“Ticketless” and PNR Codes on Trenitalia

Many travelers are confused about the process of purchasing tickets online from Trenitalia. If you can get your credit card to work, and that has been much better online since November 2010, the process is quite easy. When you purchase online for the faster trains, like the Eurostar Italia, Eurostar City Italia, Eurostar Italia Alta Velocità , Eurostar Italia Alta Velocità Fast, Intercity (IC), and IC Notte ed Espressi trains, you can buy about 120 days in advance – unless Trenitalia is going through the price changes that occur in mid-June and mid-December.

Then, your buying timeframe will be determined by when they upload the “new” prices into the computer. You may have to be patient as the schedules sometimes load slowly. For example, you may find yourself in May unable to buy a July ticket… Patience, they will eventually be uploaded!

You can also purchase tickets for the Regionale or local commuter trains online, but only seven days in advance. That’s why you’ll not see prices for these tickets on the Trenitalia website if you’re looking 60 days down the road. They only post prices for the 7-day time-frame. Since these trains have open seating – thus never sell out – there’s really not too often a visitor would pre-purchase tickets for these trains. Once in Italy, you can “pre-purchase” Regionale tickets at any train station. That’s because a Regionale ticket is good for two months, or until you validate the ticket in one of those yellow boxes!

The buying process for a Regionale ticket is a little different than the higher speed trains. In this article, we’re going to focus on the PNR code – which is in the email you get from Trenitalia once you make a purchase for those faster,  non-Regionale trains. For detailed info on the process of buying tickets online, read Booking on the Trenitalia Website.

The PNR Code – What is it? 

Okay, so you’ve purchased your tickets online at the Trenitalia website. (Again, for more help on the purchasing process, see the posting,  Booking on the Trenitalia Website). How do you prove that the seats on that train to Florence are yours – or that you even bought tickets? And where the heck are my tickets?

All those questions will be answered in the email you’ll get from Trenitalia – so make sure during the purchasing process you entered the correct email address if you’re a non-registered user. This email will come from the Trenitalia [webmaster@trenitalia.it]. The subject line in the email should read: Your Trenitalia Ticket. The email usually comes within 5-10 minutes of your booking. I’ve had no problems receiving these emails through my provider but you might check your junk mail box if you don’t see it within a few minutes. Again, it depends on YOUR email settings.

I’ll use one of the emails I received for this example. I have changed the names and code numbers for this posting. I’ve also disabled the links back to their site in their note as this is a valid purchase. The email reads as follows:

Dear John Smith,

This is to confirm you that you have successfully completed the purchase of the following travels:

Journey summary

Train: ES Italia AV  9425   date 17/10/2011
Departure: Venezia S. Lucia (time: 18:27);
Arrival: Firenze S. M. Novella (time: 20:30)
Carriage: 5; Place: 95, 96, 97 (Mandatory reservation) ;
Fare: MINI: 2^ FA AV ; 1 Adults; CP reservation change code (CP): 622927;
Fare: MINI: 2^ FA AV ; 1 Adults; CP reservation change code (CP): 622928;
Fare: MINI: 2^ FA AV ; 1 Adults; CP reservation change code (CP): 622929;
Booking code (PNR): YNZYUZ
Master code: 472522251984
Price: EUR 66.00
Pick up procedure: Ticketless
Ticket holder: John Smith

Caution: You made a purchase without being registered.
With the information in this mail, through this this link You can access the
functionality display purchase, exchange and refund reservation.
If you want to enjoy all the services available to customers registered for use and reuse this for your next purchase, complete the registration click here.
If you need to resend this message click here and use the following code
recovery Number 193320

You can see that you do get a tremendous amount of information in this email. You get your route, the type of train you booked, the train number, the carriage and seat numbers, and your departure and arrival times and locations. Below this is your FARE info, your PNR code, and Master Code. Next to the FARE info for each ticket is a unique CP code. This CP code, specific to each ticket, is what you would use if you need to CHANGE your booking, if necessary.

The PNR code is… your ticket. This is all you’ll need to board the train. With the email there are also two attachments. One allows you to add this booking to your calendar. I drop my bookings on Outlook each time I make a purchase. The other is a PDF file. At the bottom of the email is a note: To view the payment receipt, you need Acrobat Reader. When you open this attachment with a PDF reader, you get this:

To see a larger view, click on the photo above or this link, A Trenitalia Online-Purchase Emailed Receipt

This is the page you need to bring on the train with you. It will be your ticket! Many Italians simply send this email and attachment to their Smartphone and when the conductor comes around to check their ticket, they simply show this page on the phone – with the PNR code. I’m not that Smartphone-capable yet (and what do you do if your phone battery dies)… so I just carry this page. That’s what I would suggest to you.

