OK I have never seen any posting to the effect that their Prems have not been honored, but my sister is concerned because a few years ago our pre-booked train tix from Madrid to Valencia were not honored and we ended up having to fly to Valencia. To ease her mind I told her I have never seen anything posted to this effect re Prems, but I would check with everyone.

Hi SAB

No problems with our Prems tickets each time we've bought them - hope you have the same experience!

Happy travels, Di

Never had a problem with Prem's. Just make sure the name on the ticket matches the name of the ID document.

Sorry to hijack this thread but what exactly is a Prem ticket...

I know it's a type of train ticket but that's all I know.

Thanks

It's a discount SNCF (French) train ticket that most people buy off the internet and print themselves.

I believe that the self-printed tickets have a special background in the back. Plus it has a special "bar code" which the train conductor scans. So, if your printed PREMS is lacking the special background or if the bar code doesn't scan, I can imagine your tickets may not be honored. I think on sncf website there is a "test ticket" which you can print out from your printer to see if it shows up correctly, before you print out your PREMS.

We were traveling with our PREM tickets but not carrying our passports - did not realize that ID could be requested (even tho I think it states it on the PREM printout!) But the conductor was nice enough to just warn us to carry our passports next time. We were on a daytrip from Paris to Angers with our other documents back at the hotel. Lesson learned.

Never had any problems. I always save the ticket as a PDF file so that I can print it again should I lose a copy. Even if the bar code can't be read, because the ticket has a background that looks like a watermark of the passenger's name, I can't imagine that any conductor would reject it if presented with the proper ID.

The PREM is for a specific person by name and birthdate, so of course ID can be requested. It says right on it, not just on something they send with it, that a piece of identity with a photo must be presented. Even if you don't know French, you could make out what it says.

I've never heard of anyone not having a valid PREM ticket honored, for the same date and train and person it was valid for, if you can prove your identity.

However, don't worry if ever there is a <i>minor</i> typing error in your name or if you have inverted your birthdate as month-day-year instead of day-month-year: the ticket checkers are human beings and know that that sort of mistake can happen.

However, if you are on the wrong train or wrong day, they will indeed charge you for a new ticket.

Thanks everyone, now I can reassure her, again. She has a hard time believing that the PREMS from SNCF are so much less expensive than RailEurope. Since we are purchasing tix to/from Paris and Avignon for 5 people, its a huge savings!!!

yk--Thanks, I did indeed run the &quot;test&quot; tix beforehand.

Off to book more tix--2 down, 8 to go!!!

Heavens, no.