How do I call OBB Austrian Train Customer Service from USA?

Can you try buying your tickets from another website - like captaintrain.com?

1. Check with you phone provider, long distance provider, or international phone provider. 43-5-1717 is the correct number for Austrian Rail once you get into the international system.

2. My International phone service requires different numbers than 011 to connect to the international system.

3. Use Captaintrain only as a last resort. I've found that they are like RailEurope, they don't provide all of the connections or the best fare available (although the prices for the connections they provide are good).

My phone company said to use 011 then 43-5-1717. That doesn't work.

We bought an Einfach-Raus at the train station a half hour before boarding. Train wasn't close to full and seat reservations on the regional train.

Did you let your credit card company know you were making an international purchase in Austria? They routinely decline these to protect them and you from fraud, unless notified.

Yes I let my credit card company know.

Tried PayPal? I got a PayPal Euro balance because of an apartment refund and used it to buy two train trips... easy!

One point to clarify - Captain Train does not currently sell ÖBB tickets, so there's no point in contacting them.

There are a couple of methods you can use to contact ÖBB.....

• E-Mail: https://www.oebb.at/en/leistungen-und-services/kontaktformular
• Phone: 011-43-5-1717 (which is the number Lee posted). That number should work, so I'm not sure why it wouldn't call through when you tried? AFAIK, if you're calling from a cell phone, use the "+" symbol while from a land line use 011. I've had the same problem when calling abroad, and it's likely you're getting the "we're sorry" message as you haven't hit the correct number sequence yet.

One other possibility that occurred to me is that the number listed can not be accessed outside of Europe. I'd have to try it to confirm that.

Just curious, which routes are you trying to buy tickets for? You might try again at about two months from your travel date.

I tried email been waiting 4 days for a reply.
Dialing from land line using 011
Going from Innsbruck to Hallstatt, OBB had the 3 trains it takes to get there all mapped out with good times but they can't finish the transaction (see original post).
Thanks

https://www.oebb.at/en/leistungen-und-services/nach-ihrer-reise/fragen-und-anregungen

Country code = 011 then
+43 (0)5 1717

What's the significance of the"0" preceding 5?

I bought two trips in Austria through the OBB sight for Fall travel in 2015 three months ahead with no problem from my computer at home.
Mike

Here is the OBB web site that I used to get my tickets,I never contacted them by phone.onlineticket@is.oebb.at,hope this helps.
Mike

One more trick, register you card with Visa Checkout: https://usa.visa.com/pay-with-visa/visa-checkout.html
MasterCard has a similar product, the name of which escapes me.

Another possibility would simply be to buy the tickets at the local station, a day or so before you'll be travelling. That's the method I often use in Austria. It might be a good idea to also buy your outbound ticket from Hallstatt. The small station there is not staffed, but they may have a ticket Kiosk (I can't remember for sure).

011 43 1 1717 should work as that is the correct way to dial.

Are you using this website - https://tickets.oebb.at/en/ticket - to buy your tickets? This is a new set up for OeBB, so please try that site. You can go from Innsbruck to Hallstatt with two trains in 4 hours 19 minutes for 19 Euro. Not sure why you are choosing a three train option.

Edgar - Einfach Raus doesn't make sense for this route; the "0" would need to be used if calling from within Austria.

ok, your number is different than the one on the website. The website has 43-5-1717, you have 43-1-1717 so I'll try that.

Sorry, I just realized I mis-typed. It should be 011 43 5 1717 - the first one on your list.

Hi Lookin' In,

Alyssa had the same issue booking tickets on oebb.at. Apparently the website requires Visa credit and debit cards that are part of the "Verified by Visa" program. The card she was using was not compatible with Verified by Visa, so it was not possible to use that card. Here's a link to that thread: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/austria/obb-website-trouble

Here is the "Verified by Visa" website that lists current credit cards and debit cards that are compatible: https://usa.visa.com/pay-with-visa/featured-technologies/verified-by-visa.html

If you have a debit card or credit card that uses the program, you should be able to book the tickets. Otherwise, I would recommend waiting to purchase your train tickets at a train station in Austria.

Good Luck!
Nordheim

I this case, 5 is the equivalent of an area code. In Europe, if you are calling from within the area code (called the dialing code), you don't have to dial it (used to be that way in the US). When you want to dial another dialing code, you first dial 0 to get out of the dialilng code you are in (like 1 with our current system.

The European (Germany) system is really quite ingenious. Large cities have short codes, like Berlin (30), Hamburg (40), Frankfurt (69) and Munich (89). Then the local number has lots of digits (6 or 7), because there are lots of phones in big cities. But you never dial just the code. If you are outside Munich, you dial 089; if you are inside Munich, you omit the dialing code and just dial the local number.

Smaller towns have longer area codes, but fewer local digits because there are fewer phones. For instance, Bayrischzell (pop 1600) has a 4 digit dialing code (8023), but I see local numbers there with only 3 digits. If all the 3 digit number are used up, new phones will have 4 digit codes.

When dialing the US from Europe, you don't need to dial the first 1, for the same reason you don't need to dial the 0 calling Europe.

Ok thanks everyone. I called Century Link my phone company and they said 011 43 5 1717 was not enough digits and they said they could not assist me with the call.
I also tried another credit card and it did have the visa verification and I went through that but still the transaction was not successful.

Ok finally got some answers. I tried using my cell phone to call OBB and it worked. My land line phone company Century Link said OBBs phone number didn't have enough digits.

I tried a different Visa card that had the Visa verification and it worked. Also when I finally connected to OBB using my cell phone I understood about 1/2 of what they were saying and for some reason I couldn't buy 4 tickets at one time. I had to buy 2 tickets at a time on the web site and it worked. So I did 2 transactions for 2 people each. Now only 2 of the people had seat assignments and the other 2 didn't. I guess after all this I should consider myself lucky. Hope someone else can benefit from this information.

The "0" preceding the "5" is only used if you are calling from within the country. Calling from abroad drop the "0" , go right to the "5" after the the last digit.

Thanks for the feedback. I've never heard of a phone company not processing calls based on the number of digits. What a goofy system! The bottom line is that you have your tickets, so everything is arranged.

Have a great trip!

so the bottom line was that the problem with the call was your dodgy phone company. The problems always used to be with the cellular carrier, not the other way around....