Our family is heading to Italy soon. We fly into Milan, head to Rome , then to Florence, then to Venice, and then back to Milan. Should we purchase our tickets now? or wait until we arrive? Thank you in advance! You are all so helpful.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23666 posts
The only reason to purchase now (but it is good reason) is to take advantage of the discount tickets. But that will lock you into a schedule. Tickets are three levels - super economy, economy, base. Super economy can be very cheap but go quickly so need to be purchased about three months in advance to have a chance of getting one. SE has no refund, no change. Economy is the next level and numbers are limited as are the super economy but more of them and a bit easier to get. They can be exchanged at face value for a different ticket provided that the train has not left the station. And base fare is the standard fare and can be purchase anytime. All tickets, except Regionale trains, come with the required seat reservation. Regionale are open seating with no reservations possible.
Trains in Italy almost never sell out so the need to purchase in advance to get a seat is not great.
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
Maria, it's a very easy answer. Your four train journeys described above will most likely be on the Freccia fast trains. Seat reservations are required but they come with the purchase of the ticket from Trenitalia. Plan carefully, buy your tickets online 119 days before your travel date and you can save $197 per person at today's exchange rate. If you wait and buy tickets when you arrive in Italy, these savings will not be available and you will pay the regular base fare. This is why you buy in advance. It's your choice.
A family of four can save about $800 on the travel itinerary you described above. No tricks or gimmicks except that you must know your precise travel dates and times as you will be married to a specific train run on each journey. Thus, you are planning precisely four months out. Next, the Super Economy tickets are non-refundable and cannot be exchanged. Can you plan that well on where you will be on specific dates so that you can travel on certain trains? You do this for your plane tickets - you can do this for your train journeys.
The one big thing you must do if you want these kinds of savings and you can work with the firm travel dates is to buy 119 days in advance of the travel date. For your Rome/Florence and Venice/Milan journeys, you can slide a bit and buy 105 to 110 days in advance. If you wait longer, the Super Economy tickets will be gone and the special discounts jump 10Euro per ticket as the Super Economy tickets are limited per run and will mostly be gone. I looked at the Milan/Rome run and 115 days out, the Super Economy tickets were mostly gone after being available for 4 days. And, why not. You can get an 86Euro ticket for 19Euro. That's a savings of about 77%.
Here's the basic fares and Super Economy fares:
Milano Centrale to Roma Termini - Base Fare 86Euro. SE Fare 19Euro
Roma Termini to Firenze SMN - Base Fare 43Euro. SE Fare 19Euro
Firenze SMN to Venezia Santa Lucia - Base Fare 45Euro. SE Fare 19Euro
Venezia Santa Lucia to Milano Centrale - Base Fare 37.50Euro. SE Fare 9Euro.
These fares and schedules are good until about June 12, 2014. After that date, you will need to wait until Trenitalia refreshes their schedules sometime in April or May. If you need any further assistance in planning on how to lock in these fares, let us know.
Posted by
OP
8 posts
Thank you Larry. We leave in 3 weeks. Based upon your comments, I am thinking of waiting until we get to Italy.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23666 posts
At this time there could be some economy seats on less desirable trains - early AM or late PM and evenings. You can always go to trenitalia.com and check the fares. If you decide later those tickets can always be traded in on the new tickets prior to the train departure of the original tickets. Even base or full fare tickets are no good once the train has left the station. This is a change in policy from a few years ago when you had an hour or so after the train had departed to get new tickets.
Posted by
Green Bay
21370 posts
A quick run through the trenitalia site shows there are still a few savings opportunities, especially Florence-Venice and Venice-Milan. There are some 2 for 1 tickets and some economy tickets. Ironically, the non prime time tickets are in the mid day period. Everyone wants to travel first thing in the morning or at the end of the day.
So if you have an extra 100 euro rattling around in your pocket, buy at the spur of the moment.