I am having difficulty booking train tickets from Oslo to Bergen in early Sept on the nsb website. It does not want to accept my credit cards. Is anyone else experiencing this problem? Help please, thanks!
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
That has been the case for several years, that you must have Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode, although I thought I just heard better news. Maybe the news was that they would accept PayPal. You can also book by phone, during regular European hours: https://www.nsb.no/en/about-nsb/contact-us/do-you-have-a-question. And if you haven't already, try calling your bank, in case they have a fix.
Posted by
OP
18 posts
Thanks. Laura. Think I will use PayPal & hopefully have success!
Posted by
43 posts
We called them from USA and booked tickets. it was a very brief call if you know what you want - dates, comfort class? which side of train (We recommend left side if going from Oslo to Bergen.) It's a wonderful trip. Julia
Posted by
Atlanta, Georgia
60 posts
I ran into the same problem earlier this year. Ultimately used PayPal successfully.
Posted by
OP
18 posts
Thanks, Julia & Southern Lights. Ultimately had success using PayPal!
Posted by
Atlanta, Georgia
60 posts
Glad to hear it worked out! If you have the time and inclination after your trip, I'd welcome hearing about how it went.
Posted by
Denver, CO, USA
1601 posts
Wanted to post some observations booking train tickets from Flam to Oslo. Tried the website and ran into the usual issue with US issued credit cards. Called the help line in Norway and found out that what I was seeing on the booking website is different from what the agents saw in their system. Specifically it seems that the Flamsbana tickets (between Flam and Myrdal) sells their tickets through different channels. It so happened that the exact train I wanted was available online (4 tickets) but the agent only had access to 2 remaining tickets in her system.
Because I had read the Rick's advice on not stressing about tickets on the Flamsbana, I went ahead and booked just the Myrdal to Oslo leg and got the agent to process it via a credit card. She also mentioned that I should try the Visitflam website and try booking the Flamsbana tickets there.
I gave it a shot and it did show availability for the train I wanted but would only give me round trip and not one way tickets. I tried a few different times and even different browsers but could not get it to sell me a 1 way ticket.
In the end I went back to the nsb website and got the tickets but had to use paypal in order for the payment to go through.
In summary, it was interesting finding out that different channels had different availability of tickets.