lovisa

I'm pretty sure at this point that point-to -point tickets rather than a rail pass are the way for me to go, but I have a few more questions.

Plan to go from Strasbourg to Paris on July 16 (I realize it's too early still to purchase tickets).

1. If I buy a railpass, information on websites seems to indicate that railpass reservation/supplment can be anywhere from 3 -25 Euros and railpass reservations are limited. So how much for the reservation and how limited is their availability?

2. It seems like too much hassle to purchase tickets on the French website and go pick them up (also it doesn't seem to always go through). However, there seems to be one daily choice (in purple) denominated as "iDTGV" which are internet only fares that you print yourself. Has anybody used this?

3. It appears that the full fare 2nd class price is Euro 81.8. RailEurope has the audacity to charge $212 for the full fare plus their $18 booking fee. The German bahn.de website has available for purchase electronically some, through not all, Strasbourg - Paris TGV fares at or near full price. Is there any reason not to buy it on the bahn site, since this seems a much better deal than RailEurope?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Christina

I think you are misunderstanding something about the fares you are comparing.

I just looked at the fares on all those websites, and you can't get them because the date is too far out. You can't get them on SNCF nor on bahn.de nor on Raileurope. At least, I couldn't. They all won't even quote a fare.

However, when I just changed the date to be closer, in order to get a fare quote -- I did see that the normal full-price second class fare is around 70 euro, but Raileurope itself is only quoting $79 or $106 for the same ticket (second class, the $106 is the fully flexible). So that is actually about the same as in euro. I don't know where you are getting $212 for a single second class ticket on that route on Raileurope, I saw some fares around $200 for the date I picked, but it was for first class, not second class.

I can't help you on the bahn thing, as I've never heard of anyone booking French tickets on there and being able to print them for a trip entirely in France. Maybe you can, I just haven't heard of it.

I don't know why it would be so much hassle to purchase tickets and then pick them up. Pre-internet, that's what everyone did, and you have to go the station anyway, obviously. I agree it is nice to have them preprinted to save time, but if that were my only choice, I wouldn't refuse to do it just because I didn't want to pick them up. I've bought tons of train tickets in France at the station, in person and picking up a few I bought online as most cannot be printed, and it's not that onerous. Sure, I'd rather not. Some stations and times are a lot busier than others at the ticket windows, of course.

Christina

Actually, now that I look at it again, Raileurope has some for only $66 second class on that route, cheaper than the $79. It depends on the time of day, it's usually cheaper later in the morning.

TimS

If you have a railpass, TGV reservations cost 3-4 euro if bought in Europe. Yes, train companies can limit the number of sets they allot to passholders.

Now that the SNCF site has been revised, it's much harder to book in English without being bumped to RailEurope--where you cannot get discount fares. However, if you want to save money, it can be worth it. iDTGV fares start at 19€ for Strasbourg-Paris. Prem's fares for all other TGVs on that route start at 22€. Prem's tickets can also be self-printed.

lovisa

Thank you both for your comments and help. I guess I'll just try to book an advanced fare on the French site and print it out at home.