Does SNCF ticket pricing fluctuate daily?
We're considering tickets from Dijon Ville to Paris-Gare de Lyon on 08/06/24 at 12:03. Although I can't recall the exact price when we searched that departure yesterday evening, when we checked the SNCF Connect site minutes ago it appears the cost is much higher. We're wondering if we wait a day or two, or for a specific day, is it possible the pricing will decrease? Not sure if that's a practice on SNCF.
Thank You
Prices only go higher as the lower-cost tickets get booked.
The ticket sales for summer just opened yesterday, so yes it would make sense (unfortunately) for tickets to cost more today. French people with their summer plans already outlined (and knowing that the cheapest tickets sell fast) will have gone online as soon as possible to buy their tickets. It's now Friday night in France, so they have now had two days in which to purchase tickets, so the cheapest ones are now most probably gone.
I had been waiting and waiting for a late May Barcelona to Paris on a Friday. I had been checking prices for weeks - watching the other Fridays in March and April. Fridays were pricier and they definitely sold out. I bought our tickets the day they became available. I've done that route 3 other times and prices are higher than I'm used to.
For my particular purchase the rate is now $50 a person higher per ticket vs. my purchase date last week. For the Fridays before my travel Friday, they are about $75 more per ticket vs. when I checked last week.
And - some of the May trains seem to be sold out already for this route.
Last year we flew into Paris and went straight to Strasbourg and many of those trains were sold out - and boy were they packed.
At any rate, if you have a specific day you need to travel, I would just buy the tickets.
There’s obviously higher demand for June 8 because the cheapest high-speed train tickets are more than $40. It’s about $17 for one train on June 7 and
$26 for at least one train on June 9.
www.TheTrainline.com
Thanks All for your replies
We were not aware that this particular route and the time of year was so popular that tickets would sell early and fast. I guess we'll bite the bullet and book at the current rate.
You will be happy you did so - as after you buy, you will see the prices continue to climb ! Then you can feel good you purchased them before they got even more expensive, or sold out.
Is this for June 8 or August 6? I didn't know if you wrote the date in European or American style.
Thanks Kim for your positive encouragement!
We purchased our tickets last night for Dijon to Paris as well as our tickets for Paris to Ludwigsburg, DE
Our travel dates are in June. I tend to get in the habit of posting in European notation when trip planning, especially when requesting availability for accommodations.
That makes sense!
Glad you have your tickets in hand now. Hope you have a great trip !
Based on everything I've read about buying train tickets, I bought mine as soon as SNCF sent me an alert that summer booking was open -- Marseille to Lyon. I found the SNCF app a bit difficult to use, but it worked out okay. Now I can move on to planning other stuff and quit worrying about when to get those tickets.
