Using the Czech-speaking e-shop of Czech railways
WARNING: Obviously, following these instructions is a hack. You are going to agree with terms of the shop, which you cannot read. You may try babelfish, but... OTOH, would you bother to read the conditions, if they were in a languge you know?
In any case, plaese try this hack only at your own risk; you have been WARNED.
Outages
I have a vague memory there are planned outages between 1:00 and 2:00 local time (CEST), at least some days, that is UTC 2300 -- 2400.
Registration
Start at [main page of the eshop].
First, you have to register. Find "Registrace" (Registration) in the leftmost column on the page, and click on it. A small window opens. Fill in the red fields:
- First name ("Jmeno")
- Last name ("Prijmeni")
- Email ("Email")
- Login ("Prihlasovaci jmeno")
- Password ("Heslo")
- Password once more ("Potvrzeni hesla")
- leave the remaining fields (with black description) empty
(Possilble length of each value in noted next to each text field.)
Click on "Registrovat" (Register), which, BTW, means you agreed to the terms (link "Obchodnimi podminkami..." near the button).
Possible error messages (in red, below the field in question):
- "chybný formát emailové adresy" (e-mail address is not in the right format)
- "uživatel zadaného jména již existuje" (login already in use)
If you succeed, you should see the following:
Registrace uživatele Registrace uživatele proběhla v pořádku. Na udanou emailovou adresu byla zaslána zpráva obsahující návod k aktivaci účtu. Pokud nebude účet aktivován do 24 hodin od registrace, bude účet smazán.
User registration The user registration went OK. A message containing a recipe to activate the account has been sent to the e-mail given. If the account is not activated in 24 hours, it will be deleted.
You are about to get email from eshop@cd.cz, with subject "aktivace ...". The email is in HTML format and contains an "activation code" (16 bytes in hexadecimal format) at its first line. In the middle, there is a link http://eshop.cd.cz/service.aspx?c=activation-code; follow it, and you should get:
Aktivace účtu Aktivace uživatelského účtu proběhla v pořádku. Nyní se můžete k aplikaci přihlásit pomocí údajů, které jste uvedl(-a) při registraci.
Account activation The account activation went OK. You can log in now using the data submitted during the registration.
Login
At the very top of https://eshop.cd.cz, you can see
Zákazník: Nepřihlášen Váš nákup: 0 položek v ceně 0 Kč Přihlásit Zobrazit
Customer: Not-logged-in Your cart: 0 items for CZK 0 Login Show the cart
Click on the first line, or on "Přihlásit", or on "Přihlášení" at the left column of the web (below "Registrace"). Use the login and password selected during the registration; you should obtain:
Joe Smiths Váš nákup: 0 položek v ceně 0 Kč Odhlásit Zobrazit
Joe Smiths Your cart: 0 items for CZK 0 Logout Show the cart
Buying a ticket to Vienna
In the menu on the left side of the page, click on "Rakousko" (Austria) under "International offerings" to get to [section for tickets to Vienna].
- Select "Brno hl.n.", "Wien" (Vienna), date, time, and hit "Vyhledat" (Search).
- Then select the connection and hit "Zakoupit..." (Buy...) next to it.
- Leave the parameters on the next page as they are, and "Zobrazit jizdni doklad" (Display the ticket).
- Verify the price; e.g. Brno->Vienna for EUR 9 should be about 221 Kč.
- Then "Vlozit do kosiku" (Add to the shopping cart).
- Iterate if you want to collect more tickets...
- "K pokladne" (Check out)
Now, fill in the identification of the passenger. Take care, if you fill the fields incorrectly, the ticket will be invalid.
You can use any id with photograph issued by an official authority of your state, e.g. passport, driver licence, euro id card, etc. Fill in the full name ("Jmeno a prijmeni") and the no. of the id ("Cislo prukazu"). (If the id contains non-numeric chars (letters, dashes), just skip them, filling in only the digits, in the right order.) The id number has to be 6 to 10 chars; apparently, spaces are counted as well.
Repeat for each of the tickets you are going to buy.
- Then click on "Zaplatit" (Pay)
- check the box "souhlasim..." (I agree with the long text below)
- "Pokracovat v platbe" ("Continue the paying" -- yes, it sounds silly in Czech, too ;-)
Now you should be redirected to https page of muzo.com, the card processing company. Select a language you know and pay. After that, a pdf file should be displayed; the same file is sent to the mail used for registration.
The pdf file contains the tickets, each one on separate page. Print them and use the A4-sized printouts as "tickets" in the train. Remember that you also have to produce the corresponding id cards.
WARNING: Though the e-shop technically sells tickets for both directions independently, the ticket for Vienna->Brno is not valid unless you have a corresponding ticket to Vienna, with a stamp proving that you have already consumed the first half of the return ticket.
Happy hacking!