Hi, I need to book tickets on the TGV for the Saturday before Christmas. I know that I can't book until 2 months before (my fingers are itching to book now!) but I was checking online just to see stuff like pricing, seating etc.

I came up with PREMS tickets that are quite expensive, about 260 pounds for 2 people, Lille to Nice return. I thought PREMS tickets were about 19 pounds each. Anyone know what the deal is?

Also is it better to book through RailEurope or the SNCF site? We are in the UK and are keen to get the best price possible but our dates are unfortunately inflexible. Current quotes look awfully expensive on both websites.

Seats seem to be automatically allocated. Is there a way to choose?

Kay

Hi Kay,

Various routes have different prices.

I found a 69E PREMS fare from Lille Europe to Nice, but nothing less than 125E for Lille Flandres to Nice.

PREM fares aren't set in stone. They vary, a lot. That said, 260 pounds for a PREM on any route sounds like a lot to me!

You can book PREM fares 90 days out now.

No, it's definitely not a good deal to book through RailEurope for that trip. Stick to the SNCF.

You can book PREMS three calendar months in advance as we did for our recent trip from Paris to Bordeaux.

As to seats...you can at least choose the TYPE of seat (dual side by side, etc) although the system will decide exactly where those seats are.

I get the impression that the system books each car from the middle rather than starting at one end of the car or the other.

Thanks so much for the advice.

We have visited Lille before and know the two stations - does the TGV call at both Lille Europe and Lille Flandres? We don't mind which station we leave and depart from. Or is there another train to Nice (not TGV)?

Kay

Dukey - so you can't choose upper or lower deck? I had read that the views are better from the upper deck.
Kay

I believe that TGVs only serve the Lille Europa station if going to Nice or south of France bypassing paris - because they tie in with the Eurostar service from London to form a London-Lyon-Avignon-Nice transfer that is more convenient than transferring to the Lille Flandres station.

flandres station has a nightly night train to Nice but it appears no day trains that go direct.

Hi K,

See www.voyages-sncf.com for train schedules and fares.

The direct trains leave from Lille Europe.

Lots of PREMs are more than 19 pounds, it varies by route and time. I don't understand how you can get a quote from SNCF in GBP unless you say you are paying Raileurope, though. I just tried SNCF and they won't even quote fares for that date on their website, so this is odd. The regular fare is about 100 GBP one-way for Lille to Nice in second class, so a RT PREM for 130 GBP per person doesn't surprise me at all. That is a very long trip and the TGV is not cheap.

I do not know if you can choose upper or lower decks. The only times I have bought tickets on line at the SNCF site I was always on a single level train.

Hi all,
Thanks for your help. I tried looking again at tickets for December on the SNCF website and got this message:

The outward journey date is outside the timeband for sales. You cannot book a journey more than 2 months in advance.You can either bring forward the date of your journey, or order later.

So how have others booked 3 months in advance?

Also for Christina, to clarify, I was checking prices on RailEurope and SNCF and got one quote in pounds and another in euros (neither cheap!). I was playing around with dates trying to see roughly what the cost would be. You are right, the site will not quote for the Saturday before December yet.

Any help on the 2 month/3 month thing?

Kay

Hi K,

>So how have others booked 3 months in advance?<

Depends on the trains, the routes, the country.

If SNCF says 2 months, then it's 2 months.

How funny Ira, for the same trip the french version says "Il est impossible de réserver un voyage plus de 3 mois à l'avance." Then if you can read French you can book one month earlier

yes, that seems odd sao perhaps it does depend on the route.

I know for a fact that we booked our Paris-Bordeaux tickets 3 calendar months (not 90 calendar days) for this past July in April.

I started checking for PREMS availability a couple of days before that and then right after midnight (France time) at 3 calendar months out they appeared.

Hey coco,

>Then if you can read French you can book one month earlier.<

Uh, Oh. I can hear Rush Limbaugh now, "Those French hate Americans so much that they make us book our train tickets after all the good seats are gone".

However, I can book the 10:38 from Lille Europe to Nice on 21/11 for 69E on both the French and English sites.

RailEurope in U.S., a SNCF subsidiary books TGVs up to 3 months in advance using the same system they do in France.

Perhaps PREMs have different advance purchase to see how many seats remaining they want to dump.

mmmm....interesting. Perhaps I should decide on my nationality for the day before I book....

I just went to sncf.com and did a dummy booking for 20 November on the 10:38 direct TGV from Lille Europe to Nice Ville. I found PREM'S fares of €25 2nd class and €45 1st class.

I think that fare is obviously high because it was Raileurope, then, not SNCF.

You can't expect as cheap a fare ( or necessarily any PREMs) the Saturday before Christmas as a Wednesday in November, I'd say. But how can Raileruope quote PREMs fares if SNCF won't even do it? a mystery to me, maybe those are regular fares.