sncf booking question
 

hi fodorites,

me again.

okay, i have scanned a bunch of threads about booking a TGV ticket from paris to avignon using the SNCF website... (my god, this is confusing!!!)

a few more questions for the experts out there:

1. will i receive an e-mail that i can print out? OR will i need to print the tickets out right away after purchasing online?

the reason i ask this is b/c i am planning to make the purchase from my laptop and i'm not normally hooked up to a printer. however, if required, i can make the purchase from a desktop with printer hookup.

2. what seats do i want?? i did a 'mock' purchase and notice that i have several seat options - upper deck, lower deck, square, upper square, lower square. what the heck do all these mean?? i'm guess that 'square' = four seats facing each other?

if i want to be near my luggage, where should i sit? can i change seats after i get onto the train? are there specific seats i can request in order to be close to my luggage? yeah - can you tell i don't really want to be separated from my luggage??? :)

THANK YOU!!!

I just bought 4 tickets for Sept (I live in London) and I set the pick up place to France. At the end of the transaction you are given the option to print them. They are pdf files, so you can open them and save them to your desktop and print them later. I also got an email which included a link to the pdf files so I can also print them from that.

cant help you with seats, I always just take what they assign. The trains I've been on usually have a luggage rack in each carriage where you put your big luggage, and an overhead rack to put smaller, carry on type bags.

Hope this helps!
J

Above poster is right about printing the ticket.

RE : Seats. The choice you got is on a double decker TGV (duplex). Not all TGV are dbl decked but Generally the lower deck is quieter, the higher deck with a better view. "'square' = four seats facing each other? " That's right. If you are alone, you might want a seat "côte à côte". Don't know what term they use on English page. Like on airplane. With double decker TGV, overhead rack is really narrow. Good for small bags but usually not for carry-on size wheelers. Single deck TGV has larger overhead racks. Double decker TGV also has luggage racks in the middle (near seats 70's or 80's) but since you cannot choose seat numbers it's a bit of luck. If you are worried, it might be worth getting a bicyle chain, as mentioned on this forum sometimes, to attach your suitecase to the rack. I have never done it myself though.

jammikins + kappa - THANK YOU for the info! this is great!

as much as i want to look out the window during the trip, i want my luggage even more (yes, paranoid) so i'll take seats on the lower level ...

there are two of us. if we take a 'square', will they automatically put someone with us? a square might be ideal - coule we even put our luggage in the square??? we'll have two large suitcases and two backpacks....

thanks again!!!

Hi lilaki,

The system didn't give me an option to choose an exact seat. Since there were two of us, the system assigned two seats together window and aisle alone on the lower deck. I don't recall there being a place to say whether you wanted upper or lower deck but perhaps I missed something in the process.

I did see the seats that you spoke of and they face each other with a table in between. The individual seats have a large tray that opens much like a plane only larger and sturdier. I thought I recalled a power plug beside our seat as well.

The booking system sent me an email which I kept and you can print your tickets out when you choose. You click on the link and it will bring you to your dosier.

> will they automatically put someone with us? a square might be ideal - coule we even put our luggage in the square???

You cannot tell. It's like airplane. Assume the other 2 seats are for 2 other passgegers. In any case, the seats are not large enough for your luggage. Your suitcases will have to go to luggage rack. Backpacks? How big are they ? If they are big sort, they might have to go to luggage rack too unless you want to keep them under your feet (wouldn't be comfortable, there is not much space there neither).

I've travelled on lots of trains in Europe and I have never had a problem with luggage. You will have to put it in the luggage racks and everyone does. You will likely be able to see the racks from your seats, so just keep an eye on it, especially at stops. Not much else you can do, other than get a bike lock and lock them to the luggage rack.

I have never seen anyone do this, but it may make you feel better. Just make sure you know your stop so you have time to take the lock off as you wont if you wait until the train stops to do it.

Personally I think that is overkill...this is the process for trains in Europe, so relax and enjoy the train ride!

hi all,

thanks for the info!

i will book for the lower deck and i'll get side by side seats (provided i get a choice). i think i'll forego the bike lock though. :)

what is the stop before avignon?? and from this stop, how long before the train pulls into avignon?

from other threads, i understand that i need to be ready to go as soon as the train pulls into avignon.

thanks again!!!

Like others say, you cannot pick the actual seats. When you choose your "choice" of seat, it'll automatically assign you with seat number (which you can see on the next page before the actual purchase). Sometimes they assign 2 of you sitting facing one another. If you'd rather sitting side-by-side, you can choose the "no preference" option.

I think you can only print out tickets that are PREMs. If you buy regular tickets, my understanding is there's no print-at-home option and you have to pick your tickets up at an SNCF station.

