travelgirl68

Hi... I hope someone can help.

I was on the SCNF site today and muddled my way through (using the help of the seat61 website posted on another thread) to purchase 4 tickets for travel on September 11th from Paris to Avignon. The tickets are for 1st class on an idTGV train. The only option I had for getting the tickets was by printing them out at home. I entered my name, email address and credit card info and hit confirm and then the site closed without giving an option to print the tickets.

Did I miss this option somewhere along the way or will I get a confirmation email eventually that allows me to print off the tickets?

When i go back in to retrieve the ticket info, I get the following message:

L'e-mail saisi ne correspond à aucune commande passée dans les six mois sur notre site. Veuillez le vérifier ou, s'il est correct, contacter notre service client au

Is it too soon for the info to be retrieved?

Also, the "choiser my place" link didn't give me a choice of seats. It only had me choose between the relaxation train and the train with the DVDs etc. Is this normal?

Did I completely screw this up or do I even have a reservation at all? Thanks for your help.

tekwriter

It actually might be a day or two too early because you can't place your order before 90 days beforehand. July & Aug have 31 days, so I think you're 92 days out. Try again on Friday.

The same thing happened to me recently because I wanted round-trip tickets and the return was too early. One problem with the TGV website is that I didn't get an error message explaining why I couldn't get my tickets, even though I could see them on the schedule. Your error message says something like your email address doesn't correspond to an order placed within the last six months. So your order has never been finalized. Try again later, and don't worry if you can't print your actually tickets - just bring the receipt and the credit card to a ticket booth at the station before your trip.

kappa

It's not 90 days but 3 months. OP was correct to trying to book on 11 June for the train on 11 September. By coincidence, I made my 11 Sept. reservation yesterday on 11 June Geneva for Marseille. That was normal voyages-sncf.com site (€25 Prem's, 2nd cls one way). When it is too early you cannot even go to the steps to choose train , enter credit card infos usually. However, I have never used idTGV (there is no offers departing my station Geneva) so if there are differences between booking procedures with idTGV and with voyeges-sncf, I cannot tell.

Incidentally, when I tried to reserve above Geneva-Marseille right after midnight (00:01 11June my time), actually I could not finish. I chose my train, input my c.c. etc and cliked on the final "book" then got the screen " we are treating your request" that remained for 15 minutes (usally that's instantaneous), then fianlly I got the screen "error". I was worried a bit. Has the booking been made? Has the credit card transaction been done? Should I try again ? Wouldn't that make a double payment. Actually I couldn't try again. When I tried from the first page, I got a message " sorry, we are having a problem ... Please try again later". Since it was late, I gave up and went to bed. In the morning, I found an e-mail from sncf saying "your request has been cancelled". Ok, so I tried again and this time everything worked as usual and I printed my ticket.

This happened by chance on the same day as you travlegirl68 but mine was on voyages-sncf.com and not on idTGV. I wonder if both were caused by the same sncf site problem.

travelgirl68

thanks for the info so far! I like the idea of taking a receipt to the station but i didn't even get that. The credit card page was accepted and then a window popped up that said something like "the website wants to close this window" and then shut down. No error message or additional info...it just went to the SCNF homepage. I bet there must have been an error and it didn't go through. I guess I'll wait a day or two and contact my CC company to see if there is a charge or not. Do you know if it is possible to contact SCNF to confirm?

The other thing I thought was odd was I never had to put in any additional names for the three other tickets. Maybe I don't do that until I print them?

Thanks again for the responses. I have gotten some great info from this site for our trip tihs September.

kerouac

I have never purchased id-tgv tickets from the id-tgv site itself -- they have always been proposed to me by the www.voyages-sncf.com site along with the other possibilities, and that's where I got them.

However, last year between Paris and Avignon, I had a classic SNCF ticket in one direction and an IDTGV ticket in the other direction, and my credit card was debited by two different entities for the segments.

kappa

> The other thing I thought was odd was I never had to put in any additional names for the three other tickets. Maybe I don't do that until I print them?

Yes, if it's the same as Prem's tickets, when you BUY, you give only the name of one person (who buys the tickets). Afterwards, when you creat the tickets in pdf form, you input each passenger's name and birth date, then print them.

ira

Hi TG,

The error message you received says that the computer didn't recognize your email address.

There was also more to that message, including a phone number to call.

Check with your CC company to see if the charge went through.

Also: SNCF tickets by phone: If you want tickets mailed to your home in the USA you can do it by buying by telephone. Call the English speaking agent at
011 33 8 92 35 35 39 or
011 33 8 92 35 35 35 and buy the tickets. Ask the agent to mail them to you.

travelgirl68

I called my CC company and no charges have gone through so I guess it didn't work.

