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Print Train Tickets in Advance or Collect at Station?

Posted by (Calgary) on

So, I've booked 2 train trips on the OBB website: from Vienna to Prague and from Salzburg to Munich. We have the option of printing out our train tickets or getting a collection code to get our tickets from OBB machines or ticket offices.

Is there any reason to favour one method over the other? I'm inclined to go with the collection code (this is what we have to do in Hungary, anyhow), so I don't have to worry about losing the tickets, but I'm not sure exactly how it works. Do I have to have a printout with the collection code on it (if so, then I might as well just print the tickets)? Or, if I have the code recorded on my iPad and my husband's iPod, can we just punch it into a machine?

Also, it seems as if we have to activate this code online somehow, and then our tickets will be ready for collection in 15 minutes. Is there any harm in activating this code before we leave, just in case we have trouble with wifi when we need to do this?

I'm probably overcomplicating this, but I want things to be as smooth as possible, and I don't want to miss doing something before I leave and then regret it.

Thanks!

2moresleeps

Posted by
138 posts

We bought train tickets from Vienna to Budapest and did not have the option of printing our tickets. My husband downloaded the collection code on our iPad and I printed a hard copy for myself. Long story: lost iPad, so we didn't have the option of trying to activate the code online in advance while in Vienna. We went to Vienna train station ticket office with my hard copy code. Clerk directed us to use the machine out in front to collect our tickets by punching in our code. It worked fine, but be aware that the tickets are printed in multiple slips of paper (you are not finished until the machine tells you that you have completed your transaction). So downloading the collection code on your iPad and iPod should be sufficient. Maybe someone else can answer about activating prior to leaving home. But at least you know you can collect the tickets at the machine at the train station with the code. We also went from Salzburg to Munich on a previous trip. We printed those tickets at home. Don't remember if there was a collection code option on that trip. Hope this helps.

Posted by
20085 posts

I always print my tickets at home and bring them with me. I also save the pdf file on my netbook as a back up. You could have not worried about the Salzburg-Munich tickets, and bought them with a Bayern ticket on the day of travel (after 9 am and a slower train), but that is water under the dam (to mix metaphors). So I would print them now, have the pdf ticket file save on a device and the collection code. 8.5" by 11" works fine. The conductor will scan the bar code or QR code, check your ID (Germany scans your credit card the used to buy the tickets).

Posted by
1650 posts

Okay, thanks. Since we won't need those tickets until the 11th day of our trip, I thought I'd avoid carrying them around. I also thought that maybe, if I printed the tickets at home, the collection code might not be valid any longer, since the tickets would already be collected, technically. But it sounds as if it shouldn't be a problem to print them and then have a copy of the code, just in case.

Posted by
16893 posts

If you choose the collection code, then you just need the code itself, which you should keep in multiple places.

If you choose print-at-home via a PDF/link, then I do print those at home, but you can also save the PDF for later access and re-printing, but don't count on getting that type issued in a station.

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