France Flexipass
 

Instead of booking individual train tickets, I am considering the France Flexipass. We will be in Paris more than 1/2 our trip (probably taking a few day trips), but are planning the first five days in the Loire Valley (probably based in Amboise or Tours) for 2 nights, then 3 days elsewhere, but we haven't settled on where yet. The Flexipass for 2 adults with 3 days of train travel within a month would be $214 per person; for 4 days it would be $245 -- believe you can get it for up 9 days. In addition to the train travel, there are some extra discounts provided (such as discounts of the city passes in some major cities, such as Dijon, Lyon, Avignon and discounts off museum admissions) and discounts in Paris. We could use these discounts throughout the time we're in France, not just on days we're using the train.

Has anyone used the Flexipass and how did it work out for you?

I believe there is some kind of 20% off special right now if you buy a France Pass - not sure of the end date but you can use the pass for six months after issue. To check on this i'd contact www.budgeteuropetravel.com - whom i have bought Eurailpasses and other country passes from for years - they will answer any question without obligation IME.

But i am not sure you are traveling enough to make the pass - at least at full price pay off. It may but it would depend on your other train trips - a few would have to be longer than just going to Amboise from Paris to make the pass pay. In the Loire Valley itself you can visit several chatueax by rail but these are by regional trains that are quite cheap. And for longer journeys involving TGV trains - like if you went from Paris to St-Pierre-des-Corps (Tours' main-line station) then at www.voyages-sncf.com you could nab a PREM fare for a good discount off ordinary fares - but these are train specific and cannot be changed nor refunded so you lose some flexibility that the pass normally provides - to get PREM fares, sold in limited numbers, you often must book when they come on the system, 90 days i believe in advance.
So the pass efficacy would depend on how long your other train trips are and what kind of trains you will use - if TGV or other high-speed express trains on main routes then doing the PREM fare would be the cheapest probably - unless you have several other rail days - the more days on the pass the cheaper per diem it becomes.
For loads of great info on French trains and planning a rail trip there and passes too i always spotlight these info-laden sites - www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com - and for schedules and ordinary fares to compare to the pass - www.voyages-sncf.com.
Again if the 20% off sale is still on it could make a difference so check on when that sale ends - i believe thru the end of August, 2010 but am not sure.

One problem that i have experienced and many others have too, from reports, is that on some TGV lines - notoriously Paris-Avignon-Nice it can be very problematic to get pass holder reservations as you go along - even though the ticket window will say no to pass holder seats (3 euro fee) they told me and others that i could pay full price and get a ticket - thus there is a limited number of passholder seats they sell on each train - point is if the pass is viable for you have whoever you buy the pass from make any TGV reservations on that line (and on the Paris to Bordeaux line) if they are crucial to your itinerary.

But you can also devise other methods of attacks - say the direct Paris to Avignon TGV train is full for pass holders then you could probably more easily book on sight one of the twice hourly TGV trains to Lyon and then take the regional train from there right to Avignon-Centre - the old station in town - the Avignon TGV station is two-miles out of town with shuttle buses to the old station area in town.

Thanks for your advice PalenQ. I think the main thing we need to do is decide what city (or cities) other than Tours or Amboise we'll be going to -- unfortunately am having trouble getting my husband to find the time to give me his input. But until we do that, we can't figure out whether a pass makes sense for us. Hopefully we can do that this week.

Minn-sota snowflake - here is something someone posted today on another thread that may help you with the advance discount tickets should you chose that option:

Sarastro on Aug 3, 10 at 10:16am
Here is a little summary that may be useful to readers.

The cheapest tickets - While PREM tickets are often a very good value, it is the iDTGV tickets which can be the cheapest: 15€ for night trains, 19€ for daytime trains. Tickets are available 4-6 months before any departure date (depending upon when you look in the ticket release cycle) and ticket prices increase as they are sold. As the SNCF expands iDTGV schedules, more and more destinations are becoming available. CDG was recently added to the iDTGV system. iDTGV tickets are listed on most of SNCF´s websites except raileurope.

http://www.idtgv.com

PREMS - PREM fares become available 90 days before any travel date. Unsold PREMs are withdrawn from sale about 10 days before any given travel date. What is generally never mentioned here is that for a good number of destinations, PREM fares are re-released for a period of several days before any given departure date but are only available on the French version website:

http://www.voyages-sncf.com

Look for the tab entitled Dernière minute

Alerte Résa - The SNCF has a free service called Alerte Résa which will alert you by email when PREMs are available for the destinations you choose. The site is in French but is very easy to follow:

http://tinyurl.com/26962hx

Printing tickets at home - presently only non-refundable tickets may be pre-printed at home by the purchaser. This is because the SNCF has not yet implemented planned procedures to preclude one´s printing a ticket, using it, and subsequently submitting a copy for a refund. The SNCF plans on equipping conductors with bar code readers, which will ultimately flag used tickets in their database, thereby prohibiting dishonest refund requests. As this system enhancement becomes implemented, more and more tickets will be available for printing at home.

Picking up tickets - For those of us from the US who do not have EVM format or chipped credit cards, there is a procedure, which should perhaps be mentioned again, for obtaining your tickets at any SNCF service window or boutique.

You will need:

1. the reservation number

2. to present to the service window agent, for his inspection, the same credit card as was used for the on-line purchase. The service window personnel will cross check the credit card numbers used in the on-line with those of the card you present. If anything does not match for any reason: your card was lost or re-issued, your tickets will not be issued. You may obtain a refund but you will receive no tickets.

The last time I was at Gare de Lyon several weeks ago, it was a mob scene. Do not wait until just before you need tickets to pick them up.

Purchasing tickets from the USA In reference to those from the US making on line purchases from one of the SNCF websites; Raileurope, owned jointly by SNCF and Swiss Rail, was established to sell tickets to Americans. Not only are raileurope tickets more expensive than tickets offered elsewhere, none of the discounted ticket types is available or listed. However, using one of the SNCF´s other sites and simply stating you are from some country other than the USA will give you access to the same trains and price structures as those using the French language www.voyages-sncf.com. I have even had good results using Canada as my home country. Accordingly, tickets will only be mailed to the country you list. If you say you are from Vietnam, tickets may be mailed to Vietnam. Tickets will never be mailed to someone in the USA when using non-raileurope websites.

Insurance - is offered by a company separate from the SNCF and to my knowledge is generally not available to those living outside of the EEOC.

I bought one a couple times when I was traveling by train a lot and there was at least one expensive long-distance TGV ride in my plan. I don't think it ever makes sense if you are just doing short, local trips. I liked it a lot, but this was in the days when they weren't limiting seats to passholders (at least I don't think they were, I never had a problem) at all. Also, they didn't have PREMs or those kind of discounts when I bought mine, and if you don't want to plan in advance (as I didn't), you can't get those anyway. So I think they are good if you don't want to plan on exact dates and times and have some long train trips planned.

I never pay attention nor use those other kind of discounts.

I'm from the US, and about a week ago I got a great PREM fare for an Amsterdam-Paris round-trip through the following English version of the SNCF website (using Great Britain for my home country):

http://www.tgv-europe.com/en/

Just printed out the tickets on my printer with no problems.

If you're in the US and looking for PREM fares, I would suggest that website.

Thanks to PalenQ, Christina and Tom18 for your excellent info. One thing I didn't know is that they limit the number of seats for pass holders -- that's a big consideration.

We will be traveling in October, so I would assume there is at least a better chance of getting seat reservations than in the summer.

You've all given me a lot to check out before we decide.