I booked two tickets for a trip in May to go from Paris Nord to Antwerpen, Belgium and was only sent one of the ticketless barcode emails. (I found the one barcode email in my spam folder, but not the second one.) I was also sent a confirmation email with my booking reference information (but that email also says ATTENTION: THIS E-MAIL IS NOT A VALID TRAVEL DOCUMENT.)

I called the SNCB call center (since I also booked via the Belgian version of the Thalys website) and was told to call the Thalys customer center. The person at the Thalys customer center advised me that this is a "known problem" and I should just board the train with the emails that I received and the Train manager would be able to sort the details.

(I learned from the SNCB call center representative that I should have booked via the SNCB portal to have more control over my reservation at http://www.b-europe.com/Travel )

Has anyone had to travel without the Thalys barcode? Was it a non-issue? I am a bit wary of boarding a train with only a document that states that it is not a valid travel document.

Thanks for your info.

misterfuss

no, the barcode seems to be a part of ticket confirmation.







www.barcodelib.com

WE recently took the Thalys from Paris to Brussels with a printout from the SNCF site, and NO bar code. The ticket collector wasn't too thrilled, but entered our info and foudn us. So no problem except that it took him more time.

Hi MF,

Unless you are fluent in French, I suggest that you type up an explanation IN FRENCH why you have only one bar code instead of 2 to give to the conductor.

You might not need it, but .....

Enjoy your visit.

I am just revisiting my post after a long time. We actually had no problem while on board the train. We got a strange look while on the platform when someone was checking tickets and we only had the one. I explained the situation to her and she shrugged her shoulders and let us board. The conductor was able to scan the first barcode and retrieve the reservation that the other information.

I'm glad there was no problem. When you have the time to do so, the ticket offices in the train stations can print duplicate tickets to save time.