Pick up SNCF tickets in France
 

I'm going from Paris to Aix by train, and on the website it asks where you'd like to pick up your tickets. I've heard that I should say "france".
Where does one pick up the tickets once in France?
thanks.

You can pick them up at any train station I believe. We picked ours up at the sncf booth at the CDG airport.

You can also pick them up at SNCF boutiques. Be sure to have your printed confirmation and the same credit card you used online.

They'll ask you your name, a code included in your confirmation, and the same credit card you used to pay.

HI--another option--at least the one we used--was "print them yourself". Of course this requires a home printer. For us there were many advantages to this--no standing in any lines--you just board the train that you have reserved. Also you can print several copies of the tkts and keep them in different spots in your luggage, so no concern about losing them. They are completely safe b/c they have your name printed on them so no one else can use them. On the train, you just present your "homemade" ticket along w/your passport when the conductor comes to check tkts.

I recently had trouble picking up my tickets at a SNCF kisoque even though I had the credit card I had used on-line. Fortunately I was at the CDG station and there was an actual SNCF office (with humans) there and they had no trouble giving me my ticket when I presented the confirmation number. So just be aware that sometimes the kisoques don't work. There are plenty of actual offices though.

We also got ours at the rail station in Paris when we were heading to Avignon. No hassels at all.

Alison

Print them out yourself on your home computer. Easy and low stress. Just present the printout to the ticket agent (with ID).

Hello, I was thinking of posting a thread regarding this but have been putting it off. I bought tickets several times in the past from SNCF and picked up in France with no problem. However this time the website was different with a mail to your address free of charge marked with no way to click it off. I tried english and french site. I could not go on with reservation without an address filled in.

I filled in my USA address planning to pick up tickets at station with code from my email since tickets would not be mailed. Decided to take my chances after checking RailEurope site with double prices, of course.

I ordered 2 separate tickets since departing and arriving back at different stations. Paid for both at once. Surprise, one ticket did come to me by mail but no sign of the other and it has been 10 days. The tickets had different codes on my email. I am still hoping to pick the one up at the station but it could be difficult to explain especially with my pitiful French.

I do not suppose this has happened to anyone else on this board. If so, how did you resolve it. Thanks for any advice. Please, no why did you do such a dumb thing replies. I am already saying that! Sorry this is so long.

ttt,

ggnga:

If you have enough time before your departure, try e-mailing SNCF and request that your ticket be mailed - their e-mail address is on the website. I did this, received a return e-mail (a few days later) explaining that they don't mail tickets to the U.S., and then received the tickets in the mail about a week later. Go figure.

I have been trying the last several days to buy PREM tickets at the SNCF website. Like someone else on this thread, I could not turn off the 'mail it' button and the website would not give me either the print tickets or the pick up tickets option that other folks have mentioned. I thought maybe they had updated and what we want is no longer possible. But then I saw someone post yesterday saying they succeeded. Help!

I've not ordered with SNCF online, but could it be that the option is "mail" -unless- you selected France as your 'residence'; perhaps only then it allows you option to pick up at station.

I got around the not mailing SNCF tickets to Canada and USA problem by telling them that I lived at a hotel in London. The tickets were waiting for us when we arrived. I had phoned the hotel to make sure they would be OK with this and to watch for them. No problem picking up Eurostar tickets from the machine at Waterloo International.

Like Isabel we had trouble obtaining tickets (Thalys) at Gare du Nord using the kiosk. We had to see a live human to resolve the issue. He were told it is because our credit cards lack a microchip. It was a good thing we got to the train station early as this took about 30 minutes where it should have taken two. The same no chip issue prevented us from using our credit card to buy Paris Metro, Louvre and Netherlands train tickets from machines. No other troubles with credit cards.

travelnut..I did pick France as my residence when I booked.

Steveboy..I had read your post before about this and did receive 1 ticket by mail. Why not the other? My worry is that the 2nd ticket is lost in the mail and they will refuse to issue it again at the station in Paris. The address sent to me has my address with USA on the same line with city, state and zip code and underneath that line France. So you see, it could be lost.

I am going to email them today that I will pick up the 2nd ticket at the station and see what response I get. I will let you all know. The website is
different than it used to be. If anyone has figured how to get past "mail to" to print or pick up let us all know.

Thanks for your replies.

We picked up our tickets at CDG when we arrived. It was very easy. There was no line, we just happened to be walking by and spotted them.

I think people are missing the point of my post. I know you can pick up tickets at a station as I have done so in the past with no problems. However in the past the website did not require you to put in an address for mailing. Now there is NOT a way to choose pick up at the station as Davida also mentions.

Now you run the risk of the tickets actually being mailed to a USA address with France also listed on the envelope as mine was. And to further complicate things, one of my tickets came by mail and the other one did not. If I am missing something on the website, let me know for future reference. I guess this is a way to safeguard residents of USA from using the site since we are supposed to buy from RailEurope.

Again, I am trying to figure out if I missed someting on website.

Hi gg,

I just did a simulation on Paris/Aix on the TGV.

Whether I chose the PREM or regular fare, it defaulted to "Print your ticket yourself".

Otherwise, you can have the tickets delivered to your hotel.

I just went to the site as I am looking for tickets for this July, anyway, so it was good practice. I had no trouble and it did NOT insist on a mailing address or not let you click anything but mail delivery. There were several choices for purchase/delivery, and you could click on whichever one you wanted (mail/pickup/buy later and pickup).

I clicked on pickup with no problem. You don't have to fill in an address when you are picking them up. The only mandatory fields marked in that online form are your name and email address. You do have to read the form and all website instructions carefully, and note which fields are mandatory.

I think you shouldn't go through with a purchase by selecting options you don't want if you are having problem with a web site, if that's what happened. Sometimes web sites have technical problems, "freeze" some functions, etc., and you just have to go back at a later time -- not only may the site be fixed if it wasn't, but it could be something with your computer that was freezing it or retaining wrong info or something, and that will "erase" the info from forms. For example, you can get goofy results on some airline booking websites by trying to change info using the back button when it thinks you want all of the flights you've put in the boxes, not just the last one.

I assume you read the conditions on SNCF before purchasing -- I think they say they aren't responsible for mail delivery problems, but I'm not sure as I haven't read them in a while. I don't think your problems are because SNCF knows you are a US resident, as I am also.

Well, I have now several times tried Paris-Luxembourg PREM tickets on the voyages-sncf website and am still given no option but the 'mail them' option, not pick up and not print out. Maybe it has something to do with destinations? The 'mail it' button can't be turned off; no other options are listed; and if I try to get straight to a 'imprimer' option, I am asked for a conf. number, which of course you can't get without completing the earlier pages. CAN ANYONE REPLICATE A June Paris/Lux request and come up with delivery options other than 'courrier'????