I need to buy tickets for summer 2017 (June-July) for:
Venice to Florence
Florence to Rome
Budapest to Vienna
Cesky Krumlov to Prague
I know that the sooner I buy them the greater the discount.
How far ahead do they normally release prices?
Is it not worth it for any of these trips?
The prices are already posted, at least for 2017. But the tickets are not usually released for sale until about 120 days before.
The various price options are already known, but once the cheaper prices are all sold you can only buy the more expensive tickets.
For example, on http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en "Venezia S. Lucia" to "Firenze S. M. Novella" for a random date in March shows:
Super Economy 24.90 €
Economy 35.90 €
Base 49.00 €
As you get nearer the date, the "Super Economy" and "Economy" tickets will sell out, leaving only the more expensive "Base" fare, which is what you will pay if you buy at the station on the day.
It varies by country; Italy gives 120 days for purchase prior to travel; other countries may begin 90 days prior.
For German Rail, today you can purchase tickets as far forward as March 7, 2016, which my spreadsheet says is 91 days (24 hour periods) in the future. I guess if you include the day of the ticket sale and the day of actual travel, it's 92 days.
To determine exactly the first day that you can purchase tickets for your desired travel date, just go to the Bahn website and put in the information for the train for which you want a ticket. If tickets are already on sale, it will show you the prices. If you are early, it will say, "Sale from [date] possible". Or just figure about 3 months.
Flexpreis (full fare( ticket will always be that price, no matter when you buy them. Savings Fares start in Germany at 29€ for the first person (sometimes 19€) and are tiered. When the least expensive tickets sell out, the next tier of tickets is more expensive.
Is it not worth it for any of these trips?
For advance purchase, discounted, tickets, it all depends on how certain you are of taking that exact train, as it might be expensive, difficult, or impossible to refund or exchange advance purchase tickets. For inexpensive tickets for shorter trips (like the ones you show), the savings might not be worth the effort, inflexibility, and risk.
None of these tickets is terribly expensive at full fare, with the highest being the Italian legs priced out above. From Cesky Krumlov to Prague, the bus operated by https://www.studentagency.eu/en/ is more convenient than train.
Thanks everyone. So I'll have to start checking 120 days in advance to see if they have release them.
