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.

I'm sure it will work out OK. We have a fairly tight connection...the whole idea was to avoid having to go to the ticket agency.

Do you mean I can go to an sncf "vending" machine at CDG station and print the tickets there?

UPDATE:
My sister was able to print out all 4 tickets. Yeaaaa!

We finally noticed the missing text on my copies was all the black text. My black ink cartridge is fairly new, certainly not empty. But for some reason that was the ink that wouldn't print.

So all is well. Thanks everyone!

Need help with PREMS ticket info. We are seniors and as such, it appears we are eligible for exchange or refund on most Prems tickets.
We are planning a trip from Paris to Bayeaux in May, via Caen, or direct.
Does that mean we purchase a special "Discovery" ticket if
available, to get the lower price and refund option?
With one of these lower price tickets, I think we do not have reserved/assigned seats and need to find seats after boarding? How do we know not to select one that is already reserved by someone else.....and have to move, thus lessening our chance of finding another vacant one? Standing for 2 hrs is not an option :) Appreciate any and all direction re this. Thanks

I'm not an expert on this, but if a Senior Decouverte fare is offered, you can buy it.

I have never heard that seniors get refunds on PREMs tickets, where did you hear that? Seniors can get some refunds and other options on other tickets IF they have a special senior SNCF fare card, which you have to pay for. For those are discounts off regular Loisir fares, not PREMs. THis is the page in English on SNCF explaining senior fares and it doesn't say they can refund or exchange PREMs. http://www.sncf.com/en/reductions/seniors

Sometimes they do offer seat assignments on Decouverte fares, I believe, maybe it depends on the train and day/date. But that should be obvious when booking, if you are offered that option or not. I haven't been on one of the TER/IC trains recently that allowed reservations, but didn't require them, but the last time I was, the seats were clearly marked if they were reserved (there is a card that says reserved which is put in a slot on the thing over the seat (the bottom of the place where you can put bags overhead). I think they have to mark reserved seats when they are optional or the system wouldn't work very well, although I suppose there can be glitches in that system as the conductors have to make sure the seats are marked correctly.

<i>We are seniors and as such, it appears we are eligible for exchange or refund on most Prems tickets.</i>

It's possible you have confused ticket types. PREMs are neither exchangeable nor reimbursable. Normal fare tickets are exchangeable and reimbursable under certain conditions.

On the trains to Bayeux, both types of tickets are sold and while tickets are train specific, seats are not always reserved. It is generally possible to pay extra for a reserved seat, the cost is nominal. You can easily recognized reserved seats as there will be a name printed on a sticker and placed on the top of the seat back.

None of the ticket prices is very expensive, generally varying from 15€ to about 40€.

Thank you all for setting me straight. I was misunderstanding the statement regarding Senior Discovery since it was within the same box as the Prems. I will revisit the site, with that in mind.

HELP ! I am attempting to purchase Prems tickets thru Voyages-sncf.com and would prefer to have them mailed to me before I leave....but the address information required makes me think they are maiable only to an address in France. Can I have them mailed to the US ? If not, is it complicated to pick them up at the rail station, and why would I need my credit card again, if I am already paying for them now ? I assumed I would only need a print out or a scret code. My thanks to all who respond.

Yes, they will only mail to France, they can't afford to be mailing PREMs all over the world.

YOu need your credit card as ID, that's why. There is no other way to know you are the person who bought the tickets for sure. People can have the same name as others, for example, and even birth date, but even then it is much more security to make someone show the actual card used to buy the ticket. This is pretty common for lots of purchases done online by credit card, to make you show the card when picking it up. I also think it protects against fraud, as someone could steal someone's CC number and yet never have the actual card to show. It isn't complicated to pick them up, you just have to wait in line and it depends on how long the line is as to how long the wait, that's all.

Why do you have a problem with being asked to show your credit card?

What if the credit card expires and is replaced between purchase and use?

The credit card is only used for identification, not for purchasing. If the card expires, you still need it to pickup tickets.

If you lose or your credit card is reissued with a different set of numbers, you will be unable to pickup your tickets.

I have been having major problems trying to purchase or at least ascertain the price for a trip from Caen to Paris on May 11th.They keep telling me that tickets are not available as yet.I would hope to get PREMS but realize I am too early for them.I simply want to investigate the timing and pricing before PREMS are available. I also tried the iDTGV train and it doesn't appear to run from Caen to Paris??? We could take the chance and purchase tickets the DOD but as it's a Saturday I would rather not take that chance.Also I don't want to have to pay full fare if it's last minute.HELP!..please

If you just want to get an idea of times and prices for May 11, just take a look at what's available for May 4 (also a Saturday). Tickets for May 11 should be available on February 11.

For May 4, there are direct trains with 2nd cl. PREMS available for €15, 1st cl. for €25.

Do not wait until the day of travel to buy tickets as they will certainly cost more than they do when they are first offered for sale 3 months prior.

>> Tickets for May 11 should be available on February 11. <<

February 11 France time - so that's 6:05PM US Eastern time on Feb 10.

Stu Dudley

Thanks..and BTW..are there actually trains out of Bayeux?...or do those trains end up stopping in Caen for a connection? We will be staying in Bayeux.I figured we would drop our car off at Caen because we need to get our train to Paris there????

There are direct trains from Bayeux. €15 PREMS on May 4.