Train from Vienna to Salzburg in July

I think the 19 euro ticket sounds like a good fare. I don't know if that fare would still be available the day of travel or not. Hopefully someone else will be able to answer that. Another option if you wanted more flexibility would be to take the Westbahn from Vienna to Salzburg. It takes 2.5 hours and costs 25 euro. No advance reservations are required. You can just buy the ticket the day you're leaving at the station or on the train. www.westbahn.at

Thanks - yes, I think it was a good price too. I ended up buying it. I guess these SparSchiene tickets are like 'early bird' tickets with some discounted prices.

I think the SparSchiene tickets are discounted because you must commit to a train at a specific time and they are non-refundable if you miss it. Also, the departure times are apparently limited. I recently looked at point to point SparSchiene vs. a flexipass (5 days in one month) for an upcoming trip, and the point to point SparSchiene tickets were the much cheaper option. I would assume the number of SparSchiene seats are not unlimited, so if you know your schedule and are willing to commit, I see no problem buying them in advance, which is what I plan to do. Plus, it's one less thing to deal with later on. Lastly, the reason for a lack of prices for the Railjet is that perhaps it is more than 90 days ahead of when you would be traveling, so they are not yet available.

I can see RailJet prices on both the Austrian Rail website (www.oebb.at) and the German Rail (Bahn) website, but only the Austrian site offers discounted (Sparshiene) fares. And yes, Sparschiene fares are advance purchase discounted fares with limited refundability. They go on sale in tiers, with the lowest priced ticket selling first. After the lowest priced tickets sell out, the price goes up.