I am travelling from Prague to Vienna soon. My friends and I were planning on just buying train tickets when we were in Prague because a friend told us that that would be cheaper than anything we found online. However, I just read in a travel book that buying online before hand is far cheaper. So now I am torn and not sure what to do. Any advice, buy before I leave for Europe or buy when I am in Prague?
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I can only speak for tickets issued by ÖBB (Austrian Railways), which are not cheaper because they are booked online. There are a few connections to Germany, Italy and others with highly discounted tickets to compete with the airlines. These have to be booked well in advance and are subject to restrictions! Just bear in mind that many (travel) books are not thoroughly investigated and written. Many businesses grant you a discount if you book online, but you cannot apply this supposition to all businesses worldwide.
Sometimes you watch a report on TV about a topic you have knowledge in and realize that they only talk nonsense or draw completely wrong conclusions based on incorrect information.
I recommend to acquire the tickets just prior to departure or the day before to have the assurance to be on the desired train (as Czech trains to Vienna on the Pendolino require seat reservation).
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Definitely buy your ticket in Prague before you leave, because then you get the %26quot;Czech tariff%26quot; between Prague and the border (Breclav). Then they charge you the higher international tariff on to Vienna.
In fact, ask the ticket agent (some speak English or German) what the price is from Praha to Breclav and then how much is it from Breclav to Vienna. Compare that price with the Praha to Vienna price. I have run into instances where is actually cheaper to do it this way (I take different routings over different border crossings, depending on my trip, so I%26#39;m always asking this of agents).
One more tip: How many are in your group???? A few years ago I was with 5 Russian friends in Prague, and I bought our tickets from Cedok (oldest Czech travel agency), because a %26quot;group ticket%26quot; starts at six people. We paid for five tickets, and the sixth was free.
Cedok%26#39;s main office is located at Na Příkopě 18 a hundred meters from Wenceslas Square.
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The issue of the Czech fares (with a stop in Breclav) has often been discussed here but I never learned what the real price difference between a ticket Prague%26gt;Vienna and Prague%26gt;Breclav%26gt;Vienna is and if it is worth the effort....
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%26gt;I never learned what the real price difference between a ticket Prague%26gt;Vienna and Prague%26gt;Breclav%26gt;Vienna is and if it is worth the effort....
Not quite sure here, but what I read is that (back in the 90s or even before) the Eastern European countries used to have two types of prices: one %26quot;local%26quot; (only for own citizens) and one %26quot;international%26quot; (for everybody else, much higher) - including train tickets.
With the accession of CZ into EU, this price discrimination by citizenship became illegal. But it is not illegal to limit the low prices by the place of purchase - and so, they still have some kind of lower %26quot;local%26quot; pricing, available only within CZ (though to everyone who asks the rght questions)
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It costs 32 Euros Prague to Vienna, and you can%26#39;t get them on-line. There is no advantage in buying a separate one from Breclav to Vienna, in fact it might cost you more, and you run the risk of missing the train that you are already sitting on just to run into the station to buy another ticket - it doesn%26#39;t make sense.
With regard to a two-tier pricing system, this never applied to the trains - only some unscrupulous hotels and pubs in Prague, but that has long been done away with.
In fact, according to the Czech Railways website, a %26#39;group%26#39; means two or more people as long as they all get on and get off the train at the same place, which I can%26#39;t quite believe - I have lived in the Czech Republic for 17 years and this is a new one on me (I was reading through it yesterday). I thought that maybe the English version has been translated incorrectly, but no, I checked it and it corresponds more or less with the original www.cd.cz/static/eng/pricereduction2.htm
I speak Czech, but I defy anybody to negotiate this one :)
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%26gt;%26gt;%26gt; With regard to a two-tier pricing system, this never applied to the trains
This happened to allmost any international train connections. For example, some time ago it was cheaper also when travelling from Autria to Germany (and not a long distance inside of Germany) to buy two seperate tickets, an austrian ticket to the border station (Passau, Salzburg, ...) and a german ticket for the 2nd part.
But nowadays there should not be any difference. Trains often do not stop at the former border station any more (and if they stop most of the time only for 2 or 3 mins). There%26#39;s often also a virtual station which does not exist in real, it is just for tariff reasons (and one usually can use this virtual border station only if one has a pass for the other country).
The best is to buy ONE ticket for the entire journey! Of course you can buy an additional ticket onboard if you want to go elsewhere from the conductor but on international tickets there%26#39;s usually no group discount onboard (and often you even don%26#39;t get them onboard).
So just walk to the station and buy one ticket for the entire journey...
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