RobynFrance

Greetings,

I am having a devil of a time with the sncf site. I have found the tickets I want on there (Amsterdam-Lille) and have indicated pick up in Netherlands on the first page,but when I get to the section where I put in the personal information before purchase, it requires an address for mailing tix. The pre-filled in country field shows Netherlands as that is where I indicated country of origin or retrieval. But the header above the address fields say mailing address to deliver tickets. I already know they don't mail to the US, and I am afraid to complete information as I am concerned that they will send to our home address but in the Netherlands! The site will not allow me to continue without filling in address (remember the forced country showing is Netherlands, not USA so it will be wrong no matter what). If I complete beyond this point, does the site allow for another choice later to pick up?

Sorry for the complicated explanation, but I hestitate to pay and never find my tix.
Thanks.

Robyn France

TimS

From reading other posts on this subject. I believe you need to choose the Netherlands as the country in which you will pick up your tickets, but you should leave the mailing address blank. If you do so, I believe you will be able to proceed with buying the tickets and then you can pick them up at the station in Amsterdam. Be sure you have the credit card with you that you use when you order them. (Someone who has actually done this is welcome to correct me if I am wrong.)

LarryJ

You can only pick-up SNCF tickets at an SNCF station which of course are only in France. (makes since?) What you want to do can not be done on the website. You can call the English language telephone number and buy your tickets over the phone with credit card and have them mail the tickets to your home. US residents can not have tickets mailed to them using the website as they want you to buy the tickets through their subsidiary company "Rail Europe". You will find the prices much higher at "Rail Europe".

The English language SNCF number if calling from the USA is:

011 33 8 92 35 35 39

Larry J

ira

Hi Robyn,

If you will be staying at a hotel in Amsterdam, you could have your tickets mailed there.

RobynFrance

Thanks all--well Larry explained the problem for us--Tim--the site will not allow you to go ahead if you don't put your address in--that's where the glitch takes over--aha--so it is the required sncf station which is the problem.

Ira--do you think I will be ok to mail to hotel--it is the Renaissance (Priceline of course)? I guess the question is can I get replacements from the station if they never show up at the hotel? What do u think o sage one? Thanks.

Take care,
Robyn France

Christina

That makes sense that you must pick up in France for a SNCF ticket. I've never done that, so wasn't sure of the problem -- I know they don't require you to put in a mailing address if you pick up tickets and check those options correctly (for French itinerary, anyway).

As to you asking for a refund of tickets if they get lost in the mail or by your hotel (and SNCF would have no way of knowing) -- I would say no. I think if you read the rules, etc., section on SNCF, they explicitly say they will not be held responsible for anything missing if you ask them to be mailed. I remember reading that on there once.

ira

Hi RF,

>..do you think I will be ok to mail to hotel--it is the Renaissance...?

Of course. email the hotel to let them know they will be coming.

>I guess the question is can I get replacements from the station if they never show up at the hotel?<

I don't think that you can get a refund on lost or stolen tickets no matter where they were sent.

someotherguy

If you are traveling from the Netherlands to France, why not buy the ticket from the Dutch railways? Their website does online international ticketing and I was able to go through the steps for a ticket from Amsterdam to Lille without dificulty (I haven't tried actually buying a ticket through them, though).

http://www.ns.nl

RobynFrance

Someotherguy--can u tell me the steps please--I am not able to get Lille to come up there--only Liege under the L's. Can you please review how you got it to give you times using Lille--it won't accept on mine.

someotherguy

Looks like you didn't select international.

http://www.ns.nl -> english -> international travel -> at this point there's a booking form on the right, but it's better to click on: buy your tickets online -> to our online ticket shop -> at this point a whole page booking form pops up and more of it is in English than the earlier one.

Select from: Amsterdam centraal -> to: Lille is among the selections

I didn't go any further than this.