Also, for PREMs, you can only print them out if you decline the insurance option.

That's true and a very important point. YOu cannot print most of the tickets you buy online from SNCF. NO mention was made of what type of tickets was going to be bought, so if it's a regular one, you will never be able to print it.

The only ones you can print are fares that are very restricted and nonrefundable, that's the whole reason they allow you to print them -- you can never turn them in for a refund, etc., and they have the money already.

hi yk/christina ... i'm planning to buy PREMs with no insurance.

i'll post back after i buy my tickets on sunday (if all goes well)...


thanks!

Avignon was the first stop when we took the train at 8:04am.

The luggage racks above are not very big at all...we couldn't fit our tote bag up there. We had to put it under the seat in front of us.

hi crazyfortravel,

was there any notice that you'd be pulling into the station? how much time did you have to get your luggage and get off the train?

i'm pretty sure we will have to stow our luggage in the main baggage areas so i want to make sure i have enough time to get up, get my bags and get to the door.

i speak enough french to get by but am not sure the loudspeakers are clear and/or slow enough for me to understand!

do we pass any landmarks? i.e. XYZ landmark means that we're pulling into avignon shortly?

thanks!

Hi lilaki,

They gave a few minutes notice. We slowed down a couple of times prior to Avignon and I thought there would be another stop but there wasn't. They were very clear on the loud speaker and then they annouced it again just prior to arrival. I don't remember seeing any landmarks that would help to identify approach to Avignon.

You may notice that some people will get up from their seats prior to arrival and you could just follow suit if you see movement in numbers.

Good luck with your train purchase

Kelly

This is fantastic thread, as am going through the exact same process now for my trip in Sep!! Excellent points on how much time we have before pulling into Avignon, I hadn't even thought of that...

A question - what is the difference between booking on SNCF and on TGV-Europe? I can have the tickets mailed to a girlfriends place in London where we will be staying prior to Paris, but just wondering if the (a) the processes are the same and (b) if the prices are the same as well? From what I can tell when I've done 'mock' runs, it looks the same

Also re PREM tickets - I've been keeping an eye on the price, and it looks that in total for 2 of us, it will cost us about 170 Euro for a return from Paris to Avignon (85 Euro each). Does this sound reasonable or does it get cheaper the closer we get to our travel datees?


Thanks :)

aarathi23,

Booked far enough in advance (up to three months allowed) Prem's fares for Paris-Avignon can be as low as €17 each way. If you wait to book until a date close to departure, all the discount fares will be gone and you'll have to pay full fare (80-100 euros, depending if your departure time is at peak or off-peak hours).

hi aarathi23,

i'm planning/hoping to pay 34 euros for two of us from paris to avignon on sept. 30. i'm planning to buy my ticket on sunday night (EST) ... three months before my travel date.

there are a ton of other threads on this forum about buying tickets on sncf (you can muddle your way through if you read/understand basic french). you can also print out tickets if you're buying PREMs but not buying insurance. there is also a thread here about changing the web address from FR to UK or something like that and part of the sncf site will come up in english. i did searches for "sncf", "tgv avignon" etc. etc.

there is also a very popular morganb thread that explains how it's all done -- just type in morganb into the search box.

and yes, it's VERY confusing! i've been researching this topic for at least two months in anticipation of my purchase on sunday!!!

from what i understand, there is also a phone number for sncf customer service that you can call and they speak english. i believe you can call and book tickets through that number. search for my name and you should be able to find the thread about this ... it's my back up if i can't make the purchase on sunday! :)

good luck!

Sorry for yet another question on this - but I'm looking on the sncf website now, but i can't find tix that cheap! ie 34 euro...is there a special way that i'm missing finding the cheap tickets?

i'm looking to travel on the 13th of september, so am just under the 3 month mark currently

also is there a difference from booking on the sncf website and the tgv europe website?

hi aarathi23,

i should have been more clear - 34 euros was for two of us ONE WAY.

i'm assuming you want a return ticket??

and i'm not an expert on this whole train-booking thing in france but from everything i've read, the cheap PREMs are available only in very limited quantities (not sure what this means) ... since it's about two weeks past the 13th of june (three months before the 13th of september), perhaps they are all sold out??

unfortunately, i don't know what tgv europe is ... i've been doing all my 'mock' bookings/research on SNCF...

good luck! hopefully, someone more knowledgeable/experienced than me can respond/confirm...

hi aarathi23,

i just tried TGV europe's site for the date you want to travel ... paris to avignon, two passengers, 2nd class, picking up tickets in france, etc. etc. and it booted me straight to the sncf website.

maybe it's just better to go directly to sncf??

aarathi23,

Here are the best Prem's still available for 13 September:

€17 for departures at 15:13, 16:46, and 17:16.

