Booking Austrian train tickets

[zag]

Does anyone have any suggestions for booking tickets & seats for a train in Austria ? I have looked at the OBB website, but so far all I can do is get it to price up a single and I am looking for a return. The trip in question is from Salzburg (airport, ideally, but there is no train station there) to St Johann in Tirol.

I know I could try it via db.de or thetrainline.co.uk, but it would make more sense (or so I thought) to book it directly with OBB. I had thought of going in to Abbey Street to see what they would come up with, but based on recent postings here I didn't fancy my chances of getting a result (or value).

Any suggestions for the best site to try ?

z

[constellation]

Die Bahn website will give a price for a return journey.

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

PS Don't bother paying the 1 or 2 euro extra for the seat reservation. In my limited experience, seat reservations are not enforced.

[bigjim]

I have no idea if this will word, but bahn.de was the site I used back in the day during InterRailing. Haven't a clue if you can book tickets through it I'm afraid, but it had great timetables

[bigjim]

Originally Posted by constellation

Die Bahn website will give a price for a return journey.

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

PS Don't bother paying the 1 or 2 euro extra for the seat reservation. In my limited experience, seat reservations are not enforced.

Snap! But have to disagree with the seat enforcement bit, I've found OBB do enforce seats (albeit in my limited experience)

[constellation]

Originally Posted by bigjim

I have no idea if this will word, but bahn.de was the site I used back in the day during InterRailing. Haven't a clue if you can book tickets through it I'm afraid, but it had great timetables

I'm a bit fuzzy on the particulars but I think (given enough notice) they'll post out tickets to you.

[zag]

Yeah, I have booked tickets through db.de before and they do post out tickets to you. For some strange reason I was unable to do seat reservations for 6 people together (I think the max was 4) so I got a friend in Germany to go into a station and do the seat reservation for me.

The particular train journey I will be taking is likely to be jam-packed with skiers and all their gear, so a seat reservation is pretty essential. I have booked seats the last few years and it has always worked out (except for last year when we managed to book 6 seats in a fancy designer-looking 5 seat compartment).

I'm just checking out the various websites at the moment - I agree that db.de is the bees knees when it comes to timetabling for any European train (and many buses & undergrounds)

z

[philip]

What about CIE on Abbey Street? I bought tix for the Belgian Thalys there a couple of years ago. Link

[apwhite]

Click here:
https://ticket.oebb.at/bin/frame_ticket.pl

[zag]

Thanks for all the replies. I found another link - http://fahrplan.oebb.at/bin/query.exe/en through the Salzburg Airport website. I managed to book the return tickets using this part of the site. I have a reservation number, just need to get the tickets in the post now and I'm done.

Thanks again,

z

[zag]

Got the tickets in the post on Monday or Tuesday morning, after ordering them on Thursday direct from OBB.

There was a €5 handling fee (including the registered post) which was acceptable. The one thing they seemed to forget was the seat reservatoin for our 5 year old - it is possible you can't reserve a seat for him because he is non-fare-paying, but the reservations should be independent of ticketing, so I think someone may have just made a mistake.

z

[zag]

Our flight was delayed in the end and we missed our reserved seats, sowe got a taxi to the resort instead. It wasn't much more expensive (well, about 1.75 times the amount) and it was a whole lot quicker.

I was on to OBB and they told me to mail the tickets back with a letter indicating why I didn't use them and they would process a refund.

I know it may not arise that often here (on account of not being Austria), but do you think there would be some breach of conditions if I told them I got a taxi instead of their train, or would I be better off saying I didn't travel to Austria at all . . . ?

Just wondering.

z

[constellation]

Originally Posted by zag

I know it may not arise that often here (on account of not being Austria), but do you think there would be some breach of conditions if I told them I got a taxi instead of their train, or would I be better off saying I didn't travel to Austria at all . . . ?

Just wondering.
z

Don't ask, don't tell.