Ordering SCNF Tickets in Advance on the Web
 

I read the various postings about buying train tickets on the French rail system. But my question is a little more specific. <BR>I pursued the various pages web site down to where I could submit an order for tickets, but the notification at the bottom of the page said prepayment not available. My question is this: <BR>If I submit all of the information, including time and date and train #, will the French rail system ticket system hold the tickets until I arrive in Paris and can present myself at an SCNF office or station? <BR>A discount on the J30 Decouvert schedule, or even J8, is large enough to want to find out.

As far as I could tell (but this is one occasion when I would love to be proved wrong--it's too late for me but my thrifty soul wants others to save), the SNCF wants your actual money, and it wants it via Rail Europe. When you subtract the J8 savings from the cost of the Rail Europe handling fees, it's pretty much a wash financially. I guess you'd come out a little bit ahead on the J30.

I looked at the SNCF site, also, and it clearly states in sections where it discusses purchase/collection of ticket options that you MUST prepay to have a reservation (by VISA/MASTERCARD if purchasing in the US by the internet, I believe), and then you can collect your ticket at the train station, not a travel agency--I read it in French, not English, though, so not sure how that was translated. This makes sense as I'm sure they'd go out of business if they held reservations for anybody who made them on the internet without requiring any kind of monetary transaction. Anyway, looks like this option (reserve and purchase by internet with CC) is not up and running yet since it says prepayment not available when you try to do this, who knows if or when it will be. It wouldn't surprise me if it never was in North America, as I think SNCF owns part of Raileurope. I don't think the Raileurope fee is that bad if you're buying an expensive ticket (thought it was a flat $10 per ticket) but think that may be moot anyway, as I wasn't aware that you could even get those special advance purchase discounts from Raileurope (J8 etc); if not, looks like there's no way you can get that discount.

Hopefully this still holds true, but we just returned from France earlier this week. Before leaving on June 10, I was able to reserve our round trips on the TGV Paris-Avignon-Paris (including the Decouverte Deux 25% discount) through the SCNF Web site. The trick was that the reservation had to be put through just a couple days before leaving, as they would only hold the reservation 5 days or so. I printed out their e-mailed response confirming the reservation, complete with a reservation number, which I presented at Gare du Lyon in Paris after we arrived. No problem--worked like a charm. Once I gave the agent the reservation number, the entire transaction took about a minute, and my request for seats on the top level of the duplex TGV train were even accommodated!

please provide the name of the website. I'd like to check schedules and prices etc in advance of our trip spring 2000

Thank you very much. I will try to make the reservation that way. One further question, did you give a credit card number at the time of the transaction on the web?? <BR>

Bob: I didn't have to give any credit-card information at that point, on the Web. Just a last name. Hope it works for you!