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HELP - SNCF SITE - NICE TO GENOA - WON'T ALLOW ME TO PURCHASE

HELP - SNCF SITE - NICE TO GENOA - WON'T ALLOW ME TO PURCHASE

Old Sep 25th, 2005, 04:38 PM
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HELP - SNCF SITE - NICE TO GENOA - WON'T ALLOW ME TO PURCHASE

I am from the USA and tried to book 2 tickets from Nice to Genoa on October 14, 2005. The message I get when I tried to finalize the purcase is "closed to foreigners" or something like that. Is there any other way I can get these tickets.
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Old Sep 25th, 2005, 04:40 PM
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Did you leave the country as "France" ..? How does it know you're a 'foreigner'..? Did you get that at the submission of your credit card info? If so, try a different credit card.
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Old Sep 25th, 2005, 05:03 PM
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I didn't change anything and I tried again and made sure it said France. The message is "Foreign Reservations Closed". I got this when I clicked on the button - Choose this outward Journey.
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Old Sep 25th, 2005, 05:19 PM
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ttt
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Old Sep 26th, 2005, 05:03 AM
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topping again...
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Old Sep 26th, 2005, 05:38 AM
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You don't need to book in advance to go from Nice to Genova. Just buy a ticket at the station before catching the train.
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Old Sep 26th, 2005, 10:13 AM
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Perhaps it is referring to Genoa, wouldn't that be an Italian train? You are a foreigner to Italy if you are French or American. Only a foreigner would probably be booking an Italian train on a French website, I imagine.
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Old Sep 26th, 2005, 10:53 AM
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How is it different to buy a ticket from Nice to Genoa than it is to buy one from Paris to Amsterdam...?
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Old Sep 26th, 2005, 11:52 AM
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I do not know, but the Italian trains could have different arrangements with SNCF than the Thalys train. There may be different rules on that, and I think much of the Thalys lines are owned by SNCF. I was just speculating, but it certainly makes sense to me as there is no other way they would know Denice was a foreigner. They also could have different rules for large major international train lines than smaller ones in terms of what you can book online on the SNCF website. I know they won't allow you to book very small local runs online, either, even though they are entirely French.

I'm sure some train buff on here will know, I just was trying to avoid the spreading of rampant rumors as sometimes happens on here, if it isn't because SNCF knows Denice is not French.
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Old Sep 26th, 2005, 11:58 AM
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on the other hand, Denice might explain at what point she got that message and what she was really trying to do to get tickets. I just got a quote on SNCF for that route with no problem and no message like that -- up to the point where you need to enter a credit card number, of course.

I think they can tell CC numbers by country, but I was not asking them to mail any tickets to the US, either, nor was I trying to only make a reservation, but to prepay. I did not fill in any address in the boxes, either, just a name, email address, and said I would pick up in France.
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Old Sep 26th, 2005, 01:03 PM
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I did my normal thing. I purchased tickets from CDG to AVIGNON about 1 month ago and had no problem. When I clicked on "choose this outward journey" the next messge I get is "Foreign Reservations Closed". I am going to try it again today. Maybe there was just some snafuu with the system.
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Old Sep 26th, 2005, 02:02 PM
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The reason is that the destination is in Italy and for whatever reason, does not allow purchase for out of country cities. In May, I booked Genoa to Monaco and could not pre-purchase either. It was fine as there was no problem buying the ticket from the Genoa train station ticket office the day of travel. I would advise you to do the same at the Nice end of your trip.
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Old Sep 26th, 2005, 02:17 PM
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I tried again and I get the same message. I guess we will just wing it and hope we can get on the train from Nice to Genoa and then switch to a local to Manarola.

Thanks everyone.
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