Train from Paris to Avignon: need immediate advice
 

I tried to post this earlier but it got lost in space. Sorry if it's duplicated somewhere. I tried to book roundtrip tickets on the SNCF website for travel between Paris and Avignon (ideally going straight to CDG airport on return). To my horror, all trains were booked except for a very early train out of Paris and a very late train back. This would cause a major inconvenience as I would have to spend an extra night in Paris at the end and rearrange all my plans. Can it really be that these trains book up so far in advance or does the website hold back on seats? I never anticipated a problem with this piece of the planning, which is why I did everything else first.

When are you travelling?

Oops, sorry I didn't include my dates. I am leaving Paris on Saturday, May 6 and returning to Paris on Wednesday, May 10. I am flying out of Paris at 6pm on the 10th so need a morning train. All that is showing available is the 8pm train.

Hm. That does sound odd. Let me do some checking.

The answer is simple - it's too early to book a train for May. You can only book 60 or 90 days in advance (not sure of exact number of days).

Stu Suslwy

One more thing.

The schedules you see now may only be for "prem" fares.

Stu Dudley

Jean,
I think I see the problem.
I went to raileurope.com and entered your dates and got this response:

"We're sorry, some trains cannot be booked outside of a date limit due to the fact that the European railroads do not make fares or schedules beyond that limit.

If you would like, we can email to alert you when your requested train is available for booking on the date that you asked for.

Simply enter your email address below and we will alert you when this train can be booked. We will not use your email address for any other purpose nor will we sell or share your email information to any one."

I've booked several train trips from raileurope, but I don't remember how far out I booked them. I would go ahead and enter your email address in the online form.

People don't reserve train seats that far in advance like they do airline seats but....just in case, in the meantime, I would keep trying every week or so.

Sorry, STu beat me to the punch while I was typing. ;-)

Should I then keep my plans and assume I will be able to get the trains I need as it gets closer? I hate to switch everything around based on availablity of train seats, but as a compulsive planner, it's scary to leave anything unsettled.

Thanks Stu and Linda. Sounds like I was just a bit too compulsive there. I will keep my plans and assume train seats will not be a problem. Thanks so much.

There will not be any problems at all. I took the same route last year in May/June. Have done the same in previous years also.

Just determine (through "playing" with the SNCF site now) whether it's 2 months or 3 months in advance. Book today for April 21 & see what you get, then try again for March 21. I found out it is X Months, not X Days.

Remember, nobody can get tickets sooner than you if you book on the first date tickets are available. I live in California, so I book at 3:05pm the day prior, which is 12:05am the first day tickets become available. Seats are not going to be all sold out in 5 mins. The train is quite long.

Stu Dudley

One more question. What is a "prem" fare? I played around with the Raileuro website and see that I can only actually book until mid-April which confirms the 3 month limit. I was surprised to see how high the fares are though, compared to the early/late trains that are available now for booking on the SNCF site. When trains do open up for booking, are the prices the same whether I book from one site or the other? Thanks for being patient with me - I'm finding it confusing coordinating all these little pieces.

Forget using the RailEurope site except as a reference. PREM fares are discounted (often deeply disctounted) tickets available through SNCF. You can't book them more than 90 days in advance. They are nonrefundable and nonexchangeable, so you must know you will make that train when you book them. You print the tickets out on your own printer and take them with you, obviating the need to go to a ticket counter at the rail station or the need to composte your ticket in the quaiside machines. PREM fares are exactly what you should be looking for, as they are very, very common on the Paris-Avignon route and can save you LOADS of money.

Hi jean,

Buy your tickets from the French national rail company at http://www.voyages-sncf.com.

PREMS fares are deeply discounted, non-exchangeable, non-refundable.

For example, your journey from Avignon TGV to Roissy (CDG airport) is usually 93E in 2cl; the PREMS fare is 59E in 2cl and 64E in 1 cl (1/2 price).

You can print your PREMS ticket at home.

((I))

I've never booked through RailEurope, but others have said that the same seats are 40% or so higher on Raileurope. They are a seperate "for profit" entity, so they need to charge more to get SNCF tickets than SNCF does.

Prems are super discount fares - non refundable/changeable & you must print out your own tickets on-line on your own printer. Last year there were 30E tickets from Paris to Avignon. I got first class for 60E.

See if you can roust St Cirq - she knows the options & procedures better than I do.

Stu Dudley

StCyrq & Ira are correct about the prices. I should have mentioned that while we booked the reservations on Raileurope, we already had purchased rail passes.

If you're just buying a round trip ticket, a rail pass wouldn't be the way to go.

You guys are a wealth of information. Thank you! If you ever need NYC help, I'd be happy to return the favor. Now that I see I am just too early, I am much calmer. The funny thing is that in my attempt to book tickets, I got to review the schedule and I now see another little glitch. I was going to spend 3 nites in Paris and then 4 nites in Provence. I was hoping to go straight from Avignon to CDG airport but I have to either take a morning train, spending many useless hours at the airport (ugh) or a "perfect" train, which cuts things very close (scary)or go to Paris the night before, thus spending the first 2 nites in Paris and returning after Provence for the 3rd nite(chopped up but could be fun). Do the train schedules change so that my "perfect" train choice may not work, and how close to schedule do the trains run? Also, is it the same price to buy 2 one-way tickets as a round trip? If so, I can get my outbound on Feb. 4 and then my return on Feb.10, ensuring my seats. Thanks again.

Train schedules pretty much stay the same. Some lines have different schedules on Sundays.

Two one-ways is the same as a RT.

There is a TGV that gets you to CDG at 3:41, with a train change in Lyon. I've changed in Lyon several times & it's quite easy. Don't be afraid of it at all. 2 1/4 hrs should be plenty of time to connect to your 6:00 flight.

What I do often if I have an early morning flight from CDG is to take the TGV to Dijon and stay overnight there the night before the flight home. Next morning I take the 6:30 TGV that gets me to CDG by 8:30am. This past June, we had an afternoon flight, so we took the train to Chambery and stayed overnight there, and next morning took the regular train/TGV to CDG. This way, we got to enjoy two beautiful cities, instead of returning to Paris. In '04, we took the train to Beaune, and did the same thing the day before our flight.

Every TGV or TGV feeder train has been on schedule - that's perhaps 15 legs for us. Perhaps more reliable than a Taxi from Paris (last time the scheduled taxi arrived 20 mins late).

Stu Dudley

Stu, My flight out is at 5:50 so the 3:41 arrival from Lyon seems ever so tight. The big question is how easy is it to get from the CDG train stop to the American Airlines terminal?

Yesterday I booked 2 first class tickets on the SNCF website for May 19th from Paris to Nice for a Prem fare of $39 each plus was told the the seat assignment--and then just printed the ticket. There was only one time and it was at 8 in the morning.
Cheryl