Sam,

For Paris-Avignon the cheapest 2nd class PREM'S is 25€ and the cheapest 1st class PREM'S is 40€. The price goes up as more discount seats are sold.

TimS, once again you've made my day!!! (I think I owe you dinner by now!)

This worked for me with one small adjustment... the tinyurl displayed nothing on the page, but I cut and pasted the address that it DID bring up at the top and opened a new page and put that in and it all followed as per your instructions.

And I've done it twice and it still works!

Many many thanks!!! (
I still have two weeks before I can book but I will be prepared!)

ozgirl,

Australia and New Zealand are on my wish list of countries to visit. If my wish ever comes true, I'll take you up on your dinner invitation!

It's possible that the tinyurl timed out. Here's the full URL: http://www.voyages-sncf.com/dynamic/...mp;_AGENCY=VSC.

This is all one line with no breaks.

TimS, always welcome - we cook a pretty mean "barbie" and live very close to one of the premier wine growing regions in South Australia.
Just let me know!

Are the PREM fares only available on line? Ie, will not be available once in Paris from a SNCF station?

If I have to print the tickets on line, then I'll have to commit to a schedule before leaving which is a bummer. However, the lowest fares are significantly less, so that's the trade off, right?

They're also non-refundable, but if you can commit to a firm schedule they're worthwhile to get.

> Are the PREM fares only available on line? Ie, will not be available once in Paris from a SNCF station?

Prem's fares are only available between 3 months and 2 weeks ahead.

Does anyone know what this error message means, and how to get around it? I'm getting it whatever ticket I try to select:

"No train did match your wishes travel. Thanks to modify them using the search engine on the left of the page or click on the link following trains below."

Johnny366, not sure why you get that message. Could it be that you try too far ahead out of 3 months time?. What train/dates do you wnat to reserve?

Hi Kappa,
I don't think that's it, as I'm trying dates 2 months away. Also when I try for later dates the message specifically says it is too soon to book.
It might be a caching issue, so I'll try monkeying with with my browser.
What a pity the site has these quirks, it's so iseful otherwise.

Hi 366,

What is your route?

Sometimes you can't buy online if you have to change trains more than once.

I don't think it has anything to do with cookies magically knowing what country you are located in. The cookies may retain the information you yourself put in regarding site of retrieval, but that's completely different than saying the site knows where your computer is located. Also, I don't think booking in English is the same thing as being bumped to Raileurope, either, which has to do with saying you want to retrieve tickets in North America. If you select the English flag, it sends you to tgv-europe.com, but not raileurope.

Bookmark.

I admit that I don't know exactly how cookies affect booking at www.voyages-sncf.com. However, I DO know that the steps I outlined in my previous post allow a person to book in English and still pick France as the retrieval country for tickets, either standard ones at a station or Prem's which are self-printed. This is exactly how it worked before SNCF revised its Web site.

Now if you start out in English and choose France as the retrieval country, the site switches to French. If you pick Germany, the site switches to German. If you pick the UK as the retrieval country, the site stays in English and you can get Prem's, but they can't be self-printed. And just as in the past, if you pick the US, you're bumped to RailEurope.

Sorry, all...very new to European travel. What is a PREM?

Thank you!

A PREM is a low cost non-refundable ticket that cannot be exchanged offered by the French railway system. It is similar to the very low fares offered by Southwest, and they go just about as quickly.

Great, thanks!!

Johnny366, I have gotten that same message, and I usually see that the "starting from" time is wrong. For instance, it may say 23h, and there is no train at that hour. If I fix the time, then it proceeds to give me the information. Try again and see if that will fix it. Good luck!

bookmarking. Thanks.

TimS, I followed your instruction and found the PREM fare of 35e for this route:

March 11th, 2008
08h39 - PARIS EAST
10h45 - LUXEMBOURG
TGV 2809 2nd class, 35e

But only get the snail-mail option, no print or SNCF pickup. Can you try?

ira did have some luck with using a different country of resident which bumped me to tgv-europe.