Help!! Need to pick up train tickets in France and credit card stolen
 

I booked tickets for my family of four from Paris to Geneva through voyages - sncf and my credit card just got stolen. How can I pick my tickets up? I know I need to use that exact same credit card. I don't know what to do! My train leaves on July 7th. I can provide proof of police report and my credit card statement with the train fee charged back in April. It's a 600 hundred dollars worth of tickets...:(

Any suggestions would be really appreciated!!

I think they have a help line.. I'd email and call them.

Not had this problem in France but it happened in UK. I just went to the ticket counter show my ID and they issued me a ticket. But do email to see what ( they) propose.

Why didn't you print the tickets when you first purchased them?

TRAIN TICKET DELIVERY OPTIONS:
http://en.voyages-sncf.com/en/train-ticket-withdrawal

If your tickets are refundable, you can cancel them and buy new ones :
http://help.en.voyages-sncf.com/en/e...l-train-ticket

I think your police documents will be sufficient.

Typically, the SNCF will only refund the tickets if you simply show up at a service window. If you are in France, I would take everything now, police report, card statements, into one of the service centers or boutiques and ask for help.

I am assuming that your tickets where of the type that could not be printed at home.

When I retrieved my "Print at station" train tickets this April using a self-service SNCF terminal, I only had to key in my "reference code" and my "last name". No credit card was involved in the process.

May be credit card was required in the past, but as late as this April, it was no longer required.

Don't panic. I am sure you'll be able to retrieve your tickets without problem.

My experience is the same as Reading's.

The two times I've picked up tickets at the station (and it can be any time, not just on the day), the reference code was what was needed. It will be on your confirmation, combination of 6 letters and numbers. Code is called Référence de dossier.

Good luck, just head to the nearest sncf boutique.

If you buy tickets via Loco2.com, uk.voyages-sncf.com or Rail Europe, only the booking reference is necessary to collect from the machines. Not the credit card.

But if you buy tickets via www.voyages-sncf.com (other than the UK version) or www.capitainetrain.com they have an additional layer of anti-fraud protection in place and you need both the reference and the original credit card to collect from the machines.

Cards do get stolen - you need to go to the staffed counter with the police report and see what they say, this will not be the first time such things happen, and SNCF will have a procedure for dealing with it.

I would have thought maybe some letter from the CC company about it when they replaced it might do. But I also seem to remember (maybe not), that the same credit card is only necessary when you want to use the automated ticket machines to retrieve what you bought.

If you are still at home, surely you have a copy of a bill with the CC number on it from before which you can bring. Or print one from your CC online acct, this is easy. I know it only shows the last four digits for some cards (some of mine show the whole number), but given the bill would be in your name with those digits and the type of card, that ought to be proof enough.

oh, bring a copy of the bill with the SNCF charges on them, I often do that anyway.

I respectfully disagree that tickets purchased from www.capitainetrain.com will result in needing the original credit card to retrieve them. That was not my experience this April.

Capitainetrain issues a code and you use that at the station, not the credit card.
https://help.capitainetrain.com/c9/q...h-station.html

***How do I print my ticket?***
"Please be aware: your print-at-station tickets must be retrieved using your six-digit reference number and not your credit card. To print your tickets you can use the yellow self-service machines which you will find everywhere at the station. Choose ‘Collection with a file reference number’ and then ‘File and electronic ticket collection’."

Capitaine .com does not require a credit card for picking up tickets at kiosks. Only reference number and name. (By the way they have great customer service. Dealt with them during the recent French rail strike and they were great)

I am guessing that katriam was able to readily sort out this issue and that is why there has been no word back….

I just logged in now and saw all your replies...I didn't write back because I didn't know there were all these replies...I thought Fodor would have alerted me by email. Sorry about that!

Anyhow, I'm back from my trip. I emailed SNCF a few times regarding the situation, but they did not answer my email.

Apparently this does happen to other people and they just had me rebook my tickets (at the current price) when I went to the station and spoke to a live person. I also had to fill out a form for refund of the original. I should be getting the refund in 3 months.

If this happens to anyone else out there, make sure to allow ample time to line up twice: once for the tickets, another for customer service to get the refund. There is no way for you to get your original tickets if you don't have the ORIGINAL credit card. That's just have the machine works.

By the way, my wallet was stolen in a span of literally 10 minutes in a crowd. Unzipped and wallet removed. Be careful when you are at top tourist attractions!

Thanks for all your help!

<i>There is no way for you to get your original tickets if you don't have the ORIGINAL credit card.</i>

I could not print out my tickets obtained through Capitaine-train for the TGV from Brussels to Marseille. I had to change credit cards the week of my departure. I had no problems picking up the tickets at the Amsterdam central station. But I had my confirmation letter. I guess it depends on the clerk handling the transaction.

My ticket was supposed to be picked up from the card machines, and the machines cannot recognize any other card number aside from the one I used to purchase the tickets online.

The clerk said that she cannot print out tickets if you don't have the original card. They actually need to swipe it. Could be that different clerks handle it differently though. Or perhaps it's in France that they cannot overwrite the original credit card and print it.

It's unfortunate what happened to you, katriam, but as others have already pointed out, people can avoid this problem completely in the future by choosing to print their tickets instead of picking them up when they arrive in France. Then, it doesn't matter what credit card you used; your ability to print tickets isn't tied to any specific credit card, only to your purchase.

I have done this twice with TGV tickets purchased through the SNCF website. If you are still home when you make the purchase, you can just print at home and sort out any issues with getting them printed correctly before you leave on your trip. (I had no issues at all with printing, either time; the first thing to do probably is to save a PDF of your tickets to your computer, and then print that out sooner or later. Then you never have to worry about any website or login again.)