TGV PREMS tickets question
 

We will be travelling from St Remy de Provence to Paris in November. We are approaching the 90 day window for discount tickets.

Should we expect to see PREMS tickets offered right at the 90 day mark? Should we assume the 90-day-out fare is the best that will be offered? Does it ever go down?

I'm wanting to compare the TGV rates to airfare from Marseilles to Paris Orly. Air France has flights every hour for 51eu and the flight is about 1/3 the time of the train. I figure it will take about an hour longer driving to MRS airport vs. the TGV station in Avignon.

In comparing train and flight, add the time you need to get to the train station and the airport, the advance time needed at the airport, and the time (and cost) to get into the city.

Fares start low and keep on increasing as the travel date nears.

It is 3 months - not ninety days. So, for travel on November 15, you should look for PREM fares on Aug 14 at 6:05PM EST (which is Aug 15 12:05am France time). There may be idTGV trains also - and these can be booked earlier.

Ditto what Michael says. Trains are sooooo much more convenient, comfortable, & less stressful than planes for a small trip like yours. The Avignon TGV station is closer to St Remy than the Marseille airport. IMO, it is a "no brainer".

Make sure that you notify your CC issuer, and "practice" a few days ahead of Aug 14. Don't practice on Aug 14 - I've had a few experiences with data getting garbled because of what I suspect are cookies that SNCF has placed on my computer that get cleared the next day (this was a few years ago).

Stu Dudley

SNCF has another product called iDTGV. They are restricted to selected non-peak times, but the iDTGV tickets for Avignon-Paris is already available beyond 3 months. For example, there is Nov 10 4pm iDTGV for 34.90EU.

The iDTGV tickets for November are available for purchase now. I checked November 15 and there are three trains with 2nd class starting at €19 and 1st class starting at €27.

http://www.idtgv.com/en/

This site is very simple and easy to use. You can choose your seats and the ambiance of the car: iDZen for a quiet car, iDZap for a livelier atmosphere.

This 90 day business is too much of an obsession for a lot of people. Obviously I don't wait until the last minute to get my train tickets, but I rarely get tickets more than 60 days in advance and am perfectly satisfied with the Prem's fares that I get. I am under the impression that a lot of you are setting your egg timers to ring the moment the clock strikes midnight in Paris exactly 90 days before your trip.

>>ring the moment the clock strikes midnight in Paris exactly 90 days before your trip.<<

Nope - my egg-timer is set for 3 months - not 90 days. For a trip in Nov - that's 92 days in advance.

Most people in the US have their entire trip planned MORE than 3 months in advance. The last thing that many of us do is to purchase our TGV tickets - so "why not" get them as soon as they become available??? Prices rarely drop from the initial PREM price.

Stu Dudley

The first leg of our trip is on Oct 31st, CDG to Avignon. PREMS tickets just showed up tonight. And the first class tickets have already been snapped up! They were a great buy, too. So, in this case, the timing did matter. I thought maybe it was the Toussaint holiday, but doubt CDG trains (on Monday) would be affected by that.

I still have the PREMS choice for 2nd class. Didn't realize this would be a double decker...yeaaaa!

July 30/(31st in France) to Oct 31 - 92 days. First class sold out.

I rest my case!!

Stu Dudley

Oh, Stu. You just crack me up!

We're booked. Thanks, all!

By the by: Is there a limit on the # of prems that can be purchased at one time?


I seem to remember having trouble purchasing 6 seats one time, but no trouble 3 + 3. This did not involve requesting specific seats...never got that far.

Anyone know?

Several of us have encountered the total amount of transaction related limits. More tickets one tries to buy at a time, more it is likely to hit this limit:

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

However, others, probably having bought only the lesser amount of tickets, claim they have never had any problem years buying SNCF tickets, and therefore the users must be doing something wrong.

If using an American cc, there seems to be an issue when purchasing over some sort of dollar limit set, apparently, by the SNCF.

I can't say for sure because I'm usually just buying tickets for myself and as I always buy discounted ones, the dollar value is never very high. My charges always go through just fine.

I bought 4 tickets with no problem. I purchased through the tgv-europe site, using Gr Britain as my "home". It was in English all the way through.

But beware: sometimes tgv-europe.com gave higher fares than were on sncf, sometimes it didn't. I just kept entering my order until it gave me the same fares as sncf. Then I was able to by in English all the way through the process.

OK, I've completed the purchase and am now trying to print the 4 tickets at home. First I printed out the receipt for my order. It shows the 4 tickets, date of purchase, "authorization" and "transaction certificate". However, the Reference # and Associated Name do not print (they show on the screen). I just wrote them in on the printed form.

Then I opened an Adobe pdf with 4 pages of e-tickets. Printed it. But it's printing only the pre-printed part of the form, no data for the actual journey. No names, no date/time/train, no euro amount. It's just 4 blank forms.

I've sent a customer service inquiry to tgv-europe. Unless anyone here has a solution, I'll let you guys know what they suggest in their reply.

Are you opening PDF file inside an internet browser? I had better results on some PDF files by 1. saving the PDF files on disk 2. open the PDF files using on the Adobe Acrobat reader.

I've tried it all. On the web page, I have to click on "PRINT" to open the Adobe file. I saved it to disk. Saved it to documents. Tried printing just one page. Nothing worked.

One correction: It IS printing "TGV 5110", "Charles de Gaulle 2 TGV > Avignon". And each form has 40 euros imprinted. It just doesn't have the name, date, time. Nor does it print what looks like a bar code. Under Conditions of Use, the text doesn't print...just the title.

If you like I'll give you the reference number. See if you can print it.

If you don't want to put your email here, send me one and I'll reply to you. jeannebab-AT-comcast-DOT-net

I gave my sister the info. She will try to print them.

I'll let you know if it works or if I hear back from tgv-europe.

SOmething is wrong, I've never had a problem printing them from the PDF, but I think it must be your computer setup or printer. Of course it has to have names and dates on it. If you really can't print them, you can print them out at a SNCF station in France.