Eight train trips... too much? Is this trip possible by train?

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Hmm...greedy SNCF    imho, 8 euro (in your case it will be extra 2 euro per person) sounds kind of too much just for printing the ticket, but at least something.

1) How far out can you purchase Italian train tickets?  I thought it was 1-3 months out... looks like I was mistaken as tickets for July 3rd can be purchased now.

2) What does 0.00 mean for MINIs?  Please see this link.  Does it mean they've all been sold out?
http://gyazo.com/55258aa320b1904ec5d1be4bb8c2d16e
Or that they haven't been made available yet?

Looks like they've changed their site design.

Pete

How far out can you purchase Italian train tickets?  I thought it was 1-3 months out... looks like I was mistaken as tickets for July 3rd can be purchased now.

Actually with Italian railways it's a mess, it used to be that some trains were made available like 180 days (both regular fare and discounted), some 90. But now it seems that either they changing the system (thus some kind of technical limitation) or they start selling standard fare ticket for all >90 days (TrenItalia states about 4 month), that is why you see 'Base' (thus regular full fare) tickets available now for July). While at the same time MINI, as of now, are sold June 9 at latest (75 days in advance). Those Italians... 

Does it mean they've all been sold out? Or that they haven't been made available yet?

They can't be sold out, it's way to early. So our guess, it's TrenItalia messing with the system and MINI tickets should appear eventually. You can try yourself checking whether 'new' day will be available tomorrow, thus they keep 75 day rule for MINI.

Looks like they've changed their site design.

Yep, we didn't visit it for a few days and now it's like that ))) Visually looks ok, but I guess more testing should be done in order to tell whether changes to the best or not.

I discovered this on a website... the OLD and the NEW sites are running simultaneously, and I can only personally find the MINIs on the OLD site:

http://www.trenitalia.com/homepage_en.html

Actually they already kind of fixed the new version, now you can see MINI tickets for July there as well. Like for your date (July 3) there are 9 EUR tickets for 8:57am and 12:57pm trains, while for most of the other morning ones it's 19 EUR. It looks like TrenItalia just fixing problems with new version on the way, real life beta-testing 

By the way, what is your first name?  I'm Peter.

Where are you seeing the 9 Euro MINI fares?  Here is what I'm seeing on the new site... no MINIs anywhere is sight

http://gyazo.com/007bc33f65a947c14074e6284dfd9a81

Planning these trains is kinda like being a detective.

Where are you seeing the 9 Euro MINI fares?

You just need to enter 4 adults. That's probably just another system deficiency, it happens... but nobody forbids you to buy adult ticket for your child

  Planning these trains is kinda like being a detective.

Haha... that's not even the most complicated thing yet 

You beat me to it!!! I just discovered that by accident!
Thanks!
Pete

>> complicated

What is the most complicated thing?

Boy, I just had the most frustrating experience!!!  I had four 9euro tickets using the new site in my hot little hands... then when to look up something on another web page then they suddenly DOUBLED!  I thought, "That's it... I didn't strike then the iron was hot."

I spent the next 30 minutes frantically trying the old and new site... to new avail... they're loading/testing is crazy... I FINALLY was able to find the 9euros on the old site and purchased like a bullet!  I was sure I had lost the cheap fares... I guess I'm a bargain hunter and got really, really sad when they disappeared.

I had four 9euro tickets using the new site in my hot little hands... then when to look up something on another web page then they suddenly DOUBLED!  I thought, "That's it... I didn't strike then the iron was hot."

Don't worry that much, it's probably not about sold out MINI tickets, but again specificity of the system After choosing tickets, they get excluded from the system for X min., thus giving you the time to pay. Then when you somehow wait or use different browser, or hit forward and back etc. you might experience the situation when those from the previous session aren't available and at the same time there is no more additional MINI to 'substitute' (usually the number of tickets which cost 9 EUR is extremely low per train). As result, you need to wait a certain amount of time until tickets from your first sessions get back into system as those not payed, afterword you can again purchase them. Looks like your situation is somehow similar.

