nyse

Since SNCF/TVG is only offering the mail option for PREMS apparently, I'm debating surreptitiously inserting "USA/USA/USA" into the address blocks and checking some obscure country (Tuvalu perhaps) for delivery and hoping they find their way, or making arrangements to have them mailed to our French hotel.

Wonder if anyone has experience or advice re either possibility. Thanks!

yk

Is this new (only mail option for PREMS)?

Someone reported purchasing PREMS and printing the tickets out, as recently as 8 days ago:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...omment-5751805

nyse

Thanks yk,

I've checked the site regularly (to "practice") and often saw the pick-up at station option, but now that it's actually almost time to purchase, I only see mail.

The tickets would be round-trip Paris-Luxembourg so I don't know if printing is an option when borders are crossed?

(And of course, I meant <b>TGV</b> in my original post-)

Christina

I don't know what you are doing, but I just checked SNCF and they gave me the option for printing or pickup on a PREM ticket, and I just bought one a few days ago and had no problem printing it (I am American).

To you mean the country of Luxembourg? Well, maybe that is a difference. I just checked and they clearly offered you to pick it up at the station or mail, but not printing. YOu can't get them mailed outside metropolitan France anyway, so I think you would lose money if you put in a fake address.

If you can, mailing them to your hotel would be good if for some reason you don't want to pick them up at the station.

nyse

I appreciate your response, Christina. I had been mostly using the TGV site but just now checked SNCF, inputting a September day trip to Luxembourg City from Paris. After confirming the trains, it asked for email info as well as mailing address and said tickets would be mailed.

I may be mistaken, but thought the TGV site said it would mail within 7 business days to any European country.

nyse

In case anyone else has a similar question, here's the TGV site statement re mailing:

<i>You reserve and pay on line.
Your tickets will be sent free of charge to the postal address indicated when the order is placed
within 4 business days if you live in one of the following countries: Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Italy
within 7 business days if your country is not listed above</i>

I assume that printing is not an option for journey between Paris and Luxembourg City as they are different countries, and I never did see that as an option when "practicing."

What I still don't understand is what happened to the "collect at station" option, which I swear was there a few weeks ago!

Travelnut

Printing is only offered on discounted fares, since they are typically non-refundable and non-exchangeable.

Don't know why the option to pick up wasn't offered though.

Sarastro

1. SNCF will not mail tickets to the USA.

2. Tickets may be picked up any time before departure at any SNCF ticket window or boutique. You will need both the confirmation number and to present (for inspection) the credit card used in the on line transaction. This is an important step, the credit card numbers on the card you present must match the credit card numbers used in the on line transaction.

3. PREM fares may be printed at home as long as your complete itinerary consists of PREM fares. Itineraries containing PREM tickets mixed with other types may not be printed at home.

4. iDTGV tickets must be printed at home, they cannot be issued at a service window.

nyse

Travelnut and Sarastro, the fares I'm looking at are discounted PREMS, but I believe the reason they can't be printed is because they involve crossing between France and Luxembourg.

As mentioned before, the pickup option used to be there, now I only see mail.

It's a simple day-trip so my complete itinerary is PREM. I appreciate any thoughts -- thank you.

swandav2000

Hi nyse,

I'm not sure your conclusion about the reason they won't print is valid. I've printed Piccolo TGV fares on my computer, and the travel was from France to Switzerland.

So the reason it won't print may be from something else.

s

nyse

Point taken, and thanks swandav -- wouldn't it be nice if the websites took some of the guesswork away?

And I don't even care about printing; I just wanted to pick them up at the station!

StCirq

Sounds to me as if you're not putting France as your country of origin into the address block. They won't send them to the USA, so if you input USA in that block, it screws up the system. Put France in and you should have the option of printing or picking up at the station/boutique.

nyse

Thanks -- I knew they don't mail to the Western Hemisphere, so had been using Great Britain on TGV. SCNF (using France as home country) still only offers:
Envoi gratuit par courrier :

I do appreciate the thoughts offered here.

ira

Hi nyse,

We have often had our tickets mailed to our hotel in France.

Let the hotel know that the tickets will be coming.

Enjoy your visit.

WillTravel

If you have a reliable hotel, that's a good plan. But I've read a number of reviews for various hotels where they apparently aren't set up to deal with this, and they lose the tickets or other mailed items.

nyse

Just to write the final chapter, it seemed iffy to mail tickets to hotel three months in advance, so a family friend kindly offered his brother's UK address to be used.

A happy ending for me and thanks to you Fodorites, without whom I would not have known about the wonders of PREMS.