Help: Can I buy TGV tickets in advance...if so how?
 

I plan on traveling to Normandy from Paris for a one day trip and from Paris to Dijon round trip. Can I purchase my tickets in advance? I tried to at http://www.voyages-sncf.com/ but it did not appear that I could get the tickets delivered to the me in the US. Should I get them delivered to the hotel I am staying at in Paris. At a minimum I would like to book the trip from Dijon to CDG b/c that is the same day we are flying back to the US. Would appreciate any advice?

deb321,

This topic has been dealt with countless times already, but here goes: you need to select ticket pickup IN FRANCE and PREPAY, then depending on the type of tickets you purchase, you can either pick them up when you get to France at any train station or Boutique SNCF or you can print them out immediately at home (the latter only works for discounted "Prem's" fares.

Hope this helps,
Andre

topping

Andre said it.. first, leave the 'location' as France. Then go thru the booking steps. Before you have to provide payment information, there will be options for the ticket delivery. These options change depending on the type of fare you've selected. From what I can tell, only discounted (thus non-refundable) fares can be printed on your pc.

If you choose to pay later, then you have to pick up the tickets at a station or boutique within the stated timeframe, or the 'reservations' will be cancelled.

Choose to pay now (online) - then your options may be to print on pc or to pick up at the station or a boutique. Tickets cannot be mailed to the US. They could be mailed to your hotel, not so sure I'd go that route. If you opt to pick up the tickets at station or boutique, bring 1)the confirmation email they'll send you and 2)the same credit card you paid online with.

You can't book tickets more than 60 days in advance (the website won't let you finish the transaction).

Hope this helps.

Thank you - this was a tremendous help. I apologize, but what does 'topping' mean?

Since the threads are displayed from most recently updated first, when you want to bring a thread to the top and have nothing to say, you just type something like "topping," "ttt" (to the top) etc. to bring the thread to the top so that other people can look at it more easily.

Hope this helps.

I haven't been on the TGV in years, but as I recall correctly I had to make a reservation in person even though I had a ticket in advance. Is this still true??? I remember getting up very early in the morning in Dijon to get a reservation on the TGV to Paris.

Hi TG,

The TGV tickets are compulsory reservations. If you book through SNCF the reservation comes with the seat.

If you book through Raileurope or a foreign TA, you get an "open ticket" for which you have to purchase a reservation.

Having just done this last month, here is my link:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34513759

When we got to CDG, we went to the SNCF office, gave them our confirmation number and the corresponding credit card and them gave us the printed ticket. Is was a snap.

I would love to know why this topic, which comes up over and over and OVER again wasn't stuck on that supposed "superthread" that was bandied about a few days ago.

And even if it IS on the thread, how would someone who might be new to the board even know about it?

Well, Top, you can always include a couple of links there -- obviously that would be appreciated.

Regarding your second question, well, I guess that's the problem. But maybe some people will catch the thread and not bother asking.

In any case, I've nothing against a new person asking a question that's asked many times before. As you say, how're they supposed to know? People can always skip a thread that they find annoying or uninformative.