Budapest to Vienna train travel

It's best, in my opinion, to buy the tickets from the operator of the train. It doesn't matter where the train starts.

If the Austrian train is cheaper then buy its tickets from them rather than the Hungarian company.

If it were me I would buy it from the Hungarian company MAV. If there is any issues later you can get them fixed in Budapest. Not sure why the Austrian tickets are 40 euro cheaper when the train to Vienna rarely costs more than 30 euro. I just picked a random day next week and checked both OBB and MAV and there were a few trains where the OBB was 4 euro cheaper, but a lot of trans were the MAV was 25 euro cheaper. Doesnt matter, deal with MAV. https://jegy.mav.hu/

Make sure to include a seat reservation. Don't be the 7 person family we had on our train who hadn't booked seats and (mostly) had to sit on the floor. There were two unreserved seats in our carriage and this family swapped around the entire trip. They ranged in age from a very small baby to grandparents in their 70s.

What I'm finding: October 11th with MAV, Keleti to Wien, €56 or €58, before seat reservation.

OBB €32.50 same route/day.

Interesting. I checked August, which is high season and it's a lot cheaper. Some are 17 euro. I would wait 60 days, don't worry, won't sell out, and check again. The ones I referenced im my first post were in early June (two weeks from now). I think MAV is guarding prices until the date gets closer. I suspect you will find 20 euro and less in 60 days.

Thank you. Will do! :-)

So I've been checking periodically and even as close as Oct 9th tickets start at €13, but my date of Oct 11th still shows all tickets €56 - €58. :-/

I just looked as well. Pretty interesting. The few dates i picked after 11 October were expensive. Every date prior to the less expensive. I cant help but believe that somewhere around October 11 is cut off point and lower prices will be released at a lower date? But a wild guess.

I just checked tickets from Salzburg to Budapest 14 September, same train, same date: MAV 37 euro, OBB 53 euro.

But the MAV price goes to 124 euro if I change the date to 12 October, the OBB prices only goes up to 59 euro.

Facinating. If I were you I would continue to wait. They arent going to sell out and there is a train every hour.

If the tickets are cheaper from ÖBB, I would buy them from ÖBB. Although October is still far away so there is no reason to stress out about it.

I've seen people claim that for international trains, you should buy the tickets from the operator in the originating country. I do not agree with that advice. There are two types of international trains operated by the big national companies. Trains that are operated by both companies together, and trains that are operated by one of the companies.

For the former, both companies will sell tickets. Buy your tickets from the company with the best price or the one whose website is more user friendly. For the latter, you don't have a choice, buy your tickets from the company that runs the train. Knowing which international train is which type takes a bit of experience and trial and error, but if you are unsure, you can always ask in this forum.

Then using Badgers advice, I think if you wait until MAV puts up their new prices you will find MAV is less expensive. Today I booked 2 tickets Budapest to Hallstatt and two from Salzburg to Budapest on MAV in September for about 125 euro. I did check the OBB prices and I saved almost 50%. The savings went a long way towards a private transfer from Hallstatt to Salzburg.

There was a post here a few years back where the OP had a OBB ticket from Budapest to Vienna. There was some sort of problem with the ticket, so they went to the MAV ticket office where they were told to call OBB. So...

It's become part of my daily routine now - morning coffee, check train tickets, still same price, try again tomorrow.

They won't sell out. I've seen this before. After your date the new fares haven't been calculated and published, so they toss up the worst case price.

Success! They're €13-€17 today. I can stop being impatient now.

Congrats!...

I just booked tickets from Budapest to Vienna on OBB. It says I need to print tickets for International travel. Is this actually necessary or can i present the electronic tickets? Thanks.

I have no idea with OBB. I've done a couple of international trips this year, one to Austria, on MAV tickets, and the MAV App was fine with the conductors. I did see a few folks with paper tickets on the train, but 90% were showing cell phones.

But I would do what the instructions say.

EDIT: I do remember years ago, that MAV wanted printed tickets for international travel. MAV will sell you a ticket if the train starts or ends in Hungary, but that made it impossible to buy a MAV ticket from Vienna to Budapest because the ticket didnt just have to be printed, it had to be "issued" as a paper ticket out of a machine in the Budapest train station. I remember the complaints about this. But it never crossed my mind in the past few years. I dont do international train travel often because Budapest to any place other than Vienna is a pretty long haul so I would rather fly.

EDIT, EDIT: I did some googling. I see a lot of conflicting information. One thing was repeated a few times. In your email you might have been offered three ways to get your ticket, PDF, pick up at a machine, or digital using the OBB app. Apparently once you choose one of the three you are locked in. Know that I am getting this third hand, so ...... Put the app on your phone and download your tickets. If they appear and there is no warning that you still need paper, I would go with that. But I am guessing, but its what i would do and it is consistent with what MAV does.