Sue4

HELP! I am trying to make a reservation in May from CDG to Angers on the SNCF website, and can't seem to get anywhere.<BR>I'm about ready to resort to Rail Europe! I got as far as making the reservation, but Larry, I couldn't find the option of having the ticket held for pickup at station, nor any place for credit card information. I was on the English language site. I have the reservation number, but it says I must collect ticket before 07/04/2003 (which I assume is the French way of writing April 7. Some of the English language site is in French, which I can read. When I printed out the reservation, it's all in English. It says &quot;to collect before 07/04/2003&quot;. <BR>Could they mean July 4, 2003, instead of April 7, 2003. The date of my reservation says 02/05/03, the French way is saying May 2, so I assume the collection date would be written in the French way, too. Any more suggestions??

Sue_xx_yy

Elle, I've just done a test of the system, and picked a 'prem' fare which was offered on the English language site; once I picked this fare I got instructions that were partially in French. There was the option to have free delivery by courrier OR an option to print them off yourself (&quot;imprimer votre billet vous-meme pour gagner la temps&quot;....i.e, print your ticket yourself to save time.) If the latter, I don't think you need to give a French address, so don't proceed to step 3 where it asks for an address. Just pick the print-it yourself option.<BR><BR>I just did the 'test printout' (for which you need Acrobat reader, no problem if you don't you can get a free download.) Problem is I'm not absolutely sure I did everything right in all respects. But just as StCirq mentioned, this is starting to be an option, which will solve the whole problem. I have no immediate plans to purchase sncf tickets on line, so perhaps others can keep us filled in on how well it works.

Sue4

Just tried to make another reservation, and got the &quot;online payment&quot; page to come up, so maybe I'm OK now. I didn't go any further with it, as I was just trying it out. Will probably have to cancel my other reservation, and start over. Anyway, maybe the problem is solved!

LarryJ

Sue4<BR><BR>You got the message to pick-up your tickets by April 4 because you chose the option to PAY FOR AND PICK-UP tickets at SNCF. They will only hold tickets for 1 week if not paid for online.<BR><BR>Even on the English version of the website some of the payment and ticket collection options are in French. After choosing your train do this: To pay for your tickets online and have them held for pick-up for up to 60 days choose the &quot;Retirer votre billet en billetterie automatique <BR>ou au guichets des gares&quot; option in section 2. This option is telling you that you can get your tickets from the automatic ticket machine at the station or at the ticket counter. Then in section 3 enter ONLY YOUR NAME AND E-MAIL ADDRESS. Do not enter your mailing address. Click on &quot;Valider&quot; and the next screen will ask for your credit card information. You will then get an e-mail confirmation within a minute or two. Present that confirmation and the credit card for ID that you used for the online booking at the ticket counter in France to get your tickets. You will not be able to use the automatic ticket machines as only a French debit or credit card is accepted.<BR><BR>Hope this helps.<BR>Larry J

Sue4

Thanks, Larry, I finally have the reservations, paid for! I appreciate the help. People on this forum are really great with their willingness to help. I have gotten so much good information since discovering this site.

Betty1

These changes to the SNCF site have really thrown me for a loop. I need to buy 8 tickets Paris to Avignon for June 7. I thought I had it all figured out: I would try for 8 �Decouverte J30� at 38 euros each. If I couldn�t get that many, I would try for at least 2 and get the remainder at the �Decouverte Senior� price of 48.80, since 6 of my 8 are age 60+. (Still a good saving over the Plein tarif of 65+ euros.) I had planned to pay for them online and then pick them up in Paris at an SNCF office. I did this last summer for one ticket and it worked just fine. <BR><BR>With the new system, there are no more J30 or J8 tickets. I would love to get 8 �Prems� at 25 euros ea. but as far as I can determine, you can�t pay for them online and then pick them up in France. Your options are 1) to have them mailed to an address in France or 2) to print them out on your own printer. The first I can�t do (unless I have them sent to the hotel in Paris) and I am very leery of printing them on my computer. Why? Several reasons:<BR><BR>1) Depending on which part of the site you are on, you either have to choose your country of residence from a drop-down list which doesn�t include the US or check a box saying �I acknowledge that I have understood the SNCF Terms and Conditions of sale and I accept them.� The latter says �Voyages-Sncf.com's services and Terms and Conditions of Use exclusively apply to clients who are residents of the countries listed in appendices 1, 2 and 3.� Again, none of these include the US. (As Larry says above, there are several other places on the site where they say that residents of the US cannot buy tickets online.)<BR>2) The �conditions of use� of printed tickets include a lot of fine print having to do with the quality of the printing, the type of printer, the size of the image and even the size of the paper they are printed on. (Anybody know what �du papier A4� is? I imagine that French paper is not precisely 8 1/2� by 11�.)<BR>3) These tickets are entirely non-exchangeable and non-refundable.<BR>4) If you do not adhere to any one of these rules and conditions, your ticket �will be considered as invalid.�<BR>(Cont.)

