I am trying to figure out the best fare combo for France/Switzerland trip. I've decided that the France/Swiss pass is not worth it, so I've decided to buy the TGV Paris -- Somewhere in Switz, then will buy Swiss Pass. Where I land in Switz will depend on the type of Swiss Pass I get.

Question: When I research the "point to point" TGV fares in the raileurope website and the TGV websites, the traveleurope quotes are higher. Granted, one is in dollars and the other in Euros, but unless the dollar is now 1.5 against the Euro, raileurope must be charging a premium -- same train number, same type of reservation, etc.

But here's my question: the TGV site has specials that seem not to be adverstised on traveleurope. These rates are non-refundable or transferrable, but can be as much as 1/2 the price!!! Any way for us to take advantage of these from the U.S.??? When I look on the TGV website directions, it explains the "how tos" for payment and receipt of ticket for areas 2 and 3 --- and the U.S. is in neither area!!!!

If we're not able to take advantage of these specials from the U.S., are there usually specials when one gets there?? I'm getting there a week before I need to leave for Switzerland, but it seems to me that these would be the first to go, like airline tickets, especially around the holidays (my travel days to and from Switzerland are the 20th and 27th of Dec, respectively)

Your help and expertise would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Not sure if you are looking at the same site as me. On the French Rail site it's sncf.com. They offer special, deeply discounted and non-refundable tickets called PREM. You have a choice of printing out the tickets so there is no worry about your US address. For non-PREM tickets just say "France" is your country and choose to pick up the tickets at any SNCF boutique.

I was looking at the TGV website, but it's the same from SNCF which I just looked at as well. Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but when they ask me to buy the ticket, the information side box (i, next to the country) says that I can pay online, but if I don't pick up the tickets within a certain number of days at one of their sites, my ticket won't be valid. So for tickets purchased between 30-62 days in advance, I have 15 days from the day of purchase to pick up my ticket. SO by that, I assumed they meant that while I printed a confirmation of purchase, an electronic ticket doesn't exist that I can use. Their alternative is to send the ticket to people in areas 2 & 3 (with surcharge), but the U.S. is not listed anywhere.

It is strange - in my experience, France is more advanced in the areas of electronic ticketing and information than we are - so perhaps I am understanding their directions wrong?

Have you done this from the U.S. before and it's worked?

Thanks for being so quick to respond!

Sorry, I've only purchased PREM tickets online. So I was able to print them without problems.

I know there are lots of people here who are more experienced with the SNCF site and its procedures. Hopefully they'll reply to your post.

I've never had happen to me what you said. No, they won't mail to US from online purchases (barring exceptions where people got them by random chance, but the rules are they won't). I've bought tickets online and picked them up in France and don't recall any warning about only 15 days, but it's been a while and I could have been in that timeframe, anyway. One thing you can assume for sure is that any other agent or vendor is not the same as the rail agency, and you are probably not going to get the same discount fares. Traveleurope is not SNCF. Raileurope is also an agent and marks up most fares, I believe, but it varies by the amount. You should not expect any agent to give you a ticket at the same rate as you get it from the railway itself. How could they stay in business with no markup.

The TGV website just sends you to SNCF, I believe, so there is no good reason to do things through the TGV website.

You might try calling Swiss Rail, as they can give you prices over the phone and you should also be able to buy tickets which they can mail you tickets to the US. (If you can't buy tickets on the phone, you can definitely do it on the website.) They should be able to give you the same TGV prices as well. (They can sell inter-country tickets and passes.) The number is 011-41-900-300-300. They have English speaking operators. Switzerland is 6 hours ahead of EST and I believe the line is staffed from about 8 am to 5 pm or later Swiss time. I used to do this all the time when I lived in Switzerland as I found this much, much easier to do than using the French or Italian train sites, the Swiss Rail operators are very helpful. You can also send them an e-mail with questions, take a look at the Swiss Rail website at rail.ch.

Cicerone is right! I was just thinking of the French Rail. I have bought tickets from SBB too. And they can mail the tickets to you. Not only that I find that their customer service is great unlike SNCF's. If you email SBB they will get back to you within a day or two no later in my experience. With SNCF they may or may not contact you.

Great ideas!! I will contact the SBB - and it's good to know that you've done it. My fallback plan is to have the tickets sent to London, where my brother lives.

The price difference is just incredible - if I buy now, it's 20euros - if I wait until I'm in Paris, it ranges from 69E to 90E (maybe peak vs off peak?)

Thanks all...really helpful