What is the most complicated thing?

Hmm... probably some tarifications in Central and Eastern Europe, when there is many different tariffs and discounts, almost no access to any tariff tables or online info + everything is usually in local languages, thus sometimes it gets a bit tricky with ones like Hungarian, Greek, Turkish, Cyrillic languages etc.

Just for the sake of information, a few days ago NTV (company planning to operate Italo high-speed trains in Italy) finally announced the starting date of their service - April 28. Fares and booking should be available since April 12.

We're altered our plans and we're probably going to travel from Interlaken to Venice.

I think I messed up.

I thought Swiss train tickets didn't go on sale until 30 days before.  It looks like international Swiss tickets go on sale much earlier.  Do you know when? 

Are there any options for inexpensive tickets on Friday 6-29?

Here is the best I can do right now, CHF 392:
http://gyazo.com/a0692fece0c576289a631431bd71e80d

Is it better to just buy those or to wait until one of their periodic sales?

I, again, really appreciate your help and wish I could buy you a cup of coffee (at least).

Pete

It looks like international Swiss tickets go on sale much earlier.  Do you know when?

It's not one month, but four in this case. Today the last day for which you can buy Switzerland-Italy discoutned ticket is September 7 

I think I messed up.

Don't worry, everything can still be fixed. It's just not as straight forward with routes like Interlaken-Venice

So, in case you ok with fixed date and train, then:

1) go to SBB ticket shop, under 'Travel to Europe' select not 'Tickets', but 'The lowest fare to direct connections to major cities' instead. It is place to find discounted tickets. And here starts the magic... since in your case (with departure 13:29) you anyway will need to change trains twice (in Spiez and Milan), it doesn't make sense to buy one through international ticket for almost 400 Swiss francs (that is full fare with a minor discount for children), but instead buy three separate tickets and save quite a lot. Thus in this part of SBB ticket shop you input Spiez-Milano Central (29/06, 14:05-16:38), this is what you should get

As you can see full fare on this segment is 55 CHF, while discounted tickets start from 23 CHF. Unfortunately for 14:05 those are already sold out, so only 36 CHF are left, but it's still a good catch (meaning 36*4 passengers=144 CHF)

2) Now we deal with Milan-Venice leg: cheapest option here will just not to bother with any ticket purchase, but already in Milan buy tickets till Venice for regional train departing 17:25 (arr.20:51). Three adult tickets (in Italy child fare <12 years) + one child will cost you only 62,25 euro (app. 75 CHF)

If you want a faster journey, then take 17:35-20:10 high-speed train, but full fare 3 adults + 1 child (as you can see on the picture above) cost 122,5 euro (that is full fare and what you pay at the station). Unfortunately for this 17:35 train all the discounted MINI offer tickets are already sold out (and almost no chance that will be available anymore), so with this departure you can't really travel any cheaper than 122,5 euro. The choice is yours, meaning whether arrival 40 min. later (20:50 instead of 20:10) worth 60 euro difference

3) Now the easiest part - Interlaken-Spiez. Since it's really short segment, just buy the tickets already in Interlaken, they will cost you only 31,2 CHF for all 4 (full adult fare is 10,4, while children get -50%) from Interlaken Ost or 29,4 CHF from Interlaken West (which is actually closer to town centre)

As result just by buying now tickets Spiez-Milan (while rest will be bought already in Switzerland and Italy) your whole family can travel Interlaken-Venice for as low as 250 CHF* instead of full fare 392 CHF (while keeping pretty much the same travel time and number of changes). Imho, not that bad to save almost 150 CHF in such situation  =)

* or even cheaper in case you ok taking earlier train from Spiez (meaning to depart from Interlaken at 7:29 in order to catch 8:05 train to Milan for which 23 CHF tickets are still available)