€38 for the departure at 07:46.

€40 for the departure at 09:16.

Here's how to book in English at www.voyages-sncf.com. Click on the "Train" tab (between "Accueil" and "Hotel") at the top of the page. On the new page you get go to the browser field at the very top of the screen and click anywhere in the long URL you see there. Find LANG=FR and change it to LANG=UK. Do not change anything else. Hit the Enter key and you'll be taken to a booking page in English. Leave France as the default country for ticket retrieval, do NOT choose cancellation insurance, and proceed with booking and printing your Prem's tickets.

I booked ITGV tickets Paris to Avignon for travel on Jun 4th and paid 38 Euros for two in second class.

We returned on Jun 12th and paid 88 Euros for two in First class...Prems.

We got there in the end! 120 Euro for 2 return tickets from Paris to Avignon, 2nd class. We're coming back on the double decker train, and we've opted for the upper deck!

Phew!

Funny thing is in the last 5 mins, (as I was swapping between the sncf website and the tgv-europe website), the return ticket went up by 5 euro, thankfully I had already the cheaper alternatively booked, so went straight ahead and decided to not play around anymore!

Now if I can only get my hotels sorted :)

Thanks everyone for all your help on this

For the record, if you use www.tgv-europe.com website, you need to select your country of residence as GREAT BRITAIN. If you choose France, it'll send you back to sncf.com. But if you choose GREAT BRITAIN, it will stay as an English interface of sncf but everything remains in English.

I just printed out PREM tkts return Paris/Reims for 22 September on the tgv-europe site. Changed country to Great Britain. Easy! The hard part was finding the PREM fares for that week. Thank you Fodorites for all you good information.

Jan

hi fodorites,

i just booked my tickets on sncf ... PREMs were 50 euros for both of us one way. i was hoping for 34 euros but no such luck. oh well. thanks to everyone for your help!

for some reason, we didn't get a chance to specify seating at all (one of my mock bookings allowed us to specify seats). the system generated two seats on the UPPER DECK ...

so now, what will we do with our luggage? do we haul our luggage up to the upper deck? is that reasonable with suitcases? i'm re-thinking the whole bike-lock thing if we're going to be separated from our luggage...

thanks again!

D'OH ... just went back to the site and realized that there is indeed a way to select seats (or at least make some specifications) ...

so, for future reference, after you click the radio button for the selected price/ticket, an option appears at the bottom saying "choisir ma place" (right next to the green 'button' called "valider cet aller".

i guess i was too excited to book my ticket.

does anyone know if we can change our seats?? and if so, how would we do this?

and if NOT, then what about the luggage concerns?

THANK YOU!

anyone out there for this one?

thank you!

No you can't. Your ticket is non-changeable. RE: luggage, I wrote already above : With double decker TGV, overhead rack is really narrow. Good for small bags but too small even for carry-on size wheelers. .... Double decker TGV also has luggage racks in the middle (near seats 70's or 80's)

hi kappa,

thanks for your response.

since we'll be separated from our luggage, do you know if we'll be able to move down to the lower level once the train departs paris? in otherwords, since it's a direct trip and no one else will be boarding after paris, will anyone stop us if we go down and sit in the empty seats on the lower deck?

Being a direct trip doesn't mean no one else can board, it just means you don't transfer to another train anywhere.

There are a few TGVs to Avignon that are nonstop, I think, but most stop in Valence. If you do have one without stops (how did you find that out?), you should be able to move to an empty seat with no problem. I move sometimes, just within the same car, if I'm facing a direction I don't like and there are free seats. I don't know why you'd want to move to the lower level that much, it's not usually as nice in terms of view, and why haul your luggage up and then back down?

Tail cars aren't that big that you aren't usually within eyesight of your luggage. I always am, as there are places at the end of the cars, as well as in various other points between seats. I just make sure I get there early to put it where I want. I suppose there are some seats on one end that would be apart from the luggage if you had it at the opposite end of the car.

ut I've never heard of any TGV from Paris to Avignon that didn't have any stops. I think they always stop in Valence

hi christina,

our seats are on the upper deck in car 8.

i have emailed SNCF to see if we can at least change our seats ... i haven't heard back (even though the website stated i should get a response the next business day) and i'm doubtful that we'll be able to change our seats.

as far as i understood, the train is direct from paris to avignon - there was no mention of valence. but that just makes me more worried (i.e. someone getting on the train and then running off with my luggage in valence)...

