cmcc

I'v made repeated attempts to book tickets from the US in order to take advantage of the Mena30 (15 day advance) discount mentioned on another thread. Each time my request is denied, without indicating why.

I've tried multiple cards, lowering privacy settings, but no luck.

Has anyone else encountered this problem?

Alice11

What are route, card type and error message?
anyway, perahps 3 problems:
>some route cannot be purchased online, eg some FCO-X route.
>Some credit cards are not accepted, eg Amex not issued in Italy.
>I've the impression that promo fares with limited seat inventory show up even though they cannot be actually purchased, eg because the related seats are sold out, so you start the booking process, but you cannot complete the purchase.

roder

Yes, it's an absolute disaster. I tried booking a few months ago, and after about 30 attempts, decided to give up. I was already past the discount window (I don't remember if it was a 30 day or 15 day advance purchase) so I just bought my tickets when I got to Italy.

I seem to remember there being issues specifically with American Express Cards, but we also tried Visa and Mastercards and nothing seemed to work.

If you are staying at a Hotel in Italy, I would recommend calling the concierge and seeing if they can call a local travel agent to book the tickets for you. If you have a Visa Signature Card or Amex Plat; you can also call their concierge services to assist in booking.

Good Luck--- you will need it!

cmcc

The route is Roma -Venizia St Lucia, the cards I tried are DC, Visa, and MC. I enter the card infomation in each case, but then the error says "Denied" without explaining why.

I've tried with and without middle initial, several different times, but no luck.

I'll try again on another day, maybe the problem is intermittent.

JeebusSaves

I was banging my head against the wall with no luck at all, also trying to book tickets through Trenitalia. I also tried asking the Visa Signature Concierge (free if you have a Visa Signature card), and they said it couldn't be done.

However, I was able to buy one ticket after I registered one of my credit cards with Mastercard Securecode. For some banks, you can do this from mastercard.com - there may be a link there that's specific to each bank. For Capital One, it was a sketchy-looking site on securesuite.net but it worked once I registered. I went through the regular process on the Trenitalia website. After putting in my card number it prompted me for the Securecode, and then it went through - I have a receipt and everything.

Then I tried it again for another train and it didn't work. So YMMV. I'm going to try again later, and call Capital One if it still doesn't go through.

There's a similar program called Verified by Visa that might also work, but from what I can tell the only way to register your card for it might be to buy something from another online store that participates (there's a list on visa.com). But depending on your bank it might be possible to register for that directly with your bank too.

And if none of that works, on other forums I've read that if you have an Amex card you can contact an American Express Travel office in Italy and they will book the tickets for you by phone or over email.

I hope some of that helps.

BamaVol

Using my cards recently on Amazon.com, I was forced to acquire Verified status for at least a couple of them, which proved to be a PITA since i was in the middle of a move and didn't want my books shipped to my old address which was the one the banks had.

BamaVol

I ended up using the ticket machines in the station for yesterdays foray from Rome to Naples. I had no problem getting the machines to accept cash outbound and a magnetic credit card inbound. Of course, that meant the discounts were not available, but it was more important to maintain flexibility and I did not think the trip was too expensive.

On an other note, the train station in Naples is a mess with destruction/construction/reconstruction all over the place. I can't say I was impressed with the Metro there either. Broken ticket machines and no actual human ticket seller at the Museo station was a bit of frustration.

bdemaria

I love Naples, its a fascinating/intense city w/a very rich history -but what you've described above is not at all unusual. My favorite part: when traffic is really bad, Neapolitans simply get out of their cars, leave them on the highway and walk off; thereby making the traffic all the worse.

Alice11

Trenitalia implemented a new payment gateway: Unicredit.
Hopefully they sorted out some problems!

silentbob1974

Does this mean that U.S. credit cards now work?

3544quebec

Australian ones certainly do not

dominick

Just bought a ticket on my Cdn-based visa. Hadnt tried it before, but my sister who has the same card was previously declined earlier this year.

cmcc

It's great that they may finally be figuring out how to make foreign credit cards to work, but it's too late for me to get the discounts they were offering. I hope to return, maybe it will be ready then.

ShopAround

If that means U.S. credit cards now work, this is great news!

silentbob1974

I managed to purchase tickets successfully using my Capital One Mastercard over the weekend!