SJ booking - "The journey is preliminary"

[dub_boi]

I'm planning to travel from Stockholm to Copenhagen Airport on a Monday in October. The SJ website allows booking already, but the departure at the time which would suit best is marked "Preliminary". SJ's cheaper fares are non-rebookable so I can’t book for another train and move to a better time if the preliminary train is confirmed.

Does anyone know how likely a "Preliminary" departure is to operate ?

 

[Gloster]

Can you book for the 10.21 today? From what I can see here and on the not very helpful Swedish section, the tickets for the 10.21 have not been released. It looks as though you can book on another train today or wait until (and hope that) the 10.21’s tickets are released. Not a satisfactory situation and, as said, their site isn’t very helpful.

 

[dub_boi]

Can you book for the 10.21 today? From what I can see here and on the not very helpful Swedish section, the tickets for the 10.21 have not been released. It looks as though you can book on another train today or wait until (and hope that) the 10.21’s tickets are released. Not a satisfactory situation and, as said, their site isn’t very helpful.

No, you can't progress beyond that message. If I book for the 09:22 now, it looks like I can't change to the 10:21. And if I keep waiting for the 10:21 to open for bookings then I imagine the price of tickets for the 09:21 may increase.
As you say, it's not a very satisfactory situation.

 

[moonarrow458]

I'm planning to travel from Stockholm to Copenhagen Airport on a Monday in October. The SJ website allows booking already, but the departure at the time which would suit best is marked "Preliminary". SJ's cheaper fares are non-rebookable so I can’t book for another train and move to a better time if the preliminary train is confirmed.

Does anyone know how likely a "Preliminary" departure is to operate ?
View attachment 162105

In my experience with SJs trains shown as "preliminary" this is due to engineering works altering the schedule, sometimes they are cancelled but often they run but they will sometimes only be opened up for departure a week before departure or in one case 2 days before departure and by that point the fares for the other trains had shot up and even this particular train was not cheap. So it is a bit of a gamble. You could purchase the flexi fare for the 0922 and then cancel that and rebook on the 1021 should that become availible. I'm assuming thats the price for 2 adults by the way.

I note though when digging a little deeper that if you search Stockholm to Malmö C, the 1021 train shows as bookable which suggests that it will definately run Stockholm to Malmö but that it is uncertain whether it will run beyond Malmö to Denmark. In which case you could book on the 1021 down to Malmö and then on the day buy a ticket from Malmö to Copenhagen for Öresundståget which runs every 15 minutes. Hope that helps.

 

[JonasB]

If they sell tickets for the Stockholm-Malmö portion of the train, then they are probably not sure if they will have a Denmark-approved train available for that departure.

In that case I would buy a ticket from Stockholm to Malmö with that train if it was my trip, and then buy an additional ticket from Malmö to the airport later. Or, if the train opens for booking to Copenhagen, call SJ and ask if they can change the ticket. Their customer service agents can be very helpful and can rebook even cheap tickets sometimes.

 

[dub_boi]

@moonarrow458 & @JonasB - a belated thank you for your suggestions. I have booked the 10:21 as far as Malmö. I'll keep an eye on the website and see if it opens for booking to Copenhagen.

Thanks again

 

[rvdborgt]

I read today (I believe in one of the Facebook groups for Interrail) that SJ currently doesn't run to Copenhagen because they don't have enough working trainsets that can go there. And apparently they don't know yet when they'll have enough again.

 

[JonasB]

I read today (I believe in one of the Facebook groups for Interrail) that SJ currently doesn't run to Copenhagen because they don't have enough working trainsets that can go there. And apparently they don't know yet when they'll have enough again.

AFAIK that is more or less the problem. They are upgrading their X2000s and the Danish authorities are of the opinion that it is such an extensive upgrade that they consider them new train, and hence they need new approval to run in Denmark.