We have always bought train tickets at the train station unless there are advantages of buying a ticket 120 days out.
A friend told me he has already purchased his ticket in June (longer than 120 days out) from Capitainetrain.com and italiarail.com.
Are these websites better than trying to get a special price 120 days out ??
I guess it depends on the price he received. The cheapest fare will be the super economy fare.
Would that super economy fare be the one I usually try to secure 120 days out ?
I really thought that 120 days was the earliest you could even buy tickets ! But we usually buy the tickets at a train station....
There are three levels of fares for all trains except the regional trains - super economy, economy, base. Obviously the SE is cheapest, number available vary by train, date, and time. When gone they are gone. Economy is same just more expensive. Each fare class has restrictions. Haven't used Capitainetrain or Italiarail but believe they function more like a travel agency. Don't know if they have access to tickets prior to 120 days.
I went to those two websites you mentioned. On the capitaine one there is a tab where you can choose the rail company and it tells you how far in advance that tickets can be purchased. I did see that most are 90-120 days but there is mention that sometimes Trenitalia releases tickets prior to that time for popular routes.
Capitainetrain, Italiarail, and Rail Europe are all third-party agents who are getting the tickets from Trenitalia. They can't charge any less than Trenitalia or sell tickets any earlier. Going direct to Trenitalia.com works fine for advance-purchase discounts (more often available from 90 days out) and buying tickets in the stations works fine if you are not ready to commit in advance or don't need to lock in the lowest discount.
This same question also has a few replies under Transportation.
A friend told me he has already purchased his ticket in June (longer than 120 days out) from Capitainetrain.com and italiarail.com.
I often find that when friends tell me something, they often don't know what they are talking about.
June 9 is 120 days out. It is unlikely that it could be late June since the European train schedules will be reshuffled after June 13, so only a handful of night trains are showing on the time tables
Actually, the French National Railroad, SNCF, is already having a summer sale. This is the first time they have been for sale so early in the year. Paris to Avignon is 30 euros, for example. So your friend could be correct.
Just my input, but the best rates seem to be booking with the National Carrier (DBahn, Trenitalia, SCNF, etc) well ahead, based on when they release tickets. Buying from a third part on offers some ease of transaction, usually at a cost.
Thank you for all of the responses !
To answer your question, Italiarail is the Italian National Rail website. This is where you would get your special price 120 days out. As for Capitainetrain, so far their prices have been the same, and people have reported success using this website.
Like Paul, I buy directly from train websites (SNCF, Italiarail, DB, OBB), just the way I buy airline tickets directly from the airline rather than a middleman website, but people have found Capitaintrain to be a good alternative and easy to use.
