ordering train tickets
 

Has the SNCF changed its policy? I can't get electronic tickets for a Brussels to Arles trip, and when I try to have them sent to a Parisian friend who by chance will be visiting in April anyway, I get this message:<i> La date de naissance que vous avez inscrite est invalide. Merci de la ressaisir à nouveau.</i>. I tried capitaine train first, but those tickets have to be picked up at a French location, which is of no help when in Antwerp. SNCF.com does give the option of snail mail, but only in France. Both tell me that the birth date is wrong, even if I do not specify "senior", and at no time was I asked to enter a date of birth, nor is there a place to enter it.

Have you tried via b-europe.com ?
After all, your trip starts in Belgium, not France.

I don't understand what policy you are talking about. It appears you put in an invalid birth date, did you not enter it in the European format or something? Put it in the format they require, that's all, probably ddmmyy or or ddmmyyyy.

You always have to enter a birthdate for certain kinds of tickets as they are for a specific person, e.g., PREMs or other discount fares. You have to enter a name, also. I don't know what kind of ticket you are buying but I've never had any trouble putting in a birthdate, it is always very clear on the form when you buy tickets how to do that. At last the kind I buy. I doubt if all of your journey is on one ticket nor all a PREM, as it begins in Brussels.

Perhaps I entered them wrong, but I do not think so. Capitaine train spells out the month in English as the second entry. But when it tells me that the birth date is wrong, I do not get the option of correcting it, as I do for names and addresses. The change in the policy is that I do not get the option of printing an electronic ticket.

Thanks Cowboy. That worked, and I can pick up the tickets in Amsterdam.

There's been no change in policy.

Some ticket types and routes can be e-ticketed, some can't .

You may find a Prems fare can be self-printed for a given route, whilst a more expensive flexible / refundable ticket on the same route may not be self-printable because of the greater fraud risk.