ira

Hi C,

I found your train at www.voyages-sncf.com

Would there be any problem with having your ticket delivered to your hotel in Paris?

TimS

carcassone,

The reason you cannot either print this Prem's ticket or pick it up at a station is that it is for an INTERNATIONAL rather than a domestic route. Contact your hotel in Paris to arrange for them to be looking for the ticket to arrive in the mail. Then book on the SNCF site and have the ticket sent to your hotel.

Betty1

If I may piggyback on here... I have a situation that most of you probably haven't had to deal with but maybe someone knows.

I need to buy 12 tickets for Paris to Rouen for May 20. It seems I can do one of two things:

1) I can buy them 6 at a time on the website but if I do that we might not all be seated together (not a big deal, but I'd prefer to be in the same car). And what would I do if I bought 6 and then went back for the other 6 and there were no more available? or

2) I can call the SNCF to book the tickets. (That's what they advise for booking more than 6 tickets.) Right now I could buy 6 Prem's for May 13 (a week earlier) for 10€ each on the train I want. (I know that doesn't necessarily mean I can get that price for May 20.) If I call for tickets, can I get Prem's, assuming they're available for that date? Or are Prem's only available on the website?

I also need 9 tickets for Chartres to Paris on June 4. Since I don't think there are any reduced fares available for that route (every time I've checked it's been 12.90€ for a "tarif normal&quot, do you think I'd be safe to wait until we get to Paris on May 19 to buy those?

BTW, I've been experiencing some of the problems mentioned here on the SNCF website and I am operating in French. For example I got the same message that johnny 366 did, except in French, and it wasn't the time that was the problem.

TIA for any advice/experience you can offer. Has anyone ever bought Prem's over the phone?

Michael

Our experience back in 1995, which means that it might be out of date, was that 12 persons could get group rates when traveling by train. We did that in Dijon. All we had to do was purchase the ticket 24 hours in advance.

ira

T for B

johnny366

Kappa, blh, thanks for your suggestions but I'm not getting anywhere. I have tried different dates, times, classes... I want to book a sleeper from Paris to Milan (dep 1855) in May. Is the 3 month limit in calendar months, or weeks or days? I have tried different days from late April. Every date I try seems to have tickets available, then I get the error message and can get no further.

TimS

Bettty1,

No reservations ere possible on the Chartres-Paris regional trains. Buy tickets any time. Jump on any train.

johnny366

Update: I have tried booking one-way only and this works fine. Do both outward and return journeys have to be in the 3 month period?

johnny366

OK, so the cryptic message is because I was trying to book the return leg after the 3 month period. Silly me.

Betty1

Glad you got your problem sorted, Johnny.

Thanks to Ira for the bump-up and to Tim for the answer about Chartres-Paris.

Still looking for some advice about the 12 tickets Paris-Rouen. If I book using the website I'll need to do that in a couple of days.

ira

Hi B,

>If I call for tickets, can I get Prem's, assuming they're available for that date? Or are Prem's only available on the website?

I believe that you can get PREMS fares on the phone.

However, it's not that hard to call and make sure.

katzen

Bookmarking

Betty1

OK, very frustrated here.

The website is not showing Prem's tickets for the train I wanted on May 20 but I can get Decouverte Senior tickets for 14.50€ ea. + 2 tarif normal at 19.30 ea. But they do not offer reserved seats. (Does this route - Paris to Rouen - ever offer reserved seating other than for Prem's?)

I can get an earlier train with Prem's at 10.00€ ea. but didn't want to leave that early (9:15). These do include reserved seats but they may not be in the same car.

I tried to call using 1010987 and the SNCF no. 8 92 35 35 39. The recording seemed to indicate that it was for Eurostar tickets but I held on anyway... and on and on. After about 5 minutes I gave up. Is it maybe too late there now? (Just past 8:00 pm)

Suggestions?

TimS

I think you called SNCF too late in the day.

According to the bahn.de timetables, reservations are recommended on the 09:15 train but no reference of any kind is made to reservations on the 10:51 train--or the one after that.

Betty1

Thanks, Tim. I guess you're right.

I've just sent an email to their group reservations. If I haven't heard from them by morning I'll try that number again. I hope the Decouverte Senior prices don't disappear before then.

Maybe the 10:51 train normally has so few passengers that reserved seats aren't necessary but I'd still feel better with reservations.

zunrise

Thanks Fodorites for all your excellent advice. I just went to book our Thalys tickets on Rail Europe - $560! (first class - why not!) One way Brussels to Avignon. Thanks to all your tips in nagivating the sncf website - I've just purchased and printed for
70 Euro each!
A big savings.
Excellent work to all poster with their tips.
Zunrise

Betty1

The frustration continues...

I've had no response to my email sent yesterday afternoon so I called again. I was told that since I wanted 12 tickets I would need to speak to group reservations and was given another number. I called that number and spoke with a woman, this time in French as she did not speak English. I thought I was getting somewhere - she quoted a price of 13.60€ each for all the tickets - until I told her that I lived in the US. She wanted payment by check. She indicated that she could not take a CC number on the phone. And even if I could send payment by check she would have to mail the tickets to a French address. (I didn't think to ask if she could mail them to our hotel in Paris but I'm not sure I would want to do that anyway since we only arrive in Paris one day before we leave for Rouen. If there was a delay we might be up the creek.)

When I mentioned the website and the Decouverte Senior tickets, she said that we would have to have special reduction cards to buy those. I'm pretty sure that is not true. I don't know if she was giving me the runaround or just did not know what she was talking about. I thanked her and hung up.

So... I'm going to wait just a bit longer to see if I get a response to my email. If not I'll buy online. Since I was also told that there are no reservations available for the train I want, I see no advantage in ordering otherwise.

My only worry about doing that is I could end up with duplicate reservations. I gave enough information in the email that they might go ahead and reserve my tickets. I wish I had been a bit more vague.

I'll let you all know how this turns out.

BTW, is anyone else having a problem with the log-in? I seem to keep losing mine.

Betty1

With some difficulty (time-out, ticking the wrong button, not accepting my CapOne card, etc.) I have been able to order my tickets online: 10 Decouverte Senior and 2 tarif normal, for a total of 183.60€. Some of those problems at least were due to my slow computer and my own ineptitude. I do have my email confirmations and will pick up the tickets at the train station or, more likely, the SNCF boutique on rue Saint Dominique on May 19.

I also sent another email to group reservations cancelling my previous request. I hope that will avoid any duplicate reservations. I don't suppose they would have done that anyway since they had no CC info.

Hopefully, that is the end of my saga! Good luck to the rest of you!

Sally30

are the prems tickets called something specific on the sncf website? I don't see an option that says "prems".

AJPeabody

And, of course, what IS a PREM?