First and foremost, thanks for your continued help.

After a couple of hours working this SCNF business out and not getting back the PREMS fare for 3, but getting it for 1, I finally realized something: If I try to purchase THREE tickets that include 2 adults and 1 child (4 yr old), NONE gets the PREMS fare. It literally quadruples. However, if I treat my 4 yr old like another adult, and list 3 adults, then I get the PREMS - or cheapest - fare.

My inclination is to just purchase three adults tickets...but does anyone know if the Conductor on the train is going to be a pain in the A** about the fact that my son is a kid, and not an adult?? I could see them being picky about things the other way around (if I tried to buy a kid ticket for an adult), but I'm not sure how they'll react to the opposite. I would HIGHLY doubt that they would leave out kids in the PREMS special!! Right?? So it must be a computer glitch from the SCNF site.

The reason why I've spent 2 hours on this is that I am PRETTY sure that during one iteration of my search, I saw a special window that allowed me to enter my son as such and get the right PREMS fare -- but can't seem to replicate it.

Anyway, I'm on the point of buying the tickets, but wanted to check in with that question. Thanks again...

Don't you have to enter your birthdate on the SNCF site to order a PREM ticket? I'm pretty sure you do. So enter the birthdate of the 4-year-old, and certainly if there is some prohibition about buying a PREM fare for a child, the site will let you know.

That is an odd result, but not impossible, I suppose. You have to think about it from SNCFs point of view. PREMs are promotional fares to get a certain kind of business, not just to be nice to people. If they only wanted to encourage more adults or businesspeople to take the train, it could make sense. Also, they have other kinds of discounts for children, and French residents may easily get those (I think a yearly child discount card or something).

The thing not allowing the adults to get PREMs is kind of weird though, but on some I tried, the special discounts for adult plus child would have been cheaper than two PREMs, so they did show the cheapest option. I've gotten results with PREMs for the adults and some child fare for the younger one.

I think it will be okay, I'd do what St Cirq suggests and see what happens. I know the English and French site translate things differently, and if you use it in French, and go right to the special PREM fares from the front page (click on the right side where it advertises PREMs), you can clearly check number of people and it says "number of adults or children four year or more" when searching for PREMs. On the English translation, it just says adults.

I've just tried the french website that says "adults and children over 4"
(adultes et enfants de + de 4 ans) so it should be 3persons all together and you can have your discount.

They don't ask for birth dates except when you want to buy a special card for small children (that gives you 50% discount on normal fares for the whole family).
good luck!
corinne

THey've always asked for birthdates when I've bought PREMs. And it prints the birthdate out right at the top of the ticket, under the ticketholder's name.

I'm looking at a copy of a PREM ticket I used in August from Lyon to CDG and the birthdate is right there. It's one of the things the conductor checks against your passport or other picture ID.

Yep, I just bought 2 PREMS recently and had to give DOBs.

Coco, which website are you using? I am doing it in French because it's easier for me (I'm bilingual, and doing it in original language seems always clearer, no surprise there)

I will keep trying - maybe if I input the ages, it will just let me do it. My last alternative is to buy 2 tickets adult then one ticket separately for my son -- but give son one of the adult seats and have the other adult sit alone!! Then it will be such a mess with the conductor...ayyayyay.

I don't recall the exact input screen, but I know I have my birthdate printed on the PREM ticket I bought a couple months ago, so they must ask you for the birthdate. I think it is to match identification, if they ask for some.

They ask for passengers names and birthdates AFTER the screen where you have given cc number, etc.; I was fussing about this 2 weeks ago--afraid that I was buying 2 tix in my name.

gambader: Just buy each ticket individually. Give the location as France and give the birthdate and you're set to go. It's not difficult, but do it as three separate transactions. If you're really stumped, call the SNCF hotline - they're great at solving booking problems.

hi everybody who is still sleeping! ;-)
here is my link http://www.voyages-sncf.com/
Be carefully if you make 3 different transactions, you might have seats far away from each other...
good luck!
coco

Hi gam,

The conductor won't care that you bought an adult ticket for a child, it's when you buy a child's ticket for an adult that a problem arises.

Thank you to everyone for replying. StCirq, Coco is right - if I bought them individually, my 4-yr old would likely be sitting on his own!! He'd probably like that, but not his paranoid mom..

To everyone who does Prems: Bookmark COCO's URL!! Even though it's SNCF, it's different -- ages are not required, and the box I got to use was for 4 yr old plus so my problem with adult/child didn't exist!! Merci beaucoup, Coco!

The good news: I got tickets at a PREMS price. The bad news: I forgot about the time change (duh, right?) and booked it when it was before 10/23 (deadline 10/22) -- but only in the US. SO I had to pay 25E per ticket instead of 20E But it's still a heck of a lot cheaper than doing it there (would have been 69E minimum per ticket)

Also, I must have gotten the very last tickets at the 25E price. When I was reserving, I realized that I was in the English section - I prefer the French because I actually understand native french better than translated french -- so I brought up a new screen in French to buy the tickets. In just that period of time, the tickets had gone up to 35E a ticket!! I tried several times but no dice. So I quickly went back to my original English screen and thankfully was able to buy the tickets for the 25E. To be sure it wasn't a fluke, after I bought the ticket at 25E, I tried again several times...but the tickets had gone up to 35E. So not only is it a time issues for buying PREMS, but a supply issue, as in the States. So lesson learned: don't procrastinate on a good deal!!

Bonne Soiree - ou plutot - Bonne Nuit!

gambader I'm really pleased to see you got (almost) what you wanted! I didn't know there were so many versions of the sncf websites!
I put that link into my website (useful link page of course)so you can find it anytime (if you remember my website address ;-) myhomeindijon.com)

Bon voyage avec ton bout de chou!!!!
coco

oops! I forgot to say it is on the French version of my website (liens utiles..) on the English one it is another sncf version (maybe useful as well).