elle

Ye gods and little fishes! Can this be right?!

We (two people) need to travel from Paris to Avignon and then return to Paris from Montpellier.

I've read all the caveats on this site about RailEurope, but frankly, I love having my tickets in hand before I leave so I don't mind paying a bit more. Just a "bit"--maybe $20 more per person.

When I ran the numbers and compared both options, the difference was more than just a bit, however. Through RailEurope, I'd pay $87 per person to Avignon and $88 pp from Montpellier back to Paris for a total of $350.

Through sncf, I'd pay 68EUR pp to Avignon and 34EUR pp back from Montpellier, for a total of 204EUR (same trains, same stations). Now, assuming the exchange rate is roughly 1:1, that's a savings of $146--enough for a rather nice dinner.

Not to mention no handling fees! Seems like its worth it to gamble and leave without those tickets in hand. . .

Liz

I felt not having to pack the tickets was a GOOD thing! Just have the confirmation # and the CC you used to buy the tickets to hand to the person at the train counter. Simple, convienient, and much cheaper.

dfc

Elle -- I bought my Eurostar ticket through SCNF last year and had no problems what so ever. After I arrived in Paris, I went to the SCNF office located at the St Michel Metro Stop, showed my receipt and credit card and walked out with my tickets in less than 5 minutes.

RailEurope is extremely high (I too was shocked when I first did a comparison -- now I would just bypass them altogether) but it's a charge for what people perceive as convenience. Some are not comfortable with ordering from a "foreign" web site. Most of us on Fodor's don't have a problem with that and the advice here has tended to point us to the SCNF (or other country's equivalent) websites to buy our train tickets.

Dale

Our complaints against Rail Europe are more to do with their North American offices not having the same fares as the Eurostar British office. I would have gladly paid called the Canadian toll free number and paid a surcharge for having my tickets in hand before I left home, but the cheap fare was not available AT ALL! If you want to read my full observations see my post from last night, entitled. "Buying Eurostar tickets from North America" (hope I copied the link to the post okay).
Dale

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessages.jsp?fid=2&tid=34396932&numresponses=0&s tart=100

Christina

They aren't always that different, I've compared, sometimes they are only about 15-20 euro-- for example, your first example is only 20 euro difference, that seems about right. That might be worth the convenience to me to not make a separate trip to the rail station and wait in line, perhaps a long time (this is from experience, not theory, I had to wait an hour in Aix rail station once to get my tickets).

The second fare looks odd for 34 euro on SNCF all the way from Montpellier as that is farther than Avignon. Sometimes the real big differences are mainly due to being able to get advance purchase fares from SNCF and not Raileurope, and maybe that's what that is.

For that difference, I would book online.

elle

Yes, I thought the Montpellier fare looked odd, too. The only other option during this particular timeframe was through Valence, and it was much, much higher--more than Rail Europe's even.

Ira

Hi Elle,
The cheap fare (34 E) you found is the J30 - 30 day advance purchase. Full fare on SNCF is 80 Euro

lui

Rail Europe always charges full fares.
Online with SNCF you can take advantage of the advance booking rates when available.
That's the difference, which BTW pays for the cost of the upkeep and staff of Rail Europe, which actually is a subsidiary of SNCF.

elle

Ira,

Thanks for enlightening me. I did see that it had the "J30" code, but didn't have time to see what that meant.

Do you know if it means you must both buy and pick up 30 days prior? I have plenty of time to buy, but will be in Paris for just two days prior to going south. Many thanks.

Ira

Hi Elle,
I don't know itf you have to pickup the ticket 30 days prior. I think not, since you can have your reservation confirmed by eml.
You could have the tickets delivered to your hotel OR
There is a 'contact us' link on the SNCF site.

Bob Brown

I travel a lot in Europe by train, and I don't buy from Rail Europe.
The Swiss folks will send the tickets to you in the US. It costs some to have thenm shipped over here, but if you must have your tickets in hand, for which there is not much reason, that is one option.
I did get Swiss Cards via the mail because I arrived in Bern and the card is not sold there. It is sold in Zurich, however.

alice horst

what is SNCF??? my daughter , who lives in Italy, and I travel by train frequently, but she usually gets our tickets.. what is this SNCF?? thank you

francophile03

Like Bob Brown we bought our tickets to Bern via Paris and Strasbourg through Swiss Rail. The same tickets would have cost us much more had we bought them at Rail Europe. Swiss Rail has their own website and that's where we ordered the tickets. We did pay a bit more to have them mail them to our home in the US, but even with that cost added in, it was still much cheaper than Rail Europe. Also Swiss Rail has an email address to contact if you have any questions whatsoever; the staff is there seven days a week and answers inquiries promptly.

RachelG

Alice, SCNF is the French national railway, so only in France.

elle

Alice,

S.N.C.F stands for Societe Nationale de Chemins de Fer--in otherwords, the French national railroad. So it's your best bet for travel in France.

alice92

am I only able to purchase SNCF tickets while IN France, or can they be purchased on a website???

StCirq

Elle: No, you don't have to pick up your tickets 30 days in advance - you can pick them up right before you board your train. I do this all the time. Just allow enough time to wait in line for about 15 minutes at the station and be sure to print out and bring your confirmation with you.

Alice: you can find the SNCF at www.sncf.fr

Betty1

Just to add a bit to what St. Cirq says, you can also pick up tickets ordered online at any SNCF Boutique in Paris or elsewhere. Here is a web page that lists all the boutiques in Paris (hope the URL isn't too long): http://www.voyages-sncf.com/info_resa/guide_du_voyageur/Adresses.htm?NumAdress=198

Last summer I ordered tickets through the SNCF website for Paris - Chartres and Avignon - Paris (TGV) and picked them up at the boutique on rue St. Dominique which was very convenient since I was staying at Hotel Muguet. It only took a few minutes. Just be sure that you take your confirmation e-mail with the 6-letter reference code and the SAME credit card that you used to order the tickets. I picked up the tickets on July 28. One was for July 30 and the other for Aug. 10.

There is another option I have not used: apparently, you can withdraw your previously ordered tickets from machines located in the train stations, using your reference code and credit card. But, having never used those, I don't know how user-friendly they are, especially if you don't speak French. I would prefer to deal with a human being.

Jennie

Hi everyone:

Is there a way to view the site in English? I can read and understand French a little, but not enough to really effectively use the site.

Thanks,
Jennie

indytravel

In the upper-left hand corner of the www.sncf.com, just under the SNCF logo is a tiny British flag. Click on it and you're off and running in English.