Problem with trainline.eu

I just tried a booking to Vernazza and got same message

When I made the destination La Spezia Centrale , it seemed happy to do that. You can buy the ticket to Vernazza at the La Spezia station. ( reservation not needed for that segment )

How much are you expecting to pay. I see 65.30 EUR for all-regionali itineraries taking 6 hours. Itineraries with Frecciabianca train to La Spezia (a bit more than 4 hours) are just a little more with Super Economy nonrefundable tickets, unless you want to arrive very late (10:39 pm for 47.80 EUR). I can hardly believe Trainline can find anything $50 cheaper.

Thanks Joe. It says it right there in the error message and I just didn't read carefully enough.

Sam...it was $25 per ticket and I am buying two so there was a $25 difference between the two sites, however, it was Italotrain, not Trentalia.
Thanks.

Lisa,

I'm trying to book two one-way tickets from roma to vernazza on October 19th. I carefully reviewed information I put in and also had someone else try on their computer. I could book through Trentalia (maybe) but its $50 more!

I just checked Trainline and there are several tickets available for your route and date.
I'm using Firefox as my browser.

When I check Trenitalia, I see the same tickets for the same price. The least expensive tickets are €23.90 departing Roma Termini at 6:05 ( too early for me!). The next time with the least expensive tickets is €32.65 departing Roma at 10:12, but this route includes two train transfers (Pisa & La Spezia)
If it were me, I'd probably choose to depart Roma Termini at 9:57 for €49.50 pp ( 2nd class with only one train change in La Spezia)

Is it possible you forgot to add a passenger when you checked on the Trainline website?

Have a wonderful trip!

Edited to add:
Hi Lisa, I was checking both websites and comparing prices and didn't see your reply until I posted my reply.
Hmmm... I don't see any tickets for $25pp on Trainline (Roma to Vernazza)

Yes, buy the tickets to La Spezia.

In addition, if you'll be hiking that same day(?), you'll need to buy a hiking pass anyway...and perhaps the Cinque Terre Treno card which covers hiking and unlimited trains that day. That would cover La Spezia to Vernazza. So if you can buy that card at the station in La Spezia, you would save a few bucks, too.

http://www.cinqueterre.eu.com/en/cinque-terre-card

A re-seller can't be cheaper than the company running the trains.

On trenitalia.com There are usually 2 possible explanations for this missunderstanding:

1. Trenitalia shows the price per group of travellers, not per person (I think this is often the case)
2. Trenitalia's site is programmed not to combine different discounted fares in the same purchase.

On italotreno.it it's easier: the discounted tickets you're trying to buy on the reseller's site aren't available anymore on the official one.

Actually...Sam and Dario, you are correct. The difference in $$ was due to one being completely non-exchangable and the other somewhat more flexible. My bad.

Its been a while since I traveled by train in Europe and I can't remember if its worth buying a first-class ticket. What do you get that you don't get with a second-class ticket? Can you reserve seats either way?

Italotreno only operates from Rome to Florence, then you have to connect on Trenitalia to Vernazza. Italo does have tickets Rome to Florence for 9.90 EUR per person for the the first 3 departures of the day, at 5:45, 6:15, and 6:45. But then you pay up to take a 2 connections with a Frecciabianca at 22.50 pp, or wait around for a connection with Regionali at 17.60 EUR per person. That makes it a 6 hour trip with 2 connections. So why not pay just a bit more and get there with a single connection in 4 hours.

Its been a while since I traveled by train in Europe and I can't
remember if its worth buying a first-class ticket. What do you get
that you don't get with a second-class ticket? Can you reserve seats
either way?

Lisa, we only travel 2nd class and it's been fine. Yes, for trains that travel "fast" routes, you will have reserved seats. You won't for regionale trains that go shorter routes, like virtually all of them from La Spezia into the CT. Regionales are not trains you want for long routes anyway as they're slower.

