Jlewis

Last year we went round Italy by rail and were able to buy Family rail
tickets for all of our journeys rather than paying for full individual
Standard Rate tickets.

Looking at the Italian Railways website (http://www.trenitalia.com/en/
index.html) this year, it looks like the only way to get a budget/
family ticket is to sign up for a (free) Cartaviaggio Pass card, but
this then only appears to be available to residents of Italy with the
card being posted to their address in that country.

Is this correct?

Or are there other types of ticket other than the Standard Rate
tickets available to non-Residents?


Regards,

John

Jlewis

In addition, their enquiries telephone number (89 20 21) does not
appear to be available from the UK, i.e. 0039 89 20 21 does not work.

Is there another number that can called to get through to their
information centre fwhen calling from outside the country?

Piero

jlewis ha scritto:
> In addition, their enquiries telephone number (89 20 21) does not
> appear to be available from the UK, i.e. 0039 89 20 21 does not work.

I's an high priced number (like 1-900 numbers in USA), that together
with toll free numbers are not available outside the country they are in.
I don't know other numbers: if they have, also Italians (like me) can
call them and dial cheaper calls, so they don't publish them :-(.

Ciao, Piero.

Alan Harrison

"Piero" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> jlewis ha scritto:
>> In addition, their enquiries telephone number (89 20 21) does not
>> appear to be available from the UK, i.e. 0039 89 20 21 does not work.
>
> I's an high priced number (like 1-900 numbers in USA), that together with
> toll free numbers are not available outside the country they are in.
> I don't know other numbers: if they have, also Italians (like me) can call
> them and dial cheaper calls, so they don't publish them :-(.
>
> Ciao, Piero.

Hi, Piero,

Here in Britain we have a website http://www.saynoto0870.com/ giving normal
rate geographical numbers for companies using this scam. Maybe Italians
should set up a similar web site! Numbers beginning 0870 are nominally
"national rate" numbers, but most people calling them would pay an inflated
rate because they are excluded from the pacakages including free or
discounted calls which most British telephone users have. From next year,
rules will forbid 0870 numbers from charging more than the real national
rate charged by the customer's telephony provider.

Alan Harrison

David Horne

ALAN HARRISON <[email protected]> wrote:

> "Piero" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > jlewis ha scritto:
> >> In addition, their enquiries telephone number (89 20 21) does not
> >> appear to be available from the UK, i.e. 0039 89 20 21 does not work.
> >
> > I's an high priced number (like 1-900 numbers in USA), that together with
> > toll free numbers are not available outside the country they are in.
> > I don't know other numbers: if they have, also Italians (like me) can call
> > them and dial cheaper calls, so they don't publish them :-(.
> >
> > Ciao, Piero.
>
> Hi, Piero,
>
> Here in Britain we have a website http://www.saynoto0870.com/ giving normal
> rate geographical numbers for companies using this scam. Maybe Italians
> should set up a similar web site! Numbers beginning 0870 are nominally
> "national rate" numbers, but most people calling them would pay an inflated
> rate because they are excluded from the pacakages including free or
> discounted calls which most British telephone users have. From next year,
> rules will forbid 0870 numbers from charging more than the real national
> rate charged by the customer's telephony provider.

That will be fun. How will they decide what that rate is?

I pay 5 pence per national landline call, regardless of the length. Some
people pay a certain amount a month for unlimited calls.

Will the 'provider' be the one that provides the phone _line_ or the
phone service?

--
(*) ... of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
http://www.davidhorne.net - real address on website
"Abominable, loyal, blind, apparently subservient."
Pres. Carter on Pres. Blair- May, 2007

Alan Harrison

"David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:1hzswdv.1xeon7v1sgfkg6N%[email protected]...

> That will be fun. How will they decide what that rate is?

Here's the source, David:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/saynoto0870/

That's as much as I know, I'm afraid.

Alan Harrison

David Horne

ALAN HARRISON <[email protected]> wrote:

> "David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:1hzswdv.1xeon7v1sgfkg6N%[email protected]...
>
> > That will be fun. How will they decide what that rate is?
>
> Here's the source, David:
> http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/saynoto0870/
>
> That's as much as I know, I'm afraid.

