Being an Italian myself, I want to know what you think of the new gimmick of that rail company. Many travelers on an Italian-specific transportation forum reported that now it is possible to find much more MINI discounted fares if you quote your tickets separately. For instance: you are travelling between Venezia and La Spezia (a trip requiring a change in Firenze). If you quote Venezia => La Spezia, you might well get higher fares than if you break down the ticket into Venezia => Firenze and Firenze => La Spezia, on the same trains, same class of service etc. This used to happen with trips involving regional trips, now it is confirmed that combinations of two or more LD trains have the same "issue" (cheaper to book separately). Are you used to try advanced search queries to save money, or does the "let's play the fare game" annoy you more than higher payments? Another change that might upset some travelers: it has been clarified that Trenitalia ticket staff is not obliged to offer you the cheapest fare, if you specifically don't ask for certain discounts (like the family summer promotion). This has lead to people, usually foreigners unaware of the "fare game", paying double the total costs.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
32704 posts
Andre Thanks for the heads up. I'm not completely surprised and certainly not shocked. I will check split journeys as well as through tickets. FYI, it is not only in Italy that splitting the journey works - sometimes in GB too.
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32198 posts
Andre L. Thanks for posting this information! I wasn't aware of this tactic. I'll be in Italy again in the fall, and I probably would have been overcharged as I didn't know about this.