Afternoon all, my family are going to Italy next year and need to know how many days on an Interrail pass they're going to need. I'll be using a FIP coupon. I get the impression that certain services are excluded from either or both types of pass. If someone has knowledge of these restrictions then I'd be very grateful as it will enable us to make decisions on whether to bother using a day on our passes or if it would be better to buy public rate Advances for certain journeys.
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Interrail and FIP validity in Italy
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This is the most recent version of the Rail Staff Travel document for Europe. Pages 80-84 for Italy - Note Trenord is not covered
I believe that for high speed services there is a reservation fee/supplement of £8.50 per person for 2nd class, or about double that for Premium if you have a 1st class pass.
Interrail requires a reservation of around €13 per person on high speed services. I believe best booked on the Austrian (OBB) site oebb.at/en/ - rather than clicking seat reservation, click one way tickets, and apply the Interrail/Eurail Globalpass discount
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AFAIK the FIP supplements are usually the price difference between regional trains and the full long-distance fare for your train. They're only available via a Trenitalia ticket office. Or maybe by phone.
Valid on all Trenord trains, except for Malpensa Express trains from Milan to Malpensa Airport.
Are travel agents able to issue them? The RST document implies that some can.
Thanks
I would be surprised if there isn't any option to get one from a travel agent - some of the ones listed at the following page will be a good place to start: https://www.seat61.com/european-train-tickets-by-phone.htm
Annoyingly you may need to go through one by one manually enquiring to be certain. Unfortunately you'll also need to check or ask them about delivery fees too, as these could be substantial (though of course that does not mean not worthwhile).
www.internationalrail.com can issue tickets on a Trenitalia TIS. You may be able to collect tickets from Ffest Travel in person?
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Maybe they can, I never tried; you could try International Rail. RDG suggest to mail them.
I use International Rail at sales@bookmyrst.co.uk
Decent for consultation before booking, and make sure to make the final request for all your trains together so you only pay the booking fee once (either €10 or £10, can’t remember)
Google Maps suggests they do offer in person sales: https://maps.app.goo.gl/fdspAbC7TMyKWGyz8 depending on if you were nearby!
I usually use Ffestiniog Travel so I'll email them soon - best to get ahead as I'm aware that they're short-staffed at the moment. What booking horizons are used by Trenitalia? At least one journey will be on the ICN to Palermo.
Four months is the norm for Frecciarossa but shorter may apply to the other reservation compulsory classes of train. If you search on https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html you might find public rate tickets for the train you want which reveals when they've opened until. I do not know if the FIP would come from a dedicated bucket loaded differently to the usual seats.
They publish timetables and open bookings whenever they feel like it. High-speed trains first, night trains (especially the ones to Sicily) and regional trains last.
There are 3: 2 from Rome, 1 from Milan. the late one from Rome is still missing from 15/12.
And it might be worth paying discounted public Advance fares on these rather than the supplements.
AlastairFraser
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Those on the Interrail also have the option of booking via RailEurope, which I found easier last time I had to book Italian interrail reservations. OBB wouldn't let me for some reason, and Trenitalia's own site was a nightmare to navigate.
Trenitalia stopped selling pass reservations on their website a number of years ago, quoting "fraud" as the reason, like SNCF and Eurostar.
ÖBB sometimes have a problem for (seemingly) random trains when there's a mismatch between the timetable they have (via MERITS) and the timetable in Trenitalia's reservation system. That will sometimes correct itself when Trenitalia can be bothered to send the correct data to MERITS and ÖBB to load it in their booking module (which gets less frequent or later updates than their timetable planner). Rail Europe seems to have a direct connection with Trenitalia, so there's no timetable mismatch. Rail Europe also has the advantage they are an agent for Trenitalia and issue reservations directly from the Trenitalia system, and changing reservations is then easier: you can also load it in the Trenitalia app and change it there. You can also do seat selection via Rail Europe for an extra €2.
AlastairFraser
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Ah, I wondered why I had an issue with Trenitalia last time.
Yes, I agree that Rail Europe makes it easiest.
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