SNCF Confusion
 

When booking on SNCF there is a box for "Ticket Collection Country". What does this really mean? I am located in Canada if I choose Canada I get redirected to RailEurope.ca and the prices are SO much higher than if I choose "France". I have yet to go all the way to the confirmation stage. What is the outcome of choosing different countries for this option? Is it supposed to match your government ID or something?

Thanks!

http://www.seat61.com/voyages-sncf.htm#.UtdCZxwug9A

Go down to "Step 2" where he explains the problem.

When they ask for the ticket collection country, select France. If you don't speak French, ask a friend for help, our use one of the translations websites like http://translate.google.com

It's easy and will save you a bundle.

skip the SNCF site and use capitainetrain.com ---far easier with no worries of re-direction to Rail Europe for Canadians and Americans.

Sorry denies, but no PREM fares on that website. It's just another broker. Doesn't make any sense to pay more than you should if you can use the SNCF website to book your tickets.

No, Robert, it's not just another broker. It has exactly the same schedules and prices as you will find on www.voyages-sncf.com, AND there are no problems with American credit cards. There are certainly PREM fares (and all other SNCF fares) on capitainetrain.com.

Google it and see. SNCF recently lost a lawsuit involving competing websites. Capitainetrain.com can now publish exactly the same info as SNCF and handle your transactions much more easily.

It looks good, but why would I use it instead of the SNCF website? Besides, I've never experienced any problems using my MC, VISA or Amex on SNCF.

Well, loads and loads of people have had problems getting their American credit cards accepted by SNCF. Loads of 'em. There are countless posts her and on TA about this. I use the SNCF site all the time, because I speak/read French and don't ever need to go through the silly machinations of pretending I'm from Antartica or whatever, but I have had problems with an American VISA card. Usually it accepts my AMEX, though.

But Capitainetrain.com is a simple solution for anyone who is having trouble with the SNCF site.

I've used both and prefer Captainetrain for all the reasons StCirq mentioned. In addition they responded quickly to my email questions.

StCirg is dead on. It's less hassle as I stated before for those of us who do not read French well enough to negotiate SNCF's sneaky attempts to redirect to Rail Europe. You don't pay more.

Additionally, you will get PDFs of your tickets/boarding passes to print from home or a bar coded boarding pass that you can send to your phone. They also have an iPhone app. Very convenient site to use.

Don't knock it until you've tried it.

I've given up sending people to voyages-sncf.com now, because I have to give them copious instructions about how to avoid being diverted to the various Rail Europe sites, and they get up tight about selecting 'Afghanistan', and I have to cross my fingers and hope they follow my instructions and don't get diverted.

It's far easier just to send them to www.Capitainetrain.com, same prices, same trains, same seat options, same lack of any added booking fee, and no Machiavellian tendencies so I don't need to write pages and pages of booking instructions.

The REASON SNCF "sends" people to RailEurope is the fact that RE is the North American <B>marketing arm</B> of the SNCF combo and is wholly-owned by them.

Canadians can very easily avoid being frog-marched to Rail Europe. Designate Antarctica as place of delivery. That ice cap has no rail, or even permanent residents; it's not a country. French logic and computer algorhithms somehow intersect to make this choice perfectly plausible. It makes no difference to getting your tickets.
For several years Canadians had escaped the marketing tyranny imposed on the US but the SNCF remake in 2013 returned to the bad old days. The customer-unfriendly bullying is certainly easy to avoid, especially if you just use the Antarctic dodge and don't try to reason it through.

true, but the question really is straightforward, not "tricky" Where do you intend to collect your tickets? They aren't going to mail them to you in North America for free, so if you say you want them there, then you do have to go to Raileurope. I don't find that tricky myself, I have always said I would collect them on-site and never thought of it as tricky or sneaky for them to ask that and I've been using it before I read about these issues some people have on Fodors about not understanding that.

If you've ever taken a train, even without knowing you might get an eticket for your route, you would know you could collect a ticket at a train station and it would likely be cheaper than expecting personal delivery to a foreign country, so I don't think it's an unreasonable question myself.

I think Capitainetrain is fine but doesn't always have the same tickets as SNCF, I believe someone had that problem on here once. If they do, fine.

I am assuming that the Capitainetrain tickets are only bookable during the usual 60-90 days ahead timeframe. Does anyone know if this is true? Thanks

Tickets purchased on the SNCF website are downloadable.

Are tickets purchased on Capitainetrain not also downloadable?

Capitainetrain and en.voyages-sncf.com both link directly to Resarail, the SNCF ticketing system, and they are identical in terms of train, price and lack of fees, EXCEPT that Capitainetrain only deals in e-tickets and collect-at-station tickets, whereas voyages-sncf can handle bookings where tickets need to be sent by post, in which case they can send to addresses in various countries other then the USA.

So for a domestic French TGV ticket, where you'd get e-ticket or collect-at-station option, the two are identical.

Only if you want to book (say) Warsaw to Moscow, en.voyages-sncf.com will actually do this with the sole option of delivery by post (not USA), capitainetrain won't.

Yes to the 90 days out for ticket purchase. The tickets we purchased ended up being available more like 80 days out on capitainetrain.

Capitainetrain cannot do handicapped services for the trains either. I emailed to ask them, and they responded promptly that they, at this time, do not have that capability.