we would like to purchase a single one-way train ticket for Italy while still here in the US.
What if we, for whatever reason, miss our specific train. Is my ticket now worthless & must I now purchase a new one at the station?
Could I go online at anytime before the train time and change my ticket?
Thank you for any response to this,
Robert
I presume you are talking about the high speed trains (Frecciarossa, Frecciargento, Frecciabianca).
It depends on the fare you purchase:
1. Super-Economy fare: These offer the highest discounts, with tickets as low as 9 euro. These fares start selling 120 days prior to travel day and disappear quickly since only few seats are sold at this fare. Once you book a train at this fare, you can't change it or get a refund if you don't take the specific train you book. You are out of luck and you lose your money.
2. Economy fare: These offer a lower discount, but they also disappear quickly as only a limited number of seats per train are sold at this fare. The travel time/train can be changed but you have to pay the difference with the full Base price and a fee. You must do so prior to the departure time. No refund allowed, you can only change the time of departure on a different train or even a different itinerary, but can't get your money back if you want to cancel your trip totally.
3. Base fare: This is the full fare. If you pre-purchase at this fare, you can change the reservation or even get a full refund if you need. You can buy at this fare also at the station, the same day or the day before. It's very rare that a train sells out all seats, so the Base fare is always available. At most they run out of the 2nd class (aka 'standard' class in the Frecciarossa) on some popular routes in the morning (like Rome to Florence), in which case you might have to buy a higher class or wait for the next train 1 hour later. Later in the morning and in the afternoon they never sell out any class.
http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en/Offers/Our--prices/Our-prices
If you take a Regional train, then there are no discounts and there is no reason whatsoever why you should buy them ahead of time from the US. Just buy them there. They are like bus tickets. Just stamp them before boarding and they are valid for 4 hours till your destination. No seat reservations, if it's full you just stand up (like a bus or the NY subway).
So tell us where you are going (from where to where and when exactly) and we can probably give you better advice.
I think too many times people (maybe new travelers) really have some unrealistic anxiety over these specific timed train tickets. Phrases like "locked in" or "non flexible" or "what if I missed my train". It's just not that big of a deal. Traveling all over Europe for more years than i can even count I know exactly how many trains I've missed with my non-flexible, locked in, prepurchased tickets...exactly ZERO.
If you prepurchase one of those super discounted bargain fares and "miss your train" - then why worry?? You've wasted maybe 10 or 20 Euro? That's the cost of 3 or 4 gelatos. Not a big deal.
But again, I've missed exactly ZERO of my bargain fare trains in 20+ years of travel. You already know the date and time of your specific train so there's really not a good reason to miss it. Now of course emergencies I understand are out of your control - but I've also had zero of those on my trips.
Probably best not to buy a super-economy ticket for the day your flight arrives, in case of delays.
rob,
As Roberto mentioned, it will be easier to provide more specific information if you could provide more details.
The answers to your question will depend on.....
