Question re: SNCF reservations
 

After reviewing posts on this site, I decided to try to make reservations on the TGV from Paris to Avignon (and return) for the end of August. Trying to get the "Prem" fare, the only return I could get was at 8pm, arriving Paris at 10:45pm which is really too late for us. All other efforts to get a reservation for earlier trains even at full fare (I tried several different days as well) failed with the message that either there were no more reservations for those trains or the train did not go on that day. Is it possible that you cannot get a reservation on a train from Avignon to Paris at the end of August except for the 8pm train or am I doing something wrong? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Would it be a mistake to assume I could get tickets once in France and take the train without a reservation?

I think you can only make reservations on the TGV site within 60 or so days of the train. Kind of inconvenient if you're trying to get it all in a row well in advance.

As Cet2005 has suggested, you are probably getting the messages because you are trying to book tickets more than 60 days in advance.

Thank you both for the explanation. I will try to book later this month.

I'm sure that's it but I think the message you get when the date is too far in advance is something like no trains available. I guess they do advertise some PREMs ahead of that 60 day window, so that's how that happened.

However, I would reserve when you can because it is certainly possible that trains would be full at the end of August due to holidays and people returning home from vacation. Also, you cannot take a TGV train without a reservation, so that option is out.

Thank you. Do you happen to know whether you can change a TGV reservation after it's made without a penalty?

You should be able to change a TGV reservation without penalty if you pay the regular fare. If it's a PREM ticket, they are nonrefundable and nonexchangeable.

I'm not so sure about that. I think the reservation fee is for actually making the reservation, and it is nonrefundable. I think it's a service charge and if you wanted to change the reservation to another date and/or time there would be a new reservation charge and you wouldn't get the prior charge refunded.

I might be wrong, that's just my impression. The reservation fee is not large in itself, however, only 1.5 euro. It's the ticket that is the major fee and there are various categories of penalties for changing train tickets, but if it's a fullfare ticket, probably none.

I don't know the details, but on some kinds of fares or tickets there is a slight penalty for getting a refund, I know that, as it happened to me. It was not any kind of PREM fare or anything, either. I got a refund of a set of RT regular fare Paris-Reims tickets, and they explained there was some penalty (but I didn't understand the explanation) and I received back about 80-90 pct of the original price. I didn't need them, so that was okay.