since we can't haul our luggage up to the upper deck, i'm assuming we will need to stow our luggage on the lower deck. i'm uneasy about leaving our luggage unattended and out of sight. (as an aside, i spent a summer in europe as a kid - family vacation - and all of our luggage got stolen out of our rental car ... as an adult, i'm constantly paranoid about luggage theft).

since it seems i can't change my seats, i just want to know if i can just wait for the train to fill up, and then take any of the empty seats on the lower deck. does someone walk around the car to check your tickets after boarding? who do you show your tickets to and when?

worst case scenario if the train is completely full and we can't change seats, i'm planning to bring a bike lock and one of us will just head down to the lower deck every once in a while and definitely before the train pulls into any stations (i.e. valence). and yes, i know i'm being paranoid. but that feeling of losing all our luggage in italy when i was a kid is not something i really want to re-live!

thanks!!

We had no stops on the Paris-Avignon train that left at 8:04AM on Jun 4th. We had anticipated that there would be stops (assumed there would be) but Avignon TGV station was the first stop.

We were on the upper level of an ITGV car in second class and there was a luggage rack on that level at the end of our car. It was a little awkward getting the luggage up the stairs but we managed.

Coming back Avignon to Paris the train at 9:32AM on June 12th was also non stop. We were in first class on the bottom level. Both times when we got on the train, someone was in our seats. They quickly moved when I showed them our confirmation.

Prior to boarding the ITGV section, we had to show our train tickets in Paris and they validated them. When we got on in Avignon, no one checked our tickets but someone did come around the car at a later time to check them and ask to see our passport since we had internet printed tickets.

We saw several people move to other seats once the train got going. I think the only no-no would be to try and take a first class seat if you've paid for second class...otherwise I'm sure it's fine once the train has pulled out from the station. Both trains were rather full so there weren't many empty seats but in October that may be different.

When we travelled the overnight train once from France to Italy, we brought a small set of chains and locks so we could attach the luggage to the rack for piece of mind.

Kelly

hi crazyfortravel,

whew! i feel much better now. we're on the 9:16 am train from paris...which apparently takes 2 hr 40 mins to avignon. i remember seeing that the 8:04 am journey was 2 hr 39 mins long ... which hopefully means that there won't be a 1 minute stop in valence for the 9:16 am journey! :)

do you know how big your suitcases are?? i can deal with one flight of awkward stairs with my suitcase if it means sitting near my luggage (or at least on the same level)!

thank you!!!

With your experience, I would not call you paranoid. Yes, why not use a chain lock even just for a peace of your mind?

Aboslutely no problem changing seats as long as you find one that's not occupied. Only you have to be ready to move away when somebody comes along with the seat reservation. People do that all the time. I do too.

Go to the following site and check if there are stops before Avignon TGV station. This is Swiss railway site but it does give the info. Enter from Paris & to Avignon, date, time and you will get a list of trains. Find yours and click on the train no (e.g. TGV9857). You will get the intermediate stops if there are. I just tried it myself and got a few Paris - Avignon with out stops inbetween so that can be not that extraordinary. Christina is right however a "direct" train usually only means you don't have to change trains (but there are stops inbetween.)

http://www.sbb.ch/en/index.htm

Ok, TGV 6107, right? That one does not stop at Valence. Avignon is the first stop at 11:59, then on to Aix-en-Provence and terminus, Marseille.

hi kappa - thanks for an excellent site. i just went on and entered all of the information. there are NO intermediate stops for our journey! yay!

so, if our luggage fits, we'll haul it up the stairs to the second level. and if not, then we'll wait around on the first level for everyone else to take their seats. and if the first level is full, we'll still have our bike locks to chain up our luggage.

whew.

thank you everyone for all of your help!!

fodorites to the rescue! and amazing how i still haven't received a response back from SNCF! :)

We had one 24 inch with wheels, One large duffle with wheels, a small tote bag and a small back pack. I took the two small bags and god love my husband...he carried the larger ones up the stairs.

The stairs were fairly wide so it wasn't too bad at all.

I'm sure your train is likely non-stop. We did see some trains that took over 3 hours and those are likely the ones that make a stop.

hi crazyfortravel,

thanks for the luggage info. we will have two small backpacks and two large-ish suitcases. not sure of the exact measurements but they'll be checked on a plane so they can't exceed that size!

worst case, if we can't carry them up the stairs (one of us will run up ahead to check the upper deck situation), then we'll leave them on the lower deck and we'll hope for empty seats. and if there are none, then we'll have our locks with us so we'll be covered. and since it's a direct train, i feel better about things already!

thanks again!

hi folks,

i just received an e-mail from SNCF and they confirmed that we will be able to take our luggage to the upper deck! whew!

thanks to everyone for all of their help!