txtree

Hi everyone, I'm trying to book our tickets from Paris to Brive in July. If I go onto the SNCF site and say I'm collecting from France, I can get the exact round-trip tickets I want for 200E. But then I can't complete the transaction - my credit card keeps getting rejected. I tried two different cards - neither worked. If I say I'm collecting in the US I get redirected to the rail europe site and the tickets are twice as expensive.

Help!

PalenQ

www.capitainetrain.com has the same fares and apparently is easier for Yanks to use.

Mimar

Have you informed your credit card companies you're making a purchase abroad? Maybe they think it's fraud.

And usually you can see dates only up to 3 months in the future.

Also don't identify yourself as coming from the USA. Use the UK or, as somebody here does, Antarctica. In either case you should be able to print your tickets at home on your own printer.

MaineGG

SNCF just sent out an email that ticket sales are open for summer dates through August 24.

http://www.voyages-sncf.com/promotio...2426#ectrans=1

I'd try capitainetrain as recommended above.

TPAYT

As mentioned above, use UK or Antartica.
When we did this we also got rejected but after 2 calls to our cc company we finally were successful.
The first call to the cc company, the gal couldn't get it right but on the 2nd call that person knew exactly what to do.
Good luck.

txtree

Hi friends, capitainetrain worked perfectly! I got the same fares and even the same seat assignments as when I was going through SNCF. Thank you so much.

Christina

that's good, but my CC didn't work until I informed my CC companies in the US that I intended to use them abroad online, then they did on the SNCF site. I think most companies are automatically blocking foreign charges now, or a lot of them, anyway.

TAW

I used the French voyages-sncf.com website and only had a problem when it came time to pay with credit card. My mastercard (3rd card I tried) worked. But the credit card fraud dept did contact me and ask if the transaction was mine. Even though I told them I would be making more transactions with same website, they rejected my next transaction. However, the sncf website keeps the info there and you can call your credit card company and tell them to let it go through. That is what I had to do. Everything worked fine. Printed tickets at home. Since my French is rusty, to say the least, I kept a google translate window open so I could copy/paste what I didn't understand. At no time did I have to declare what country I was from.
Try calling your credit card company FIRST and inform them and then make the ticket purchase. That way might be easier.

I got great fares for my destinations. First class, direct,one way,senior rate 40E from Colmar to Avignon. Same rate also from Avignon to CDG.
Good luck with your ticket purchase.
HTH

MaineGG

txtree - Glad you were successful in buying from capitainetrain. I agree about always notifying your credit card company prior to using it for a foreign transaction, but there have been many reports here of credit cards being declined by SNCF even after the CC company has been notified, and the CC company, when contacted, says they have not rejected the transaction. As of now, I haven't seen one report of capitainetrain declining a credit card. I have always bought tickets directly from SNCF or iDTGV but may just go straight to capitainetrain in the future. One would think SNCF would look into why their system rejects so many US credit card transactions.