Looking closer at this page, here’s the top section. Again, you see the same information as laid out in the email, although much easier to read. The red 1 tells you the route, date, and time of departure. The red 2 denotes the type of train and train #. The red 3 tells you the class of service (I chose 2nd class), the train car you’ll be in and the seats where you’ll be seating, I used the Le Frecce site when booking this and selected all my seats to be together.

The yellow 4 is the most important piece of info on this sheet. It’s the PNR code we talked about that you’ll give to the conductor to prove you paid… You can just tell them the number (I still like carrying the page!). You could use this code and the name at the bottom of the page (Smith in this case) and print out an actual ticket at a train station kiosk, but that’s not necessary. The PNR code is your ticket to ride!

On the bottom section, the red 5 reflects the CP Codes for each ticket. If you enter names and other info when purchasing, or if you’re a registered user, those names will be placed next to each ticket on this form adjacent to the CP Codes. IT IS NOT REQUIRED to do this and you can see that I have not.

As you can see from this receipt (ticket), I paid 22€ each for my tickets using the MINI discount. The BASE price is 43€ for this route each so I saved almost 50% per ticket. If you can do the fixed schedule (on this evening we’re heading to a late dinner in Florence and spending a few days), then you can certainly take advantage of the MINI discounts.

Further info on the Ticketless Solution

If you go to the Trenitalia website, you can get more info on riding the rails without a ticket. Here’s an abridged edition of their posting with some comments added in italics:

Ticketless is the purchasing solution that lets you board your train without having to pick up a printed train ticket. It operates for all trains requiring seat reservations both in 1st and 2nd class as well as for the Couchette, Wagon Lits and Excelsior services. Ticketless tickets can be bought conveniently on the Trenitalia website, by calling the call center (+39 06 68475475), or from the certified travel agencies – thus avoiding waiting times for purchasing at the self-service kiosks or buying at the Train Station Trenitalia service counters. For on-line purchases you will be sent an email of purchase confirmation with all the information necessary for your journey.

With the Ticketless Solution, printed tickets are not issued. You can choose whether to obtain a payment receipt by email or on the train. If you have opted for payment receipt by email, it will be emailed to the account you have given. This is what I did and the method I would recommend during the purchase process. As a traveler, you want your proof-of-purchase upfront

When on the train you will have to either present the printed payment receipt (the attachment example above) or simply tell your Booking Code PNR to the on-board personnel. If you have chosen to receive the receipt on board, you must show our staff the e-mail confirmation received from Trenitalia, or tell our staff your the Booking Code (PNR). They will then be able to issue you your payment receipt.

On request you can also receive a text message on your mobile summarizing the transaction. Please note: with ticketless tickets you cannot travel by the regional or international trains (except for the Cisalpino ones but only on routes in Italy); in this case, the on-board staff will have to deal with you as if you had no ticket. Again, the Regionale or local commuter train tickets have a different method of purchasing online. If you DID purchase these tickets online, you would get a PDF that serves as your ticket and you would HAVE TO bring that print-out. It serves as your ticket and locks you into that specific Regionale or local train. Buying a Regionale or local commuter train ticket at the train station gives you two months to use it and on ANY of those routes, any day, any time during that two-month period!

If you like, you can Pick up tickets at the stations, and a print-out of these tickets is free. You can print out your tickets up until the train departs. In those train stations with the newer kiosks, you can use these self-service machines to print your tickets. You can also pick up tickets at a Trenitalia service desk – if you can find one open and don’t mind waiting in line.

To print out tickets at a self-service machine, you must have the PNR booking code you received via e-mail after your on-line purchasing and the surname used when buying the tickets (In our example above it was SMITH, as you saw on the email and the attachment). On the screen of the self-service kiosk, select the “Internet” button and follow the simple issuing procedure. As you can see in a photo of the newest version of the kiosks (at least current with the date of this article), to get your tickets you would could select COLLECT YOUR TICKET  or PRINT & CHANGE BOOKING… and not “Internet.” The Trenitalia website text has not been updated as of this article.

After checking the PNR code against their on-board list, the on-board personnel will issue a payment receipt (at no charge) or if you don’t need/want a receipt, they will simply register your presence. If you have lost or forgotten your payment receipt or the PNR code, you will be considered as being without a ticket and thus have to pay for one ticket plus the applicable fine.

Exceptions: It is possible to buy tickets with the ticketless procedure on the Cisalpino trains, but only for the domestic journeys . You can purchase ticketless tickets for Eurostar Italia, Eurostar Italia Fast, Eurostar City Italia, Eurostar Italia Alta Velocità , Eurostar Italia Alta Velocità Fast, Intercity, and IC Notte ed Espressi. The following trains are excluded: Eurocity, EN, Intercity international, Express International and Regional trains.

So, as you can see, this is an easy process – and with your PNR code or print-out, you can ride the trains without a ticket! Good luck with your train experience in Italy!

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Header Photo: Trenitalia ETR500 AV Frecciarossa on bridge, by Maurizio Boi