As Sam wisely pointed out above, it's well worth paying a little more to get somewhere faster and/or with fewer connections.

Thanks for all your answers and help. So...I am arriving in Rome and going straight to Vernazza and I think I should wait to buy the ticket in case there are delays on one side or the other. I've never been in Roma Termini. Is it easy to navigate and buy a ticket for La Spezia when I get there? Do these trains usually have availability?

Lisa, if you will have a working smart phone when you land, you can buy a ticket with a phone app (Trainline has one I think; I used the Trenit app to buy Trenitalia tickets). Otherwise, there are ticket machines at the various train stations that may or may not take your credit cards (my chip and PIN card worked last year but not my chip and signature credit cards; some claim success with them at the machines). You may even be able to buy the tickets at the airport train station for the whole journey.

If you are landing at FCO and traveling immediately, you really have no business buying advance nonrefundable train tickets. A late arriving plane will make your tickets worthless and have to buy new full fare tickets.

If you want to maintain flexibility at a low price, use Regionali. From the airport, it is 3 connections at Rome Trastevere, Pisa Centrale, and La Spezia for 79.50 EUR for 2. Yes, it does take 6 hours. You can buy those at the airport train station.

I guess its lucky for me that I had the difficulty I had buying the tickets yesterday since clearly that would have potentially been a costly mistake!
A far as the route from FCO to Vernazza...I think I'd rather pay a bit more for the tickets to reduce travel time. My understanding then is that the fastest route is through Termini and we need to get to termini from FCO via the Leonardo Express? And then buy the ticket for La Spezia when we get to Termini or via the app when we get to FCO?

You can buy tickets at the airport train station. It will take some time to buy at Termini, in which case you might miss a connection there.

Just to be clear, I can buy tickets for the trip from Termini to La Spezia at FCO? If so, will it clear where I need to go to buy them?

Haven't been to Rome in more than ten years, Lisa - can't remember anything about buying train tickets at FCO. But I used the Trenit app last year in northern Italy to buy train tickets on the fly as needed. If you'll have a working phone there, you won't have to worry about waiting in lines at the stations. You can install an app like Trenit (which may not work for Italo trains, only for Trenitalia) now and try it out, up to the point of actually paying for a ticket. Note that you may have trouble registering...which means you may have to buy tickets as a guest each time (which means entering your name and info each time, kind of a PITA).

I used Paypal to pay for my tickets using Trenit. If you think you'll do this, login to Paypal and remove the Dynamic Currency Conversion option as described here, if you use a credit card with Paypal that has no foreign transaction fees:

https://www.ogbongeblog.com/2016/10/cancel-paypal-dynamic-currency-conversion-dcc.html

Lisa,

The problem you're describing with Trainline is somewhat unusual. I suspect there's a logical reason for it, so you might contact their customer service and ask them for help. I've always found them to be very responsive and helpful. I'll try to do some further research on the problem when I'm back on a normal computer.

It's very easy to buy tickets at FCO. You'll see the ticket booths when you get to the airport rail station. There are also Kiosks. If you're travelling on either the Leonardo Express or the FL-1 (or whatever it's called these days), you MUST validate your ticket prior to boarding the train or risk hefty fines! Note that the FL-1 usually goes to Tiburtina.

Rather than buying your ticket to La Spezia, I'd suggest getting one to your final destination of Vernazza.

Good luck!

Ken,
The problem I was experiencing with booking through trainline.eu was that I was trying to book from Rome to Vernazza and you have to book from Rome to La Spezia as the trip to Vernaza involved more than one train (I was aware of that but didn't read the error message carefully to begin with). When I tried to it to La Spezia, I got to the point where I could put in my payment info. I didn't, however, actually purchase them because by that point I realized it wasn't a good idea to buy them before I actually get there!
Thanks for the info about purchasing tickets at the airport!

Uh oh. The reservation was not successful .

The above error comes when the sale is not started yet for the date from SNCF ,booking Thalys from train line.