Book early and save: Yes
Online bookings open: 6 months ahead of the travel date
Trains departing at different times can be cheaper than others leaving on the same day, so you may need to look through the day's departures to find the cheapest fares.
It can pay off to take a look at the guide to Austrian train tickets - it should help you save time and money and confusion.
Exchanges
No tickets sold for journeys by Railjet trains within Austria can be exchanged in the typical sense, instead the policy is that the more expensive type of tickets can be refunded - and then having done so, you can re-book for an alternative departure.
Refunds
- Standard-Ticket Gruppe; the most expensive type of ticket = You can also cancel and obtain a full refund at any time pre-travel date.
- Sparscheine Komfort tickets; mid-priced tickets (typically offered as an upgrade to Sparscheine tickets) = can be cancelled free of charge up to 15 days ahead of the journey, but if you cancel it with 15 days left to go, you'll receive up to* 50% of what you paid for it
- Sparscheine tickets; lowest priced, heavily discounted tickets = cannot be refunded at all.
Seat reservations
Seat reservations are optional and they need to be proactively added when making a booking.
Note that the optional reservations will need to be paid for any children aged 5 to 15 - children aged 4 and under don't require tickets, but the expectation is that they will be travelling in the adult's lap
Child tickets
When booking 'Sparschiene' tickets each adult (aged 15 and over) can take up to four children aged 14 and under for free!
These children will still require tickets, but there will be no charge for them.
When not booking 'Sparschiene' tickets;
- Children aged 5 and under travel for free
- Children aged 6 – 14 travel at half-fare
Bike tickets
You will need purchase both a bike ticket AND a reservation for your bike prior to boarding; more info on how to do this is available on the [bikes on trains guide](/travel-info-and-tips/taking-a-bike-on-a-european-train/).
Dog tickets
If your dog is too large to be taken in a pet carrier you will need to add a dog ticket when making your booking;
Rail pass users
Rail pass users don’t have to make reservations.
However, in SMTJ's experience, it's a good idea to reserve when:
- departing from Wien between 08:00-10:00 and 16:00 -18:00 Monday to Thursday
- on Fridays
- Saturday mornings
- Sunday afternoons/evenings.