We just had a very easy experience buying rail tickets online from en.voyages-sncf.com, a discount website, for travel this summer from Paris to Avignon TGV. Even accepted an American credit card with no problem. Anyone have any experience purchasing and using rail tickets from this website?
Also, this and other sites say the tickets need to be printed on A4 paper, which I understand is a bit different from standard U.S. 8 1/2 by 11 paper. Anyone know if using standard U.S.-size paper works out okay? Thanks - Alan
Posted by
white plains, ny, usa
4140 posts
A4 is about 8 1/2 by 11 1/2 , and in the past I have used legal size to accommodate this and have not had any difficulty . The issue as I understand it , is the proportionate size of the scanning codes . As I have an upcoming trip to Russia and rail tickets as well , and the Russian Federation seems to be a little more insistent on the A4 , I recently took the easy way out and bought a ream of A4 , which was ten dollars from Amazon , not a big deal. Also set the print size to A4 on my printer when required . I lean toward keeping my T's dotted and my I's crossed ; --- ) Also , from what I understand , if you fold the document , don't have the fold across the bar code or scanning image , that can create an issue !
Posted by
Tucson
4154 posts
That's interesting. When I got my TGV tickets from Aix-en-Provence to CDG back in 2012, there was no requirement for A4 paper. I printed mine on regular old 8 1/2 x 11 and they scanned just fine.
This link -- http://www.a4papersize.org/a4-paper-size-in-inches.php -- shows the size difference.
Posted by
Corvallis OR
7029 posts
I have printed all of my rail tickets from both SNCF and DBahn using normal 8-1/2x11 paper and had no problems. This was asked before on here and all of the responses said the same thing. I don't remember anyone having any problems with standard 'American' paper.
Here is a link to a recent thread: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/printing-rail-tickets-on-a4-paper
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10189 posts
SNCF isn't a discount website; it's the French national rail system. What you got was lucky. Normally, tickets go on sale 90 days out, but they released a special sale of tickets to a couple of vacation areas six months early, and you wandered into it. According to the email they sent announcing the sale, half of this summer's tickets to these destinations went on sale last week, and the other half will be available at the regular date. Oh, and just use our regular 8.5 x 11 paper.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16893 posts
They have always specified A4 paper because that's what Europeans have. However, the 8.5 x 11" size works fine with all the western European web sites. If any part of the bar code looks cut off or distorted, then reprint it. I can't address the Russian site.