Betty1

I am concerned that we might show up at the station with our printed tickets and be told that because we are Americans and weren’t supposed to buy our tickets on the Internet, they are not valid. (And yes, they will know that we are Americans, because you must also present, along with your ticket, a passport or other “pi&egrave;ce d’identit&eacute;.”) Or they are not sufficiently legible, or printed on the wrong sort of paper, etc. etc. We could find ourselves holding 200 euros’ worth of useless paper and then still have to buy tickets at whatever rate was offered. <BR><BR>I even e-mailed the SNCF asking very simply whether an American, living in the US, could purchase “Prem” tickets either on the Internet or by calling the SNCF offices. As an answer I got the e-mail equivalent of a form letter that did not specifically answer my question. It did include the statement, (I’m translating) “These prices are available to all, on condition of being reserved in advance, and are offered in 2nd class, for more than 500 itineraries.” Still not sure if “all” includes US residents. <BR><BR>I suppose what I will do on Monday (the first day I can order tickets) is call the SNCF and see what they say. The least expensive tickets are only available on the Internet, though. Other “Prem” fares (*from* 30 euros on TGV) are offered by phone, in stations, travel agencies, etc. <BR><BR>I am sure some will think I’m being paranoid to worry so much, but I suspect that this is a further attempt to discourage (prevent?) Americans from buying discounted SNCF tickets on the net and to encourage (force?) us to buy from RailEurope. It may well be that I could print out our tickets and they would be accepted with no problem, but I’m not sure I want to take a chance on that. If anyone has any suggestions or further information I would love to hear it. Sue, how did you order your tickets? Marilyn, how have you managed? I suppose it is too soon for anyone to have actually used a self-printed ticket? <BR>(My quotation marks seem to have been transformed into little rectangles!)

Mariarosa

Marilyn and Betty - Wow! Based on what Larry and StCirq have reported a lot has changed since I purchased my tickets mid-February. <BR><BR>I don't really have an answer for your questions, but Betty I do know that J8 and J30 fares were available only on certain routes and they must be round-trip. So if you were trying to purchase one-way tickets for June 7, the J8 and J30 fares would not show. Good luck and please report on your experiences after you travel.

Andre

Betty,<BR><BR>I just went through the booking process for Prem's tickets and I think you'll be absolutely fine!<BR><BR>First of all, you are NOT required to enter your address data (these fields are optional if you don't select ticket delivery by mail, which isn't available for the US anyway). There is NO way for the conductor to know where you live when he checks your ticket.<BR><BR>Second, you can test print a ticket by clicking on the &quot;en savoir+ sur le billet imprime&quot; link in the checkout screen, then on the &quot;l'impression d'un billet de train&quot; link. This will open an Adobe Acrobat window with a specimen ticket you can print out. While tickets must in theory be printed on European A4 size paper (WHITE), US letter size is quite close so I don't think this is an issue at all (provided it prints out OK on a single sheet when you do a test) - IMO they specify the paper size and colour to avoid having people print out illegible tickets on small, brightly coloured hard-to-read formats. Anyway, if you want to be absolutely secure, just go to a cybercafe in Europe and print out your ticket there on standard A4 paper (you can print it out as often as you want). Just remember to have your passport or driver's license handy on the train as the conductor will require ID to verify that this is indeed your ticket.<BR><BR>If you really don't want to try out a Prem's fare, the remaining Decouverte categories and of course full fare are still available and all represent a considerable savings over RailEurope's prices.<BR><BR>One final remark: if you attempt to purchase BOTH Prem's and &quot;conventional&quot; tickets AT THE SAME TIME, you will only be offered the mailing option - not the self-print or pickup in France options. So you need to make 2 separate purchases in this case (somewhat annoying).<BR><BR>Hope this helps,<BR>Andre

LarryJ

I have in the last few days bought several tickets on line at the SNCF site for pick-up at the station in France getting confirmation numbers and e-mail confirmations etc. In your booking do not enter your address but choose the option to pick-up at the station and the process will work fine.<BR><BR>Also I called SNCF at the English language phone number 011 33 8 92 35 35 39 and was told I could order on the telephone and even though I lived in the USA they would mail the ticket to me free of charge. This home delivery of course can not be done through the website. So if you are still uneasy about booking on the web for France pick-up order by telephone. I use an AT&amp;T prepaid card that costs only a few cents per minute for calls to France.<BR><BR>Best wishes<BR>Larry J

Christina

bravo, Larry, you and SNCF are being best friends!<BR><BR>I don't think J8/J30 fares had to be roundtrip as I believe I got a J8 from Avignon to Paris only. However, I don't think they exist anymore with the new fares, anyway.<BR><BR>I have written SNCF recently about whether there are any left luggage facilities available in any Parisian stations now, and they did respond quite quickly but it wasn't that much use because it was just a form reponse telling me to check their web site. Now, they did give me a link very specific to the left luggage (which was nice for future reference) by gare, however, my concern was that the web site might be outdated and given security I wanted to know what exactly was going on now. So, they never really answered my specific question and the web site claims they are all open, but I don't believe it (it also says the situation may change at their discretion due to security and the web site may not be accurate -- no kidding, that's why I asked).

