I am trying to purchase tickets for three in mid August. I am now at the designated time frame to buy for mid August. However, when I get on-line, the tickets are all sold out. There is a message to go on-line at 8:30 am next day, but when I go on, all tickets are sold out for the day. Question 1: is the time European time? I assumed they were responding to a Web user in US.
Question 2: are all the big tour companies gobbling up the tickets? Do I even have a shot using their Web site?
Questions 3: if the answer to question 2 is yes, the tour companies are getting all the tickets, how do you suggest we buy tickets?
This is second trip to Paris. On first trip, we were not able to get tickets and one of the lifts was down, so lines were 3+ hours. We didn't do it. We are taking our 15 year-old grandson on this trip and the Eiffel tower is a must see.
Posted by
Granite Bay, CA
1930 posts
The tickets sell out immediately. Yes, it is on European time. They sell tickets maybe 3 months out, I forget the timeline, but I figured it out and stayed up until midnight and bought my tickets within one or two minutes from the time they were offered. They were mostly gone when I finished my transaction.
Read the info and find out how much ahead you can buy them. Then, do a practice a run and try to buy and see what happens. That is what I did. Sometimes there are some left over so if you are searching on the day they are available you might find a couple tickets still available. Try several dates to see what day are selling right now.
Posted by
San Francisco
1008 posts
Yes, Paris time - so for me it was 11:30pm west coast... I went on ahead of time to practice with a date that wasn't sold out (like in May) so I could see what would be asked... I'll copy below the post I wrote a couple weeks ago when we got ours.
Otherwise our plan was going to have been to go an hour early and get in line...
Good luck! :)
Kim
WOW that was a rush! Just got our eiffel tower tickets! Luckily it's only 11:30pm here on the west coast so I didn't have to get up in the middle of the night! I can't believe I got them.
So if anyone is wondering, yes they do sell out in like 1 minute. I was on on machine and my husband on another.... I went all the way through to the page where you pick the time (I had preselected the date and which tickets I wanted), and waited there until my computer clock turned 11:30pm. My husband did the same...
After selecting the time, you had to enter a Captcha code, then next page was all the info. The hardest part was creating the stupid account... I couldn't find a way to do this earlier, before today... I almost was hung up on the mobile phone number - it didn't like the formatting like 3 times... turns out I think I ended up with 415-555-1212... NO 1 or +1, because you had to select the country from the drop down menu (it said USA). Pretty sure final version of the phone # has the dashes, but it may have just been 10 straight numbers... it all happened so fast!
My husband said when he was doing it somewhere there was a state drop down menu that was blank... even though he thought he selected USA - I don't remember seeing a state choice anywhere, but there may have been.... The big hold up is creating the account, so if you can find a way to do that in advance I will guess it's much easier.
Anyway, mine went through and I entered my Visa card and it was fine (though in the past I have tried to buy things like this and it was flagged, you may call credit card company ahead of time or have more card choices)... when his locked up and he couldn't select the state he went back out to the beginning and by then at 11:31, no times available. So people aren't joking when they say they are sold out in a minute!
So good luck! if you are trying to get them! :)
Kim
Posted by
Granite Bay, CA
1930 posts
They sell either 60 days or 90 days out I'm pretty sure. Try it, and then just stop before you pay, that way you will know and be ready for what is asked. But, you can't do any practicing if you are asking for a date that is not currently for sale.
Posted by
Phoenix, Arizona
219 posts
I bought mine in March (for mid-June). I found that by constantly checking days that had previously said sold out suddenly had the number of tickets I needed available. It might have helped that we chose to go up late in the evening (21:30) hoping to be there at sunset. Good-luck! Keep trying!
Posted by
91 posts
Yes - just went through this two weeks ago. The magic time on the East Coast is 2:30am and it opened for sales exactly on time.
If you don't get tickets to the top, also check to see if they have it to the 2nd level because once on that level, you can buy a separate ticket from a machine to go to the top.
Good luck!
Posted by
Ohio
2161 posts
Hi Vicki, it's 90 days in advance at 2:30 am (Eastern). If you miss the deadline, try a behind the scenes tour with Get Your Guide. Reasonably priced options, and a skip the lines ticket to the second floor. Once there, you stand in a short line to buy tickets for the summit (3rd) floor.
Posted by
US Pacific Northwest
10344 posts
Or go to 1000 foot altitude on Google Earth, from top of the Tour. Cheaper, same view, no tour groups or standing in line.
Posted by
OP
Atlanta, GA, USA
23 posts
Thank you for helpful responses. As my daughter and son-in-law live in Switzerland, I asked my son-in-law to purchase the tickets for me. He was able to get three tickets exactly at 8:30 am. But, they are not accompanying us in Paris, and according to Terms and Conditions, the tickets are not transferable and identification is required. Do they check ID against the name on the ticket ?