CincyReds

Hello! Our family of 4 (2 adults, 2 children) will be taking the Artesian night train from Paris to Florence in mid-June. The dates are not open yet, but I used dates in May to price out tickets for a 4 person couchette. Booking through RailEurope.com is going to run about $1080 for the 4 of us R/T. I read on seat61.com that you can book on either UK's RailEurope site or the TGV-Europe site and pick the tickets up at the train station to save money. I "tested" this out again with the dates in May on the UK and TGV-Euope sites, and the prices were about $700 for the 4 of us R/T. Has anyone booked train tickets this way and lived in the USA? Were you successful in picking up your train tickets at the station? My concern is that we get to the train station and we can't get our tickets because 1) they don't have a record of them or 2) they see our American identification and say we can't have the tickets since they were booked on the UK site and we're not residents of the UK. Does anyone have any insight/advise?
Thank you!

PeaceOut

Try BudgetEuropeTravel.com. They have an 800 number and are very knowledgeable and helpful about the train fares and routes. We bought our tickets in advance through them, and they will mail paper tickets to you. They will find you the best fare.

CincyReds

Thank you PeaceOut, I'll give them a try. I don't know if they'll be much cheaper, but I think I'll feel better with a paper ticket.

Jomackenzie

I have used this system of picking up tickets reserved online. Normally you need to have the credit card you used to pay for the tickets, & you put in your code to retrieve the tickets along with the credit card. This may have changed, so do make sure.

ira

Hi C,

Have you looked at www.voyages-sncf.com?

They want 210E for two adults and 2 kids (04-11) on the 18:54 Artesia on May 5.

Keep the language French. Use http://imtranslator.com if you need to.

Sarastro

Regulars travelers to France know to avoid Raileuorpe and that the cheapest way to purchase tickets is through one of the following websites:

http://www.voyages-sncf.com (in French only)
http://www.tgv-europe.com

Both of these sites are actually French rail (SNCF) websites and the SNCF will absolutely not send tickets to the USA which circumnavigates their higher priced outlet Raileurope.

Once you book your tickets (available 90 days before you travel), there are two ways to obtain them: print them out (option is not always available) or pick them up at any SNCF boutique or rail station service window. To pick up tickets, you will need:

1. the reservation number

2. to present, for the agent´s inspection, the same credit card used in the on line transaction. The agent cross checks the credit card numbers of the actual card with those used for the original transaction. If he finds any difference, your tickets will not be issued. If your card is reissued or changed for any reason, the verification process will fail. You must present the original credit card. Do not lose it.

Your US credit card will not work in any of the automated ticketing kiosks, you must pick them up at a service window so give yourself plenty of time as the lines can sometimes be long.

Finally, the service window agent does not care of what country you are a citizen, he just issues tickets. No explanations are necessary or expected.

CincyReds

Thanks everyone for all the input! I think I'm going to book through TGV-Europe or Voyages Sncf. I is a lot cheaper- although I'm still a little nervous something will go wrong!!

Man_in_seat_61

Nothing will go wrong!

Book it in English at www.tgv-europe.com, selecting 'Canada' as your country.

You collect tickets at the station in Paris. The machines won't accept non-Chip and PIN credit cads, so you just go to the staffed ticket counter and collect them there.

They ask for the booking reference and the credit card used to make the bookiung. Passports and nationalities are not an issue and are of no concern to the staff at that counter!

CincyReds

Thanks everyone for all your help! I feel confident that it will work now! I have one more question: Can I book the round-trip from Paris to Florence, and returning Florence to Paris and pick up both tickets at the train station in Paris? Or do I need to pick up the Florence to Paris tickets in Italy?
Thank you!

Man_in_seat_61

You pick up any/all tickets booked on the French system at any staffed station in France. You wont be able to collect French-booked tickets from an Italian station!