When I go to the SNCF site and try to enter dates using the calendar, only October will pop up and there is not an option to go back to September. When I put in a September date, I get an error message.

I wonder if that is what happened yesterday because the same thing happened with the calendar. It popped up with an October calendar and wouldn't allow me to tab back to September. I manually entered in the September date and was then taken through the whole process thinking that I was buying tickets.

Is there something I'm missing with the calendar?

Thanks again!

yk

Hi travelgirl -

I'm not sure what you're doing wrong. Perhaps clear the cookies before trying again?

I took a look on voyages-sncf website for you. There are PREM tix available for Sept 11 for €40 in 1st class on TGV. It doesn't say an idTGV train though. There are at least a couple of trains that day that offer the PREM tix.

Hope this helps.

Christina

I don't see any problem with the SNCF website, nor easily being able to book that route on that date.

The calendar on the front page of www.voyages-sncf.com starts with the current month, but I didn't have any troubled getting it to move to Sept. I thought you picked the option for printing them at the same time you filled in your CC info, and then you get the file to print them later by email, as a confirmation. There are both PREM and idTGVs on that date, I saw several of both.

lilaki

"Also: SNCF tickets by phone: If you want tickets mailed to your home in the USA you can do it by buying by telephone. Call the English speaking agent at
011 33 8 92 35 35 39 or
011 33 8 92 35 35 35 and buy the tickets. Ask the agent to mail them to you."

does the same 3-month rule apply with the telephone number? is there an additional charge for ordering the ticket over the phone? if so, how much? and finally, what are the hours for this line?

tks!

yk

travelgirl - did you get your tickets eventually?

ira

HI L,

>does the same 3-month rule apply with the telephone number?

Yes

>is there an additional charge for ordering the ticket over the phone?

I don't think so, but you can ask before you order. There is a charge to mail you the tickets.

>...what are the hours for this line?

To be safe, 09:00 - 12:00 and 14:00 - 17:00 Paris time (6 hrs ahead of EST).

kerouac

6 hours ahead of EDT, not EST until at least some time in October.

travelgirl68

Thank you to everyone who helped me with this. I did indeed get my tickets today. Sorry for not replying earlier but we went for a short trip out of town before I could try again.

I ended up getting tickets on the idTGV train again...the time works well for us at 8:04am...1st class to Avignon.

Previously, I was trying to book from the home page instead of choosing the "train" button at the top of the page. It worked like a charm this time.

A few more questions... One is about the travel insurance. I didn't quite understand the info. I know that it says it is new and there is something about cancellation but also something about luggage that I'm not quite sure about. The 4 of us will have probably a bag a piece. Do we bring our luggage on the train with us or check it somewhere?

Are trains cancelled very often? Can I check the train schedule through that same voyages-sncf site?

Is anyone familiar with the idTGV trains? I guess I need to do some more reading here about how to actually find the right train at the station. Just curious if anyone knows if there is anything different that happens when riding on the idTGV trains? We are going Paris-Avignon and leaving from Gare de Lyon.

Once in Avignon, is it hard to find the Europe Car office for our rental car?

I appreciate all of your responses!

kappa

> Do we bring our luggage on the train with us or check it somewhere?

Yes, you do yourself. It's not like flights.

> Are trains cancelled very often? Can I check the train schedule ..?

Again it's not like flights. Very rarely cancelled unless there is a SNCF strike. So checking if there will be strike might be a good idea but I have never encountered a sncf strike in September so far (in about last 10 years).

> Can I check the train schedule through that same voyages-sncf site?

idTGV is in the regular train time table so yes.

ira

Hi T,

Glad you figured out how to get your tickets.

>The 4 of us will have probably a bag a piece. Do we bring our luggage on the train with us ...

YES.

>Are trains cancelled very often? Can I check the train schedule through that same voyages-sncf site?

NO. YES

>...how to actually find the right train at the station.

There are sign boards, computer screens and information booths at the station that will tell you which track your train will be on.

Know your train number, as Avignon might not be the last stop.

>is anything different that happens when riding on the idTGV trains?

From Strasbourg to Paris, the idTGV passengers went through a ticket control point prior to boarding - just like on an airplane.

There were signs showing where the idTGV portion of the train boarded.

I expect that you will follow the same procedure.

Enjoy your visit.

Christina

As a rule of thumb -- do not ever buy insurance when you can't read the contract, and don't buy insurance for minor costs.

That insurance has major stipulations as to what it covers, in what conditions, and what you have to do to get paid. If you can't even read the terms, it won't do you much good as you won't be able to follow them. However, it does not cover you if you just change your mind or casually don't make the train because you don't get there in time. I won't go into the whole contract, but if you can't read it, don't buy it. The cost of those tickets is very minor.