Greetings, Fodorites!

I am visiting France with friends and we will be traveling by rail for several of our trips. I have already booked passage on the trains we would like to use. Here are my questions:

On 2 of the legs of the trip, it suggested I book seats, then said that there were no seats available. Do I actually have a reservation on these trains? Does it simply mean that we might have to stand? Or is there a chance that we could get to the station and not be able to travel?

I would like to pick up the tickets at the train station, as that was one of the ways to access our tickets. When I received my confirmation, it says that you must use the credit card used for purchase to pick up the tickets, and that credit cards with the magnetic strip (which is all I have found in the US) cannot be used. Is there some way to retrieve these tickets other than with a European-style credit card? Do I need to change the method of receiving the tickets?

I have sent an email to sncf and hope to hear back from them, but would also be grateful for any advice from the forums.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

Did you book directly through SNCF (I hope so; if it's Rail Europe you've got problems and paid too much)? Where are you traveling and on what dates?

Whoever told you you can't use a CC with magnetic strip to purchase/pick up a train ticket is incorrect. You can't use a magnetic strip card in certain automated ticket machines, it's true, but you always have the option of walking up to a manned ticket booth, where they will happily take any credit card you have.

Two ways to retrieve tickets from SNCF in France.
1. Use CC with chip and pin at ticket machines.
2. Use CC used to purchase ticket at <u>manned</u> ticket counters including magnetic strip only CC. Ticket can be retrieved at stations as well as in-town SNCF boutiques. aide.voyages-sncf.com/points-de-vente-sncf. I try to use in-town boutiques unless I happen to be at a station without long ticket counter queues.

For the leg without seat, you will get a better reply if you mention what kind of train on which route.

Generally, if you have bought certain tickets and been informed that you cannot reserve seats, it simply means that it is a regional train on which reserved seats do not exist.

I have seen some local trains where it recommended reservations but they aren't mandatory, Some places in Normandy, as I recall. But I don't understand letting you buy a ticket but claiming you can't reserve a seat, that seems odd to me. I've never seen that. I also wonder about the translation of what it said and what website was used for this purchase. Because on some regional trains, you can't reserve seats but it doesn't say they are recommended.

And SNCF states that you can't use some cards with a magnetic strip in a machine, not that you can't use them to get the ticket in person. But I think if you say you will pick them up at the station, it probably assumes you'll use the machine and just adds that caveat on the email. But you can get them at a window.

As a word of advice, if you ask for help on something like this, it is more useful if you actually give details to help figure out the problem -- i.e., what the route is, what kind of fare, and the date. It makes a big difference if Paris to Avignon vs. Paris to Caen. I've seen it say reservations are recommended for Paris to Caen (which is an Intercites) but I've never seen it then claim none are available.

This is a known fault on the SNCF website.

I even used this very issue as an example last week in my presentation on 'European rail ticketing, the customer perspective' to rail managers at the Future of European Rail conference in London!

On voyages-sncf.com, when you buy a ticket for a train such as a local/regional TER or short-distance Intercité which is non-reservable, meaning seat reservations are neither necessary nor possible, the train cannot 'sell out' and you simply sit where you like, if you click the 'choose my place' link the misleading message 'There are no places available' appears.

It simply means that the reservation system holds no places for this train (obviously, d'oh!) as it's non-reservable, but this message is naturally misinterpreted by passengers as meaning the train is full - when ironically these trains can never get full, tickets are avialable in unlimited quantities.

Just go ahead and buy the ticket!

If you have a ticket on a regional train that is open-ended - can be used on any regional train - then you may well have to 'compost' that ticket yourself before boarding the train - so-called self-validation or self-cancellation.

If you do not stick them in those cancelling machines at the entrance to the platforms and around stations you can be considered to be riding without a valid ticket and fined.

So unless this policy has changed fairly recently ask about that at the station when retrieving your ticket.

Oh you may want to check Man in Seat 61 who posts above his commercial site for answers to your questions and a wealth of other great info on French trains - other informative sites I always recommend: www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

Thanks so much for the responses! I feel a little better, although the response I got for the sncf help desk said that there were no tickets which matched my name or email address!! I sent copies of the confirmations I received and am awaiting a response. They now have the actual routes, times, and payment information. Yes, I booked directly with sncf, and I, too, love Rick Steves. Thanks for the tip on the other websites - I'll check them out.

We are traveling from Rouen-Caen round trip on May 12, Rouen-Vernon round trip on May 11, and Rouen-Paris on May 13.

Those trains are I believe mainly or all regional trains that don't require reservations and may not even have them as an option.

2nd class on those trains can get very crowded during rush hours - they are commuter trains - going into paris in early morning and out of Paris in late afternoon can see SRO trains IME of riding zillions of these. Get to the train early if traveling during rush hours (weekends should be slack).