Purchasing SNCF Tickets
Jul 7th, 2013, 12:42 PM
#41
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Yes, maybe I went over the euro limit for day, and that's the problem --or perhaps Visa vs MC. We could divide up the transactions, but then chances of being in same car, etc., would be slim. The biggee will be next Fri., when I do Avignon-Strasbourg, which will be more expensive than this last transaction.
Jul 7th, 2013, 07:18 PM
#43
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I have recently bought a number of tickets on the SNCF site using an Australian VISA card, which is connected to the Verified By Visa program. The routine is that, after you have submitted card details, you are transferred to YOUR bank site where you are asked to enter a password. That completed successfully, you are returned to the selling site.
I had no trouble buying tickets on the SNCF, getting the PREMS I wanted without any fuss. However I could not complete a transaction on the IdTGV site (which is a different setup), with the process breaking down when I entered my card details. I sent IdTGV an email explaining the problem, and asking if it was possible to pay with an Australian Credit Card. I received a prompt reply saying that they would arrange 'exceptionally' for this to be possible, and to try again. I did so, the transaction was successful, and the online tickets were available to be printed.
So, while there may be difficulties on occasion with using a non-French credit card on these sites, it is incorrect to say that 'SNCF does not accept charge cards other than those issued in France'.
Because they do.
I had no trouble buying tickets on the SNCF, getting the PREMS I wanted without any fuss. However I could not complete a transaction on the IdTGV site (which is a different setup), with the process breaking down when I entered my card details. I sent IdTGV an email explaining the problem, and asking if it was possible to pay with an Australian Credit Card. I received a prompt reply saying that they would arrange 'exceptionally' for this to be possible, and to try again. I did so, the transaction was successful, and the online tickets were available to be printed.
So, while there may be difficulties on occasion with using a non-French credit card on these sites, it is incorrect to say that 'SNCF does not accept charge cards other than those issued in France'.
Because they do.
Jul 7th, 2013, 08:34 PM
#44
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Adeben, I called Cap 1 Visa before I tried the transaction to ask them about Verified by Visa, and they said that they do not participate in that program.
SW, thanks for the good wishes! We are happy to be going to Strasbourg again, and especially fun to be with 3 family members who have never been there.
SW, thanks for the good wishes! We are happy to be going to Strasbourg again, and especially fun to be with 3 family members who have never been there.
Jul 19th, 2013, 11:06 AM
#46
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OK...can I go buy a ticket at and from Nice Ville to Marseille the day I want to go find bouillebaise?
It was interesting to use ManInSeat's websites...charging in Pounds...then charging in Euro, ran a quick conversion, close enough for me!
But as of today, I don't know which day I'll want to go have lunch!
It was interesting to use ManInSeat's websites...charging in Pounds...then charging in Euro, ran a quick conversion, close enough for me!
But as of today, I don't know which day I'll want to go have lunch!
Jul 20th, 2013, 11:03 PM
#47
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Of course you can, why couldn't you? They sell tickets as long as there are any seats available, and not many trains are completely sold out. Some are around holiday periods (ie, Sun night returning to Paris or something like that). It just takes some time to stand in line if you don't have a credit card with a chip and thus can't use the automatic machines.
Dec 5th, 2013, 07:42 AM
#48
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I looked here the other day after yet more difficulties with purchasing sncf tickets in France. I see how some told Ira he was wrong, yet that is what I also experienced. I think it is great that the cards worked for some of you. This morning my citibank rep conferenced me with the sncf ticket agent in France. The French woman told me they do not accept foreign issued credit cards for online purchases, and my daughter would have to go in person to purchase the ticket at the train station. Unfortunately, the Citicard Mastercard with a chip, nor the WellsFargo VIsa card without a chip worked in person either. The only option was cash, and the price of the ticket had gone up in the few days it took to get there in person. I also tried using a Chase visa card from here, but obviously it did not work either. Unfortunately my daughter does not have an AMEX because that may have worked??? without the 3D security layer? Which by the way, never has asked for additional information via a popup window, as I've been told it should-and no the popup blocker is not on. SO anyway, as of today, I was told by the sncf ticket agent in France that they do not accept foreign issued credit cards for online purchases. If you have successfully done this, that's great for you. For the rest of us, not so great. I also tried the tip about 'choosing Belgium and they offer paypal'-but I was not offered the paypal option. Good luck to anyone reading this post, as my citicard universal fraud manager could not help me, and she really tried.
May 9th, 2015, 04:56 AM
#49
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Had a poor experience purchasing train tickets this week so I thought I'd update this thread so you all can learn from my experience.
By the way, I speak a bit of French but read French well. For all communications I sent during this process, I used Google Translate to double-check my emails before sending them. I usually noticed an error or two, but it was still helpful. Also, I didn't know how to put accents in Microsoft Outlook emails, so I would copy and paste them in from Google Translate results.
