strass

Well, we leave Wednesday morning for Paris, Amsterdam and Bruges! I've already booked and paid for our train tickets via SNCF's website. I was looking at my confirmation/receipt this evening, and it stated that when I pick up my tix in France, I have to show the card I used to purchase them... as well as my "personal identification number." All along I thought this meant the confirmation number that comes with each reservation... but tonight I realized that it might mean my credit card PIN--which I don't know. Can anyone shed some light on this? Do I need to provide my credit card PIN to pick up these tickets? I've never had to provide it for anything else, ever! And I get the feeling Mastercard might not simply give it to me over the phone, if I call them.

leuk

You need to show the credit card you bought the tickets with. You do not have to give your credit card pin number. They are refering to the reservation number for your tickets. A Hint- We usually pick up our tickets at Gare de Austerlitz. It is smaller and much more managable than the large stations. Its easy to take the metro there.

college_travelers

Don't try to get your tickets from the Automatic SNCF Ticket Machine. It won't recognize your Mastercard unless it is a EuroMastercard. We were unable to get ours in March when we tried with our Mastercard.

We went to the closet SNCF train booth, showed our reservation confirmation page that we printed off from the Internet and our Mastercard that we used for booking. Got our tickets and were on our way.

Some people have prepaid for their reservations online, got to the train station, and was charged again when they got their tickets. Make sure you let them know they have already been paid for. Good luck.

jody

I haven't done this for a year but as I recall, the number they are requesting is the printed number in the signature box on the back of your CC , not your personal ATM PIN. So take your printed confirmation and the card your used for charging the tickets.

I prefer to pick up my tickets at one of the many SNCF boutiques that are all over Paris, rather than at the rail stations.

strass

Thanks guys! I'm relieved.

I know that the automatic machines don't accept American cards, so we're planning to visit either a boutique or a ticket booth at one of the stations. I'll be sure that we don't get double-charged (considering we're talking $500 worth of tickets here!!).

Christina

It's been a while since I did that, but I do think they are asking about the number they send you in the confirmation email. The card itself has the number on it near your signature that they sometimes request for phone orders, so if you have to show the card, they would have that number, so I don't think that is it.

IN any case, it's nothing you won't have if you bring a copy of the confirmation email (all of them, if there were a couple) with the ref. no. and your credit card.

I never remember my CC PIN either because I've never used it and MC won't give it to you over the phone--they'll mail it to you, probably.

Betsy

Don't EVER give any PIN number to anyone, anywhere, anytime.

clairobscur

You don't need to give them your PIN number, but as far as I remember (I picked up tickets many times, but I can't remember it for sure, for some reason), you'll have to enter your PIN in the...no clue about the name of this thing in english...the little electronic device they hand out to you for CC payments.

Maybe I wrong and other posters will correct me.


Anyway, you should know your PIN if you intend to make payments with your credit card while in France. That's the standart procedure to enter your PIN in the..err...device. Maybe the shops still have somewhere the hand operated thing that print a paper copy of your card that you then sign, but I didn't notice one anywhere for many years.

ira

Hi Clair

>...you'll have to enter your PIN in the...the little electronic device they hand out to you for CC payments.<

I think that you are referring to Debit Cards, not to Credit Cards.

strass

Hi all... Ira's right, I'm talking about a credit card, not a debit card. I do know my debit card PIN!

StCirq

You do not need to know the PIN number of you credit card to pick up your tickets - just make sure you have the same credit card you used online to purchase them, and bring the printed confirmation with you.
And while it's standard procedure in Europe for Europeans to enter their credit card PIN into one of those little electronic card swipers, somehow the machines must know how to function without a PIN number being entered, because I've used my VISA, Amex, and Mastercard in those contraptions and never had to enter anything - it just spits out the receipt.