What time of day are Trenitalia tickets released?

Lola,

I believe the "official" release time is midnight, so tickets for 3 October should be available by this afternoon.

Unless something has changed in the last couple of months, the tickets release 120 days to the minute before the train is due to depart.

I think I am correct as I have just checked and tickets for 2 October are available at this moment for all services except the later evening services.

Maybe check at midnight Italian time but when I booked in March I had to wait until 120 days to the minute. As the day progessed tickets came online for the services.

And I have also just looked at your chosen route. There are supeconomy tickets available on numerous services throughout the day on 2 October. They are far from sold out.

Yes---they are showing up now for Oct. 2, but I could swear they were not earlier. But maybe I was looking at Oct 1. . . .

I will check just after midnight (Italy time) just in case. If they are not there, I will keep checking back. The train we want departs a little after noon, so if that is the release time I won't be up to book just then (3 am where I am). But I do wake up early and will try that.

Thanks for your help.

Lola,

I also saw tickets for 2 October when I looked at the time I posted my earlier note. You had indicated that "Super Economy tickets were already gone" on 2 October, so I assumed you had also seen them. At the time I'm writing this, tickets for 2 October are available up to about 17:00.

Not sure if you're aware of this, but you can also by Trenitalia tickets at www.capitainetrain.com (very easy purchasing!).

Keep checking!

Just to add to the mystery - I had checked for some super economy tickets 120 days out and everything except 2nd class super economy was available when the tickets first became available. Then, about 24 hours later, they were available also.

Go figure.

Tickets were released at midnight butbI keep getting an error code after choosing the seats and pushing "confirm". Should Imtry without logging in, or maybe try a different computer? Is there any issue with purchase without logging in?

Depends on the error code but the one I got was because of my credit card with an international charge. I used another card no problem. This happened today.

I googled the error code after the fact and that's how I realized what had happened.

The error code is 418. It says to the effect that, "Sorry, the transaction cannot be completed now. Try again later."

I have tried with and without logging in, with and without choosing our own seats, and in both English and Italian. The screen comes up well before the payment page, so it is not a credit card issue.

Could it be a Mac issue? I could try from out old PC, but it is sooooo slow.

I was waiting to buy tickets in May for September and I got the same error code. The next day, no more 418 error code and I was able to buy my tickets.

Yes, I am giving up and will try again tomorrow. It seems to be a website problem, but the Super Economy seats on one of the two trains I was looking at disappeared while I was trying all options, so someone must be getting through.

Lola,

Try booking using Capitaine Train as it's a more user friendly website and uses the same data system as Trenitalia. That may (or may not) work.

Thank you, Ken. I will try that tomorrow, along with another go at Trenitalia. And I also checked Rail Surope which is not all that bad-–- $46 for the same seats that Trenitalia offers for €38. not a huge markup. But the purchase could not be completed there either---got another error message.

This is so unexpected as I have had no trouble purchasing on Trenitalia in the past.

I guess I will just get up early tomorrow and try again!

I still think I am right. I can do a dummy booking all the way to payment for tickets before 11am on that day (the currrent time in Italy) but not for after 11am. For after 11am I get the error code. I think the website shows prices from midnight but you cannot book until it is 120 days to the minute. This was definitely the case in March when I booked. I could not book until the exact time was reached.

That would certainly explain it, mph. But the Super Economy tickets on the 12:05 train did disappear before that time, so who knows.

I got up at 5:00 this morning to try again. This time I got past the error message, had two Super Economy seats in the cart, and proceeded to the payment page. After entering my details and hitting "confirm", a new message popped up saying there were not enough seats, so I could not purchase them.

However. . . I noticed on the opening page that there is a 2-for-1 special on Saturday tickets. Our travel date is a Saturday, so I went in through that link and got the two seats on the train I really wanted (the 12:05) for €51 instead of €38. Not bad, especially since I was able to book the connecting regional train from Varenna to Milan on the same ticket. I like to arrive in Varenna with a departure ticket in hand. I know they can be purchased from the travel agent there, but this way we can skip that extra step.

I seem to recall something about how the tickets are tied to the time of day where you and your computer are. This makes for a rolling release, giving the Italians (and other Europeans in that time zone) first dibs. But I can't remember where I read that.