Originally, I tried to purchase tickets on capitainetrain, but wasn't allowed to pay because iDTGV's website didn't accept my (modern, chip-included, VISA signature enabled) VISA card or my AmEx card. To fix this, I tried something suggested on another web page: I emailed iDTGV and asked them to unblock my credit card, giving them the last 4 digits. Then I went to bed. Side note: iDTGV responded late in the morning that they had unblocked my credit card. So if I'd waited the few extra hours it took them to do this, then I could have bought the tix from them, and could have avoided this whole debacle.
In the morning, they hadn't responded. So I went on voyages-sncf.com and bought the tickets instead. Roundtrip Paris-Avignon, iDTGV one way and TGV the other. SNCF did permit me to select the iDTGV ambiance I wanted (iDZAP since we'll be traveling with our teenagers), and download/save the .pdfs of the tickets to my hard drive as well as printing them out. Also, I was later able to add meals and tablet computers for the kids, and change our seat locations. (Can't remember if I did this on SNCF or if they sent me to iDTGV's website, but one way or another it works.) Just go slowly and make sure to read all options and it works fine.
This would have been the happy end of the story, EXCEPT I made a stupid error and somehow forgot to indicate the month for which I needed the tickets (but did select the days for some reason) and bought the tickets for the wrong month! So you can learn how both websites handled this.
Fortunately, I had printed out SNCF website summaries of my order-in-progress, before even completing my order. This is the only reason I had the magic "dossier reference" numbers and train numbers, both of which I later needed to plug into the website and send to customer care. Because if you stop being active on SNCF's website for 10 minutes, it logs you out. And iDTGV doesn't automatically create an account for you, so if you close a web page with your info on it, then it may forget who you are if you go back to their site.
My advice: before you do anything, create an account for yourself on whatever train websites you are using. Log in. Print out your ordering process as you go so you'll have a record of the trains you selected if their websites stop working for you in the Internet process.
At any rate, I bought our tickets on SNCF, started printing them out, and then realized I'd selected the wrong month. Ack. On the web, I tried to correct the error but SNCF, while it allowed me to see a line describing each leg of my trip, gave me an error message each time I tried to go to the detailed page about each leg (where I would have been able to exchange the tickets). To retrieve your itinerary, you need the dossier number, your last name, train number, and date of the train trip. But the website wasn't allowing me to make changes to my itinerary.
I emailed SNCF and they were not super helpful; they told me to type in all my info carefully. (Thanks, my dear predictable customer care agents. And I suppose you'll tell me to reboot my computer next.) Then noon here (Eastern Time) arrived and due to the time difference, they left work - no more responses arrived in my mailbox.
Since one set of tickets was for an iDTGV train, I then went to iDTGV's website (possibly SNCF's website sent me there) and did manage to exchange that set for tickets in the correct month (albeit with a whopping change fee, I think about 11 euros per ticket!). But then i went back on SNCF, and those tickets still showed up as in the wrong month. You're kidding me! Would I be charged for two sets of tickets, one from each company? Would SNCF not honor the fact that I'd exchanged the tix through iDTGV?
The other set of tickets, I couldn't change on iDTGV, probably because they were TGV tickets. However, I somehow managed to cancel them on SNCF's website. But then an email arrived which seemed to possibly indicate I had been charged full price for cancelling the tickets. It described the non-refundable part as a negative number (oh good; that would mean it's all refundable) but then the amount refunded was listed as zero. Oh Lord. More French was needed than I had. Visions of stony faced bureaucrats parked impassively in my head.
At this point, I was very concerned. I took to facebook and asked three fluent friends who have lived in France if they could help me, if SNCF didn't send a resolving email the next morning. One of them said yes right away. So I went to bed and the next morning, seeing that SNCF hadn't sent ANY responses to my additional emails from the previous day, I called her and she got to work.
I sent her two emails summarizing the situation, as well as the phone number SNCF had emailed me, and told her my login info for both websites. Fortunately she works at a place where she was able to call France, but of course Skype probably also would have been fine. She called SNCF and they said it would probably all be fine; to just send them another email and indicate that I had intended to exchange the cancelled tickets for tickets in the proper month, instead of cancelling them. It would probably take a few days to process. As for the other set of tickets, they told her to have me check my credit card transactions online, which I did - and voila, it did appear that only iDTGV (not SNCF) had charged me for that leg. Whew!
So she went on my SNCF account and typed in an email. We are knocking on wood but I think it is all going to be okay.
By the way, I speak a bit of French but read French well. For all communications I sent during this process, I used Google Translate to double-check my emails before sending them. I usually noticed an error or two, but it was still helpful. Also, I didn't know how to put accents in Microsoft Outlook emails, so I would copy and paste them in from Google Translate results.
Originally, I tried to purchase tickets on capitainetrain, but wasn't allowed to pay because iDTGV's website didn't accept my (modern, chip-included, VISA signature enabled) VISA card or my AmEx card. To fix this, I tried something suggested on another web page: I emailed iDTGV and asked them to unblock my credit card, giving them the last 4 digits. Then I went to bed. Side note: iDTGV responded late in the morning that they had unblocked my credit card. So if I'd waited the few extra hours it took them to do this, then I could have bought the tix from them, and could have avoided this whole debacle.