Thanks- that had a further link to ofcom's statement on this, which in
part answered my questions-

"1.4 The convention will mean that, if you are on a call package where
national calls to 01 and 02 numbers cost, for example, 3 pence per
minute in the peak period, calls to 0870 numbers during the same period
will cost no more than 3 pence per minute, unless a pre-announcement is
made. Similarly, if you are on a call package where national calls in
the evenings or at weekends are free, then in the absence of a
pre-announcement calls to 0870 numbers will also be free at these times.
Ofcom recognises that many Communications Providers ('CPs') make no
distinction in their pricing plans between national and local calls to
geographic numbers. In these cases, the convention will mean that 0870
calls should cost no more than calls to all geographic numbers."

It doesn't address people like me, who don't use call packages, but
instead use much cheaper resellers. Not a massive hardship though. This
looks like seriously good news for consumers for a change- though it
depends on just how many companies will be able to opt out- i.e. with
the pre-announcement. The fact is that 0870 and even 0845 numbers are
used to increase revenue for the companies- not to 'simplify' things.

--
(*) ... of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
http://www.davidhorne.net - real address on website
"Abominable, loyal, blind, apparently subservient."
Pres. Carter on Pres. Blair- May, 2007

B Vaughan

On Fri, 15 Jun 2007 12:35:33 -0700, jlewis <[email protected]>
wrote:

>Last year we went round Italy by rail and were able to buy Family rail
>tickets for all of our journeys rather than paying for full individual
>Standard Rate tickets.
>
>Looking at the Italian Railways website (http://www.trenitalia.com/en/
>index.html) this year, it looks like the only way to get a budget/
>family ticket is to sign up for a (free) Cartaviaggio Pass card, but
>this then only appears to be available to residents of Italy with the
>card being posted to their address in that country.
>
>Is this correct?

I believe that is correct; at least I have a memory of reading that
when the card came out.

There is a new discount fare available for a limited number of seats
reserved before midnight on the day before travel. It's called the
"Amica" fare, and it's available in the list of fare types. At least
it appears on the list when I log into the trenitalia site from Italy.
I'd be curious to know if it's not available outside of Italy.

There is also a new premium price fare called "Flexi" which has more
possibilities for changing your ticket or reservation without penalty.

Italy has really low train fares, and there have been moves to
increase them, so maybe cutting out the family fare is one of those
moves. I have the free Cartaviaggio, and have found that unless you do
an awful lot of train travel, it's not worth anything.
--
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup

Jlewis

On 16 Jun, 18:01, B Vaughan<[email protected]> wrote:
> There is a new discount fare available for a limited number of seats
> reserved before midnight on the day before travel. It's called the
> "Amica" fare, and it's available in the list of fare types. At least
> it appears on the list when I log into the trenitalia site from Italy.
> I'd be curious to know if it's not available outside of Italy.
>
> There is also a new premium price fare called "Flexi" which has more
> possibilities for changing your ticket or reservation without penalty.
>
> Italy has really low train fares, and there have been moves to
> increase them, so maybe cutting out the family fare is one of those
> moves. I have the free Cartaviaggio, and have found that unless you do
> an awful lot of train travel, it's not worth anything.

Thanks, I will check these out.

Regards,

John

Hatunen

On Sat, 16 Jun 2007 08:52:49 +0200, Piero
<[email protected]> wrote:

>jlewis ha scritto:
>> In addition, their enquiries telephone number (89 20 21) does not
>> appear to be available from the UK, i.e. 0039 89 20 21 does not work.
>
>I's an high priced number (like 1-900 numbers in USA), that together
>with toll free numbers are not available outside the country they are in.
>I don't know other numbers: if they have, also Italians (like me) can
>call them and dial cheaper calls, so they don't publish them :-(.

Try installing Skype; it may work for those numbers.

--
************* DAVE HATUNEN ([email protected]) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *