Hi all, a quick question about buying train tickets ahead of time. I'm planning to purchase tickets from sncf.com for our September trip (Paris to Bruges, at least, although I may buy tickets for the other legs of our travel, too--Bruges to Amsterdam, and Amsterdam to Paris). When I select the tickets that I want, the site tells me that no reservations are available, although it looks like I can continue with the sale. Does this mean that I have a guaranteed seat on the train but can't reserve a particular seat ahead of time? I'm confused.

Also, SNCF won't mail the tickets to me in the US, right? I need to retrieve them from an automated machine at the station?

Thanks for your help!

This may or may not be relevant to your situation but usually seat reservations cannot be made more than 60 days in advance.

It may also be that the SNCF site will not allow you to make reservations in the first place..of that I am not certain.

Hope this helps..at least a little.

You can't buy tickets online at the SNCF site until 60 days before your planned train ride.

No, SNCF won't mail the tickets to you in the USA, but I wouldn't necessarily advise using the automated machines, either. I can read French just fine and they intimidate me. Just take your confirmation number and the credit card you used online to buy the tickets and go to the ticket line at the station or any SNCF boutique.

ditto St Cirq,

Just got back from france so here's one veyr important thing to remember. givent hat you can't get your ticket mailed to you and given that the automated machines are ,well i just don't trust the system that much. i must say LEAVE PLENTY OF TIME.

I reserved and had seats guaranteed for two trains 2 hours apart. Variour french experiences made me late for the first and i got to the queue for the ticket counter in time for the second BUT a) it was a long line and b) the line went super slow, oh and c) the closer i got to the front of the line the more the staff closed up their counters so levae plenty of time.

In an ideal worl you can go tot he automated machines at least 30 minutes before your train leaves, pay the money and get the ticket. I missed being able to do this by a few minutes cos i was loooking for the counter and then couldn't find a machine that worked. SO leave plenty of time

AND book several seats on several trains...just in case

They might not have ressrvations on the Bruges to Amsterdam train, but they certainly would on the others. You won't have a guaranteed seat without a reservation, that's for sure.

I've never had luck with the automatic machines in the train stations -- I don't think they take American credit cards. At least, they wouldn't mine, and the ticket clerk at the window said that was common with American cards.

Interesting. The travel dates are less than 60 days away (Sept. 7, 8, and 12).

I'm confused as to why the site seems to be allowing me to purchase the tickets while saying I can't make a reservation. I just don't get what that means--what am I buying, then?

Good to know about the automated machines, though. And after bhuty's experiences, now I feel a bit leery about making our train connections, since they're about 20 minutes apart. I'd hate to be stuck in a long line and miss our connection from Brussels to Bruges, for instance. ugh.

Seats cannot be reserved on the trains from Brusssels to Brugge. In Belgium and the Netherlands, domestic trains generally run every half hour or every hour, and there are no seat reservations. A ticket merely shows that you have paid the fare to make that journey, and allows you to travel on any train; if all the seats are full, you can stand or wait for the next train. On trains where seat reservations are possible, the reservation will be for a specific seat in a specific carriage. The trains from Paris to Brussels and Amsterdam are high speed Thalys trains, and seat reservations are compulsory.

Thanks so much for the info; I appreciate it.

Hi strass,

I just looked up your trip.

The Brussesls/Bruges portion of your trip is on a local train. You can't make reservations for this train on the net.

PS,

You can also do this trip as Paris to Lille Flandres to Bruges.

I think it saves some time, since you don't have to go to Brussels to come back to Bruges.

Thanks Ira!