I recently purchased euro night tickets on the Trenetalia website. The confirmation says the transaction was self-service and I am required to get the tickets at a self-service station in Italy. The problem is I am traveling from Vienna to Italy - I am not sure that I will be able to get the actual ticket in Vienna. I am not able to contact Trenetalia. Any advice?
Posted by
Toledo, Ohio, US
11613 posts
I don't know why you can't contact Trenitalia, they have a phone line for customer service and agents speak English. Keep in mind the time difference.
Try contacting RailEurope to see if you can pick up the ticket at one of their boutiques in Vienna, if they have one. I did this for a ticket with a short connection in Paris (picked up the TGV ticket in Brussels). RailEurope will charge you a fee for this service (I paid €10), but it's really helpful.
Posted by
Pa and Italy
4152 posts
You cannot pick up the tickets outside of Italy as far as I know.. You should contact trenitalia if you bought from them.
Donna
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Thanks, I purchased my ticket directly from Trenetalia, did you? I called RailEurope they said they couldn't help. I
have tried to call Trenetalia, I will try that again during the week.
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32345 posts
vc,
That's an awkward situation and it would have been better to purchase the tickets using a slightly different method. As you've already bought them, that limits your options. What is your destination in Italy? It's unlikely that you'll get any help from Trenitalia for this type of situation.
As you're starting in Vienna, ÖBB should be able to provide tickets from there to the first stop in Italy (Verona Porta Nuova?). When you arrive there, you may have to go to a Kiosk to retrieve the tickets for the Italian portion of your trip. That may be a problem depending on the length of layover at that station.
More specific information on your trip would be helpful.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
Sorry to hear about your problem, and I hope you can get it resolved.
For the future, and for anyone else reading this: unless you have a specific reason to do otherwise, you should always buy train tickets from the country where your trip originates - for just this reason. Unless you are sure you can print the tickets at home, you can be stuck.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
When I have looked at other international tickets on the Trenitalia site, such as from Switzerland to Italy, the type was small but an early step of the purchase process did specify that tickets could only be picked up in an Italian train station. IF your ticket type allowed any refund, then continue to try to work through Trenitalia's contact options to get your refund. If not, you'll just be buying a new ticket through OEBB (or Rail Europe, but they don't have the advance-discount offer on the base fare).
Posted by
14 posts
Good you are catching this now. We had a similar situation and were told when the conductor came around that the tickets we purchased through Trenitalia were invalid. We departed from Innsbruck Austria and it was an OBB train. We ended up having to rebuy on the train from OBB. A previous responder has it right. Be sure to buy your ticket from the train company that serves the country you are departing from. This happened to several other people on our same train. It would be nice if there were some sort of message that popped up on the website to inform you of something like this when you are attempting to buy them elsewhere.