Mike4479

Plan on buying my high speed train ticket while in Europe (France to Marseille) and won't have access to printer. On the Rail website, it indicated that a ticket could be printed out at the station. Does that mean that I could put in my confirmation # and have it print out my ticket? We won't be making our final decision on date and time till days ahead of our departure to Marseille, so we won't be able to print out our ticket.

Sarastro

It would be nice to know what ¨Rail website¨ to which you refer and your country of origin (please add it to your profile). Additionally what is not clear is why are you waiting to purchase tickets while in France and if you do purchase tickets there, why are you concerned about printing out tickets?

If you are going to wait until the last minute to purchase tickets, understand you will be paying the highest possible price and risk not having tickets available to sell at all (this depends greatly upon the date you want to travel which you really should include on any train question).

Interestingly, your question itself poses many questions and I am not sure what it is you really want to know.

Mike4479

I live in the USA. I was using the raileuro.com website. We plan on going to Marseille from Paris on Mondy October 10th and am not sure if we would come back on Tuesday or Wednesday, the 11th or 12th. Should we not be so casual considering our plan of riding the high speed train? Or do we need to make definite plans and times. Could waiting and making up our mind at the last minute be costly in the price or accessibility of a train ticket? This is our first trip to France. I hope this clarifies my questions. Thank you for your response.

Michael

Look at sncf.com to see if its prices are different form the one quoted on raileuro.com. If they are, choose whichever site has the cheaper rate. You need reservations for the TGV and prices increase closer to the departure date, although at this point it might make little difference. You need to make up your mind as to the date of return.

fmpden

However, trains rarely fill up except at a few special holidays. So walk up fare are almost always available. Rail Europe is a travel agency that sells tickets, sometime with a substantial markup, and do not often any discounts or all of the train schedules. There are discount tickets available for purchase online but that does lock you into a schedule and the tickets may not be refundable should you miss the train or change your mind.

Sarastro

This website, www.tgv-europe.com, is where you should be looking for tickets - prices and schedules. Do not indicate that you will pickup tickets in the USA as you will be bumped to the more expensive and less informative Rail Europe website. You can chose that you are from anywhere else i.e. Afghanistan, Antarctica, or Mozambique, and purchase tickets but you will need to pick them up at either an SNCF boutique or train station service window.

To pickup tickets purchased in advance on line, you will need the confirmation number and to present to the window agent,the exact same credit card used for the on line purchase. (Some tickets such as PREMs or iDTGV tickets may be printed at home.) A US credit card will not allow you to have tickets printed from a kiosk.

You can always chance purchasing tickets at the last minute but these tickets are the most expensive money can buy. You should not have availability problems for October 10th but purchasing tickets now will cost only 39.90€. Depending upon your selected departure time, walk up tickets will cost up to 96€.

It might be worth purchasing tickets in advance and firming your plans.

StCirq

You have chosen the highest pricing option available. If you go to the website Sarastro points you to, or to www.voyages-sncf.fr, you can purchase PREM fares, which are deeply discounted, though nonexchangeable and nonrefundable, and print them out on your own. Otherwise, you will end up buying the highest priced tickets at the station. You are late looking for PREM tickets, though - there may not be many available at this late date, but it's worth a try.

JeremyinFrance

There are plenty of internet cafés in France where you could print out a ticket. Though as others have said, if you are willing to be tied to certain dates, you can save a lot of money.

http://www.jeremytaylor.eu/France2.htm

kerouac

Once you have your confirmation number, you can indeed have a ticket issued in any SNCF station or SNCF boutique. The only thing to be careful of is using the SAME card that you used for the transaction. This means that if your card expired since then, you would need to use the EXPIRED card to pick up the ticket. It's a strange quirk but very important.

Man_in_seat_61

www.raileurope.com suppresses the cheapest 'prems' fares for the US market (as apparently you're all rich over there...).

I've seen it charge $130 for a Paris-Marseille train where a 35 euros ($48) fare was clearly shown as available on SNCF's own websites, www.voyages-sncf.com (in French only) and www.tgv-europe.com (in English, but make sure you select 'Antarctic' NOT 'United States' as if you do you'll be bumped to Rail Europe which is their US subsidiary with thoise higher prices.

Cheap 'no refunds, no changes' fares from Paris to Marseille start at just 22 euros ($30) at www.tgv-europe.com but if you want a flexible ticket, or wait to buy one on the day you'll looking more like 130 euros ($180).

It's your call if keeping your options open is worth an extra $100.

At tgv-europe.com, assuming you've managed to avoid the auto-bump to Raileurope.com by selecting Antarctic, you'll be given several ticket delivery options.

Instead of self-print you can select the optioin to collect at any main station in France.