) We allow you to search EVERY train on the day of travel and hi-lite the cheapest fares and find you "free upgrades" all with ONE search and on one screen this can save you time and money.

3) We save you money and often have cheaper fares than every other site (including Trenitalia) because our booking engine finds you the cheapest seats automatically - this works best for 2 or more people traveling together:
IF THERE ARE 2 PEOPLE TRAVELING TOGETHER AND THERE IS ONE SEAT AVAILABLE FOR $30 AND 2+ SEATS AVAILABLE FOR $40 ALL THE WEBSITES WILL CHARGE YOU $80 FOR THE TWO SEATS - WE WILL CHARGE YOU $70!

WE TAKE THE LAST CHEAP SEAT AVAILABLE ($30) AND COMBINE IT WITH THE NEXT CHEAPEST SEAT ($40) - EVERYONE ELSE IGNORES THE 1 CHEAP SEAT AND AUTOMATICALLY OFFERS THE HIGHER FARE THAT HAS THE 2 SEATS AVAILABLE (2 x $40 = $80). OUR BOOKING ENGINE IS FASTER AND SMARTER THAN THE OTHERS AND THIS CAN SAVE YOU A LOT MORE THAN $5!

4) We indicate how many seats are left at the lower prices so that you don't miss out on the best deals.

5) We have negotiated an exclusive special price for the ItaliaPass a new VIP Traveler benefit program for Italy - it is only $19 on ItaliaRail.com ($49 direct on ItaliaPass.com). The ItaliaPass gets you savings on hotels, tours and activities, car rentals, restaurants, attractions, etc.; and gives free access to a beautiful new lounge in Termini Station.

I encourage the moderators of this site to test out the new ItaliaRail.com site and then please advise me if they still recommend booking elsewhere and why.

Our goal is to provide the best experience and value when booking travel around Italy - it's not easy but we are constantly working toward it.

Mike Fuller
ItaliaRail

Surprised to give ItaliaRail a try for a July train I have already booked for 5. Best Trenitalia can do today is 176 euro at the Bimbi gratis rate. RailItalia pulls up a Saturday 2-for-1 offer at 109.50 euro including the service fee, a 40% difference.

I meant ItaliaRail in the second sentence, sorry.

I tried another train for 4 in first class and again, ItaliaRail was 40 euros cheaper, about 20%.

On a third train looking at a single ticket, the price was the same before the service charge was added.

This whole thing solves absolutely nothing IMO. The "non-novices" on here have decided there is only one way to do things and others have decided their way works just as well.

I am now going to use the very famous rationale repeatedly posed by one of the non-novices: "It is the obvious choice."

Point number 3 above is the main advantage Italiarail seems to have over Trenitalia. If you try to book tickets for two or more people on Trenitalia, it won't show you any discounted offers unless there are at least two tickets left at the discounted price. If you buy the tickets separately, you'll get the best prices, but then you may have difficulty getting the seats together.

Because of this innovation, groups of two or more should at least try Italia-rail.com to see if they get a better price.

Italiarail does get you on the exchange rate, though. Your credit card will get you a better exchange rate if you buy on Trenitalia in euros.

bvlenci: Yes, but test out my point number 1: Roma Termini to Firenze SMN June 27th on the 12:20 train, 4 adults 1 child.

ItaliaRail: toggle on euros, then the price comes up 111 euros including fee (have to manually remove special pass offer from the shopping cart, irritating). This software finds that the cheapest price is the Saturday 2-for-1 for the adults and then the child pays full price but that is cheaper.

Trenitalia: comes up 172 euros as the Bimbi Gratis fare. Software cannot find the cheaper fare option that ItaliaRail found.

So the ItaliaRail software is more intelligent and that would be another advantage.