TGV europe- help with tickets

SNCF (French rail) will not mail tickets to the USA. This interferes with their eurorail sales which are dramatically more expensive than what one pays booking through either voyages-sncf.com or tgv-europe.com (assuming you did not select USA as your home country).

Are you absolutely sure you have purchased tickets? Has your credit card been charged for the purchase?

If yes, you can pickup your tickets at any SNCF ticket window or boutique at anytime before departure. You will need:

1. The confirmation number

2. To present the same credit card, for inspection by the agent, that was used for the online purchase.

If the tickets you purchased were PREM fares, these may be printed on your home computer or pickup as described above. If you purchased iDTGV tickets, they must be printed at home. iDTGV tickets cannot be otherwise issued.

There are additional steps you can take. SNCF has a telephone hotline for sales information:

+33 1 72 38 76 38 (in French only)

You might try the following number which is reported to have an English speaking operator:

+33 8 92 35 35 39

Note: to dial these numbers from the US:
1. dial 011
2. next dial the number as shown (without the +)

Thank you for the information. I am very sure I purchased the tickets. I already paid. So if I have my confirmation number and the tickets I should be able to pick them up from the window at the station? Many sites say that I can not and that the money is lost. To me that does not make sense since I have proof that I purchased them and have seats asigned to me.

I did not have the option to print them. And I put Great Brittain down as my country of origin because whenever I picked the US it sent me to another website where the price was marked up $150.00 a ticket. The site that I ended up buying them from was tgv-europe. I will never do that again.

The problem was that then I could not enter an address, because I am not from Great Brittain. I thought it would be easy enough to get ahold of someone and ask them to send the tickets to London to be picked up. Or be able to print them out. Turns out it is not that easy.

Do I understand correctly that you booked London-Paris tickets via the SNCF site?
If you book tickets via the SNCF, the assumption is that you will pick up the tickets from a French railway station or have them sent by post.
All other railways are the same. If you buy tickets from the Italian railways, say, you cannot collect them from a railway station in Germany or France.

You should have put France down as the country of origin. Putting in Great Britain was a bad idea, as was assuming you could you could get someone to send them to London.

Anyway, with the confirmation number and the same credit card you purchased them with, you should be able to pick them up at any station.

Hi ST,

I think that the SNCF phone number you want is
011 33 8 92 35 35 39 or 011 33 8 92 35 35 35 (Note 2 35's)

At the SNCF (www.voyages-sncf.com) site under "Aide" they have "Contactez-nous par messagerie électronique (réponse sous 48 heures)".

Just below that, on the same page is "Questions / Réponses"

Click on that and you will see "Tout sur l'échange, l'annulation et le remboursement"
This will tell you how to cancel or exchange your ticket.

You can use http://imtranslator.com/?dir=en/it&text= to translate from English to French and vv.

Good luck.

They aren't going to mail you tickets in the US, the US train system won't mail tickets to France, either. If you bought regular tickets, you shouldn't lose your money, regardless.

What are the many sites that claim if you buy tickets from SNCF you cannot pick them up at the window and you lose your money?

I wasn't being sarcastic about that, I actually wanted to know as I've never heard of such a thing (not being able to pick up tickets at the window). Now maybe since your first ticket is from London, that could be a possibility unless there is a SNCF office there. I don't know if there is, the only place outside France I know of one is in Brussels train station.

Well, we leave from London, St. Pancras.
There was some mention on a couple forums from this site and also from the rick stevens forums.

I guess I didn't really know what I was doing when I purchased the tickets. I spent a lot of time checking prices and comparing but I should have investigated how I was going to get the tickets a little bit more.

Plus when I e-mailed SNCF the question and they responded it didn't sound like I could pick them up anywhere. They didn't really answer any of my questions or let me know what I could do excatly.

Thank you for your responses. I feel a little better knowing I should be able to have them reprint them at the station. The SNCF website also stated that if the tickets are lost they are not responsible for them. It made me think that without the tickets I would not be able to do anything.

It sounds like I will lose my chunnel tickets from London to Paris (sice there is not an SNCF station) but can hopefully get my overnight tickets reprinted in Paris. Thanks for your input.

If you have full details of your Eurostar booking, it should appear on their reservations system. You should go to their ticket office at London St Pancras to sort it out. The train booking from Paris should be sorted out at a French station.

Is St. Pancras considred a French station?

Sorry hit submit on accident. (sorry about spelling as well.) I am going to try and call today to see what they tell me. Your replies have been much more positive than some of the other posts that I have seen. Thanks again.

No St Pancras is a station in london.

How long are you staying in London? Even if there is not an SNCF office at St Pancras that can print your tickets, there is a Eurostar arriving from Paris every hour and it certainly seems like one of them could bring your tickets to St Pancras even if they must be printed in France.

Hi ST,

>It sounds like I will lose my chunnel tickets from London to Paris ....<

Not necessarily.

Do as GH recommends and see if they can sort it out at St. Pancras.

Also, for most tickets, you can get a refund if you cancel before the train leaves.

ira##At the SNCF (www.voyages-sncf.com) site under "Aide" they have "Contactez-nous par messagerie électronique (réponse sous 48 heures)".

Just below that, on the same page is "Questions / Réponses"

Click on that and you will see "Tout sur l'échange, l'annulation et le remboursement"
This will tell you how to cancel or exchange your ticket.##

The OP has purchased his ticket from www.tgv-europe.com, not voyages-sncf.

I have sent them several e-mails and questioned about what to do, as suggested above, they reply but without answering.

Today I called raileurope and they told me how they are not afiliated and the woman said that she had never heard of an american purchasing a ticket from tgv-europe. She said that once a person loses a ticket they lose their ticket and their money. That the tickets are non-refundable. The tickets I did purchase were the cheapest I could find and because of that are non-refundable. But, the problem is that I don't want different tickets. I would just like my tickets.

I am going to call on Monday to tgv and see what I can get sorted out. Maybe they can do as many of you mentioned above and have the tickets sent over to St.Pancras. (I know that St.Pancras is in London was just unsure if they would be able to sort out the ticket situation or if it was another system that was used.)

Jeez, what a mess. I never even heard of www.tgv-europe.com. Where'd you find that and what is it? And what does it have to do with RailEurope, and why did you call RailEurope anyway if you bought tickets from tgv-europe?

The trains from London to Paris are run by Eurostar. Everybody else, including the SNCF, is acting as an agent.
On the TGV Europe website is this legal message: "This Internet Site is published by Voyages-sncf.com".
If the tickets are non-refundable and non-exchangeable, that means that, even if someone had stolen the tickets, they could not be exchanged for cash or used on another train.
If they were full-fare tickets and found their way into the wrong hands, they would be valuable because they could be exchanged.
If a booking has been made, it will appear on the computer booking system which can be accessed by Eurostar staff at London St Pancras station. You should be able to show that you are the person who made the booking, and Eurostar staff can check that nobody else has checked in using the ticket you bought. Eurostar, unlike other trains in Europe, has a computerised check-in system.
You should go to the Eurostar booking office at London St Pancras station with the evidence of your booking. Try to sort out your other ticket in Paris.