Booking Portuguese train tickets

If you can read Portuguese easily then you may as well stick with the Portuguese version of the Comboios de Portugal web site, and you probably don't need me to tell you how to find your way around it. If you would prefer to carry out the transaction in English, you will need to transfer to the English pages.
Click on the British flag icon at the top of the screen. Sorry they don't have any icons for English speakers from other countries, you'll just have to put up with being British for a while.

Special offers are found in two places, firstly by clicking on Special Offers from the menu, and secondly by clicking on the various Flash animations. They are not the same.
The Flash animations generally lead to discounted rail tickets, the Special Offers leads to an offers page. Mostly discounts on car hire, hotels, and entrance fees. But, more importantly, it also gives information about discounts on the Lisbon and Porto urban services.

A map of the Portuguese rail network can be seen by clicking on Travelling in Portugal.
These are also maps showing the routes covered by the different types of train. Click on Alfa Pendular for the high speed routes, Intercidades for the Inter-City routes and Regional for the slower trains that stop everywhere.
Alfa Pendular and Intercidades trains can be booked 30 days in advance. Tickets for Regional services are limited to 24 hours in advance,

When you start the ticket buying process, it is a good idea to check the timetable. The ticket screen gives you the total journey time, but not much information about the changes en-route. On the other hand, the timetable screen gives you times, prices, and other information and it has an option for buying tickets as well.
So click on the Timetable and prices tab, put in the journey information and click OK.

The screen will display all of the trains that are available on your chosen date. To see the prices for each choice you need to click on See. The fares will be displayed for First and Second class, if applicable, for each leg of the journey.
Unfortunately the system will only display one set of fares at a time, so you will need to click on each one in turn to get all the prices.

If you click on Detail, you will get a new page showing all the timings for that journey.
To see another set of details, scroll down and click on Back to results list.
To see how eco-friendly you are being, scroll a little bit further and click on Simulate.
If you want to go back and try a different date, or different journey, click on New search.

If you have found the one you want though, select it with the radio button on the right of the screen and click the Buy button.

The next screen lets you choose the type of seat, but not the carriage. You need to click on Additional Seating Options to make the drop-down boxes appear. The ones for window / aisle, and front or rear facing are in English. The third box is in Portuguese and means you want a seat for a disabled person.
Click Continue to move on to the registration and payment process.

If you've already registered, just log in to get to the next part, otherwise click on Register. Ths will take you to the registration page.

After you have registered, you will be taken back to the ticket buying stage. Actually you may have to go all the way back to the start if you take too long to register. Comboios de Portugal only allow a few minutes to complete the process.
Anyway, when you get past the log in screen you will be able to see your seat highlighted in green on the train plan.
You can change your seat, and the carriage by clicking on it and moving it elsewhere. Confirm the change, but note the warning that you can only do this once.
Now move on to the payment screen.

At this point you need to put in your card details and tick the box to accept the terms and conditions.
Read the terms and conditions first.
They say that:
(a) you cannot transfer tickets, so you have to be in the party if there are several people travelling.
(b) you have got to be able to prove that you really are you, so take your credit card and whatever identification you used when registering.

There's other stuff about cancellations and refunds but those are the really important ones.
Note that there is a choice of having your ticket sent as an SMS message. I've never tried that, let me know how it goes if you do.
Click on Pay to go to the ticket screen and print your ticket.

As a final tip, if you are planning a trip that ends in a different country, it is worth while looking up fares on the booking systems of both countries. They are not always the same price and you may be able to book further ahead.
You may find these Squids useful:
Booking French train tickets
Booking Spanish train tickets
Booking Italian train tickets
Booking Swiss train tickets
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