In the morning, they hadn't responded. So I went on voyages-sncf.com and bought the tickets instead. Roundtrip Paris-Avignon, iDTGV one way and TGV the other. SNCF did permit me to select the iDTGV ambiance I wanted (iDZAP since we'll be traveling with our teenagers), and download/save the .pdfs of the tickets to my hard drive as well as printing them out. Also, I was later able to add meals and tablet computers for the kids, and change our seat locations. (Can't remember if I did this on SNCF or if they sent me to iDTGV's website, but one way or another it works.) Just go slowly and make sure to read all options and it works fine.
This would have been the happy end of the story, EXCEPT I made a stupid error and somehow forgot to indicate the month for which I needed the tickets (but did select the days for some reason) and bought the tickets for the wrong month! So you can learn how both websites handled this.
Fortunately, I had printed out SNCF website summaries of my order-in-progress, before even completing my order. This is the only reason I had the magic "dossier reference" numbers and train numbers, both of which I later needed to plug into the website and send to customer care. Because if you stop being active on SNCF's website for 10 minutes, it logs you out. And iDTGV doesn't automatically create an account for you, so if you close a web page with your info on it, then it may forget who you are if you go back to their site.
My advice: before you do anything, create an account for yourself on whatever train websites you are using. Log in. Print out your ordering process as you go so you'll have a record of the trains you selected if their websites stop working for you in the Internet process.
At any rate, I bought our tickets on SNCF, started printing them out, and then realized I'd selected the wrong month. Ack. On the web, I tried to correct the error but SNCF, while it allowed me to see a line describing each leg of my trip, gave me an error message each time I tried to go to the detailed page about each leg (where I would have been able to exchange the tickets). To retrieve your itinerary, you need the dossier number, your last name, train number, and date of the train trip. But the website wasn't allowing me to make changes to my itinerary.
I emailed SNCF and they were not super helpful; they told me to type in all my info carefully. (Thanks, my dear predictable customer care agents. And I suppose you'll tell me to reboot my computer next.) Then noon here (Eastern Time) arrived and due to the time difference, they left work - no more responses arrived in my mailbox.
Since one set of tickets was for an iDTGV train, I then went to iDTGV's website (possibly SNCF's website sent me there) and did manage to exchange that set for tickets in the correct month (albeit with a whopping change fee, I think about 11 euros per ticket!). But then i went back on SNCF, and those tickets still showed up as in the wrong month. You're kidding me! Would I be charged for two sets of tickets, one from each company? Would SNCF not honor the fact that I'd exchanged the tix through iDTGV?
The other set of tickets, I couldn't change on iDTGV, probably because they were TGV tickets. However, I somehow managed to cancel them on SNCF's website. But then an email arrived which seemed to possibly indicate I had been charged full price for cancelling the tickets. It described the non-refundable part as a negative number (oh good; that would mean it's all refundable) but then the amount refunded was listed as zero. Oh Lord. More French was needed than I had. Visions of stony faced bureaucrats parked impassively in my head.
At this point, I was very concerned. I took to facebook and asked three fluent friends who have lived in France if they could help me, if SNCF didn't send a resolving email the next morning. One of them said yes right away. So I went to bed and the next morning, seeing that SNCF hadn't sent ANY responses to my additional emails from the previous day, I called her and she got to work.
I sent her two emails summarizing the situation, as well as the phone number SNCF had emailed me, and told her my login info for both websites. Fortunately she works at a place where she was able to call France, but of course Skype probably also would have been fine. She called SNCF and they said it would probably all be fine; to just send them another email and indicate that I had intended to exchange the cancelled tickets for tickets in the proper month, instead of cancelling them. It would probably take a few days to process. As for the other set of tickets, they told her to have me check my credit card transactions online, which I did - and voila, it did appear that only iDTGV (not SNCF) had charged me for that leg. Whew!
So she went on my SNCF account and typed in an email. We are knocking on wood but I think it is all going to be okay.
May 9th, 2015, 10:21 AM
#50
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Wow - some folks claim that the SNCf is a snap to use - others report complete horror stories
All the more reason to check out www.capitainetrain.com - same trains but much easier to use many say booking agency.
Thanks for taking time to post your travails with a warning to others for potential pitfalls.
All the more reason to check out www.capitainetrain.com - same trains but much easier to use many say booking agency.
Thanks for taking time to post your travails with a warning to others for potential pitfalls.
May 14th, 2015, 06:13 AM
#51
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It turns out that it was not okay, but then it was. SNCF has an unworkable website reimbursement process for cancelled tickets, and blocked my credit card for a replacement tickets purchase while claiming they were not blocking it. Their email contact person gave no actual solutions.
After a week of this, I called my credit card company and dispute the charges. They took it off my bill and will argue with SNCF for me. Hurray! Thanks, Chase and VISA.
So I just went on capitainetrain.com and purchased replacement tickets in 5 minutes flat.
After a week of this, I called my credit card company and dispute the charges. They took it off my bill and will argue with SNCF for me. Hurray! Thanks, Chase and VISA.
So I just went on capitainetrain.com and purchased replacement tickets in 5 minutes flat.