Betty1

The problem is I want the lowest price possible without having to print the tickets myself. That just seems riskier to me. <BR><BR>It now looks like I can order �prem� tickets on the English language site and still pick them up in France. Although I must check either to print them myself (no address required) or have them mailed (address required), if I check to have them printed and then go on to paying for them online, it looks like I can still opt to pick them up in France. Not sure, though, as I couldn�t go any further without actually making a purchase. Lord, this makes no sense! I still think I will call on Monday. If they can sell me tickets at 30-40 euros ea. over the phone and either mail them to me or let me pick them up in France, that�s what I will do.<BR><BR>Thanks to all who have tried to help. Maybe it�s just that the site has not been completely updated to reflect the new procedures and it will sort itself out by Monday. For the sake of others who may want to purchase tickets in the near future, I�ll let you know what happens.<BR>

Betty1

Since I said I would report back, here goes. I have tickets. Not thrilled with the prices. Got two �Prem� tickets at 60 euros each. I did have to print them myself even though at some mid-point the site seemed to indicate that I could pick them up in France. The other 6 I got, believe it or not, through RailEurope who offered a group rate of $58 for the tickets + $11 for the reservations (would have been only $4 if they could have booked them as a block, but there were not 6 seats together, so they claimed they couldn't give me a group rate for the reservation - ??!! ) + $15 handling fee. That still came out to less than 6 �plein tarif� tickets on the SNCF site at 79.20 euros each. (By the time I finished ordering the 2 �Prem� tickets, there were no more �Prem� or even Discovery Senior tickets available. They must not have had very many to begin with as they disappeared in less than a half-hour!) I won�t go into all the details involving a call to SNCF at 3:00 am this morning (was assured my printed tickets would be honored), two calls to RailEurope, buying and then cancelling 6 �plein tarif� tickets, and having to change the pick-up and drop-off times for my rental cars! Lord, what an ordeal just to save a few bucks!<BR><BR>Lessons learned: 1) Try not to travel on a holiday weekend. 2) If you are ordering discounted tickets online, do it quickly. 3) Rail Europe may not always have the worst deal, especially if you can qualify for a group rate (6 or more). 4) Best to set your budget based on full price tickets, then if you can get discounts, it�s a nice surprise. <BR><BR>I wish you all better luck and less trouble than I had!<BR>

gomarciago

I had plans to travel days after 9/11. Still went but had to delay until flights resumed. Had to change some planes. The Chunnel tickets I bought online from French train site were the only tickets I was refused a refund or credit for when I had to change plans due to suspended flights.

Marilyn

I finally got around to booking my tickets on-line and since I promised to report on my experience, here goes:<BR><BR>I used the English language sncf website, had no problem until I got to the final screen for confirmation, then could not move on to payment. I kept getting a technical error message, and then back to square one for booking. So apparently they continue to have problems with the English language part of the website.<BR><BR>After the 3rd try, with the info from this thread in mind, I went back to sncf.com home site and tried the French version. (I can read it a lot better than I can speak or understand it!) Pas de probleme! Only had to supply name and birth date for each passenger, no address.<BR><BR>Paid with my credit card, printed the tix myself -- they look VERY official, with passenger name embedded in the print all over the face of the ticket --and anticipate no problem using them! I have an email confirmation from sncf which I will print out and take with, just in case.<BR><BR>So thanks to all for their help here, especially StCirq, without whose post I would not have tried the French language site. Once again I am SO grateful for the existence of this forum!

wren

Marilyn, I scanned this thread, and I don't think I saw this addressed. How necessary is it to get tickets in advance? We only need a one-way ticket from Paris to Chartres, and I assumed we would just get it while we are there.

Marilyn

wren, we are attending a conference and it is important for us to arrive on a certain day before a certain time, so I didn't want to take any chances on getting the train we wanted. Also, if you know your travel dates, there are cheaper tickets to be had in advance.

wren

Thanks, Marilyn. We do know our dates. I will check into it when we are 2 months from needing tickets.

LVSue

When I ordered my tickets in March on the phone, all the gal gave me was a reservation number; she didn't offer me free mailing and I didn't think of it (I do remember reading about it here, though). Wonder if I should call back to verify since I have nothing official from them. (They have charged my credit card account!) Has anyone picked up tickets with just a reservation number?

petite

If I may add...I booked a TGV reservation for my husband and I for a June trip to the Loire Valley from Paris. I used the TGV website which then directs you to the English version of SCNF website. From there, I was able to book our train without problems. I clicked on the option to mail to my home address eventhough USA was clearly not on the list. I used FRANCE as the country, but my USA address was clearly documented. It went through the entire booking process including the reservation #. I then sent an email stating that I was a buyer from the USA and to please send the tickets to my home address. Long story short, it was mailed to the US without any problems.... hope this helps.