I had difficulty purchasing on SNCF April 2010. I can't remember the specifics, but I was frantic about losing the prem fares. My cc was rejected three times. I waited until early the next morning when I knew it was business hours, and it worked. I got the same fare also (so it wasn't a lower fare).

I've purchased on this site many times without any problems before.

Just purchased first class tickets, Amsterdam-Brussels, on thalys.com last friday, for 3 people. And then another, Brussels - Paris, last sunday, for 3. And then again yesterday, Paris-Strasbourg, for 4 people on voyages-sncf.com (in French, if that makes a difference). I didn't have any problem with my CC (no verification asked) and all transactions went through. I just did one transaction/day. Perhaps it's just random glitches you're experiencing?

Anyway, wish you luck!

Would you mind posting how much in Euro was each successful transaction?

greg:

1st Class, Thalys, Smoove, 3 people €135 total

1st Class, Thalys, Smoove, 3 people €177 total

2nd Class, SNCF, Prem, 4 people €100 total

Well... sesms that I'm not the only having these problems. Have tried tgv-europe.com,voyages-sncf.com and idtvg.com and have been rejected on them all. Got lucky on Thalys.com I guess and was able to book yesterday.

Btw, no response from customer service yet. I sent them an email like 2 hours ago.

JoyC,
It looks like you did not retry the €210 for 3 people transaction?
So your €177 for three people was successful, but my €158 for 2 people was not. hmm.. puzzling, I wonder it has something to do with per person price. Your €210 for 3 ( €70 per person) and my €158 for 2 (€79 per person) orders got rejected while other lesser value per person transactions (€34, €45, €45, €59, €25) went through??? I hope others would post more details than just "I had/didn't have problems" to see if this is a random financial glitch or a systematic behavior.

greg:

I hope you are not confusing me with <b>JudyC</b>??

I don't have a transaction for €210. All my transactions went through and were successful.

FYI, I tried to book again in French today, still got rejected.

I compared the fares between voyages-sncf and Rail Europe from San Sebastian, Spain to Paris, stopping for two nights along the way, and found RE to be a better deal. I ordered the tickets Sunday and I had no problem with my Cap One card. The reservations are included and the tickets are scheduled to be delivered tomorrow, Weds. It was very easy and the tickets were in dollars. They would have cost more from voyages with the exchange rate.

I have been trying using Multiple cards (Bank of America issued) and all of them got declined from scnf-voyages..Not sure if there is a sure-shot way of getting the tickets online..

I was trying to book 6 tickets from Paris - Basel on TGV Lyria for Oct1..

Rohit_Kumar - You might be exceeding SNCF's limits for online purchases with foreign credit cards. I emailed them after I had difficulty, and in their response they said that purchases were limited to one in 24 hours, with a total of €300 per week (€150 per day).

Here's a link to another thread where I posted the excerpt from their email:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...edit-cards.cfm

So it is the amount of purchase with a foreign credit card dependent after all. How did JoyC succeed in purchasing €177 SMOOVE tickets? I wonder if JoyC used a credit card not deemed "foreign?" With this type of restriction, is the strategy to sit together is to split the group into less than €150 purchases and try best to find a group of seats close to each other? Sometimes this means a group of two need to be split into two different purchases?

These limits certainly do pose challenges for people traveling together. My purchase was small (€32), and it still didn't go through. SNCF offered no explanation for that. I wonder if you could split the order and use different credit cards to avoid the issue of being over the limit.

Number one thing to do is to call credit card company which may have put a temp block on card because of an odd looking transaction. This can be random, so previous success will not mean subsequent transactions go smoothly. If that is the issue a call will resolve it!

I tried booking two one-way TGV PREM tickets on voyages-scnf.com yesterday. Made the reservation in French and was also denied the reservation after putting in the credit card info. Sent an email inquiry to scnf, then later in the day received a message from my credit card company (Chase Hyatt card) that they were questioning the activity. I called Chase back today to authorize the purchase and they unblocked the transaction. I waited until it had been 24 hours since my last attempt on voyages-scnf, as I had read that suggestion here. This time, again in French, purchase went through without a snag.

By the way, I compared the prices on Rail Europe, tgv-europe and voyages-scnf. Rail Europe was $294, tgv-europe and voyages-sncf were both $160 (one way Paris to Nice).

I had same the issue, multiple rejects on different rail booking websites and with different credit cards. I make dozens of transactions often in different countries and online every month with no problems.

I called one of the credit card issuers in Scotland, and they "unblocked" the transaction - they told me to wait 5 mins before trying and then it was fine.

I suspect their is a lot of fraud in buying train tickets so the credit card companies automatic system readily reject transactions.

Also bear in mind that some sites may reject a card that's been declined by a bank once, even if it is accepted the next time. This 'times out' after a day or two.

bookmarking

Related may be of interest -

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...rd-foibles.cfm