TGV tickets help
 

I've been trying for 30 minutes to book TGV tickets for three passengers - From Lyon to Paris on the afternoon of Wednesday June 8 and Paris to Lyon in the evening of Saturday June 11.

I'm booking directly off the sncf site as I have before. Chose France as the country as we all know. Nice selection of train times and prices comes up fine, but when I choose the time and fare and then click "valider cet aller", a note comes up:

"Aucun train ne correspond à vos souhaits de voyage. Merci de modifier votre recherche."

I can't recall having this problem before plus there are trains available that meet my parameters.
Could anyone suggest how I might resolve this?

Thanks!

Can you post the info? I can try the same. these are PREMS?

Are you specifying certain stations in Lyon and Paris? If so, choose all stations.

Google iDTGV and try that site. I just booked Lyon to Paris on 9/10 for 19 euros. Very easy!!

If this is a regular TGV, not an iDTGV, June 11 will not be available for booking until after 6:00 pm EST tonight (midnight French time, so March 11). If you're doing a round trip it is probably not allowing you to book for that reason. Try booking a one-way for June 8 and see if that works. IME, there usually isn't any advantage to booking round-trip vs. 2 one-way trips.

Hope this helps.

I am choosing all stations.

What's the difference between iDTGV and TGV?

I wondered if it was because I was trying to buy a return ticket with the return leg on the 11th ie not yet released. I'll try just the aller. Thanks.

I'm not certain what the difference is but the iDTGV is only for certain routes(Lyon-Paris is one), can all be done in English and you can print the tickets. I think you can purchase 6 months out.

I always try it first as I find it easier to use.

IDTGV is a special bloc of tickets they have on select TGV routes. You can book them earlier than PREMS, and for cheaper fares, too, sometimes as much as 4 to 6 months in advance. However, I ran into the same issue as the OP trying to book IDTGV for a Nice to Paris run. Even after the date I was looking for (June 23) showed upon on the IDTGV booking calendar on Monday, if I tried to book anything beyond June 17, I got the same message the OP did. Finally cleared up allowing me to book yesterday (not without a screw up with my credit card that effectively ended up costing me $75). So, just give it a little time--keep trying, and sooner or later that route will pop up.

iDTGVs are more than a block of tickets, they are actual trains and are configured to meet certain marketing objectives. There are some configured with dance floors and DJs to appeal to younger people travelling in the evenings and there are some cars which are specifically reserved for quiet travel allowing passengers to read or work on their laptops.


Sometimes the iDTGVs run simultaneously with the regular TGVs in a separate grouping of cars and sometimes they run completely independently. Generally, iDTGV tickets may only be purchased on the internet, the passenger must print out his own tickets (though the SNCF will now do it for you for a 5€ upcharge), prices start at 19€ (16€ for night trains) and increase as tickets are sold, and the tickets are available on line 4-5 months before any given departure date.

More and more route segments are becoming available. For example just within the last 6 months or so trains now operate to/from CDG. The tickets are available on the normal SNCF websites: www.voyages-sncf.com or www.tgv-europe.com but iDTGV trains do have their own website:

http://www.idtgv.com

One of the nice things about the IDTGV trains is that you can choose to be in the quiet car - no cell phones, ear phones, boom boxes - or in the noisy car.

((I))

Oh so now it lets me choose the train time and far (all good) and I fill in all the details but it keeps refusing my card. I called my credit card company and they said it looks fine from their end and they only note only effort to file the charge by sncf although I have tried three or four times. Any ideas?

If your credit card is rejected, there is no point in continuing to try for a least 24 hours.

Well I suppose I'll get these tickets booked eventually ... how about trying with a different credit card, might that work?
(I must say I tried with one of those new Hyatt ones which I got specifically for the two free nights and the no foreign transaction fees. Perhaps it turns out there are no foreign transaction fees because they won't let you make any foreign charges:-) Plus the two free nights seem almost impossible to use in practice. This if you're looking at that card, we rate it a dud...)

Hi Texas-we had a very similar experience to yours a few days ago trying to help friends book their tickets in late May. I think the message you got originally was due to the fact that your return was past the date where they were allowing bookings (i.e. your tried to book a return on June 11th before the 11th of March). We got the identical message, which IMO, while technically correct, since they don't have any trains on the system corresponding to your request, it is not explicitly saying that it is because your return date is too far out. We also had our card refused and had to call the credit card company to authorize the charge. We did wait until the next day (as Sarastro suggested) only by coincidence, and then everything worked like a charm. I was nervous because I had never booked using a US credit card (I have a French debit card), so I was glad to know it accepts them. That wasn't the case a few years back.

If you do decide to try a different card, call them in advance. I told this to another friend also booking tickets after my first experience, and this time, it worked with no problems the first time around.

Also,as an FYI to others, one thing that is new to me since I haven't taken a train for awhile in France is that you can now choose a seat that faces forward on your trip by choosing your seat and then marking the box marked "Voyager dans le sens de la marche". I like that since I don't like riding backwards. :) And on the iDTGVs there is an option to choose your "ambience" iDzap or iDzen, where zap is noisy and zen is quiet! Too funny.

Well that worked very smoothly this evening after the requisite 24 hour wait - and even still the same price. They should post a note on there after you card has been rejected once to wait 24 hours to avoid frustration.
Thanks very much for all your help.

Yay-so glad it worked. It was very nerve-wracking for me while I was going through it, so I totally sympathize!