I am having difficulty with the SNCF site and wonder if anyone else has experienced this. I can choose our dates, train and seats and enter everyone's name and DOB, but when I click "confirm and pay," I am taken back to the previous page where names need to be entered. I have not left any empty or erroneous fields in the previous page (I've checked a dozen times!). Having the same trouble in Chrome and Safari, both today and yesterday. I tried creating an SNCF account but it doesn't help. Anyone else experiencing this?
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
6485 posts
I have success with SNCF (I think its oui now) in the past, but that doesn't mean that there aren't issues today. Try loco2. It's a user friendly site and they do not charge fees
Posted by
Green Bay
21159 posts
Try using www.loco2.com to buy tickets from SNCF. They should be exactly the same price as you are seeing now.
Posted by
Panguitch, Utah
2707 posts
Posted by
OP
11 posts
Thank you so much; I'll try the Loco site.
Posted by
Loire Valley
824 posts
Ive had various problems over the past month, the worst is over 60s
For some reason you can't buy over 60s tickets online unless you have an over 60s discount card, (I knew that), but it wont sell ordinary tickets to over 60s at all: put in a date of birth more than 60 years ago and It wont sell any ticket other than over 60s.... which you cant buy unless you have the card. The only way I have found around that is to accidentally make a typo in the DoB
I havent run in to the problem youre having, but I have to buy some more tickets tomorrow. Maybe I have new fun and games ahead
Posted by
OP
11 posts
Loco seems to work, but the prices are much higher than on SNCF for the same tickets. ($500 for five people, including two teens and a child, compared with around $400.) Trainline offered similar prices to SNCF and I just tried to reserve there but then then got an e-mail saying "booking failed" and a refund was being issued. Perhaps the train we want is nearly full? This is very frustrating!
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
6485 posts
Loco2 should not be higher. I would double check your transaction. Maybe the ages of travelers? Trainline does charge fees, typically not very large.
Posted by
OP
11 posts
Loco may have canceled my order because my credit card flagged it; I got a "fraud alert" message from the credit card company immediately after, so I'm sorting that out with them now. Trainline did charge a $12 fee but that's not so bad. Loco still shows $100 more for the identical itinerary, even on a different browser.
Maybe I'll try SNCF on my cell phone instead of my laptop?
All of this hassle is making the American Amtrak system look almost attractive!
Posted by
Idaho, USA
7810 posts
I’ve recently purchased train tickets through SNCF, and I’m over 60 and don’t have a discount card. I did have to contact my credit card company for the extra Visa verification; otherwise, it worked.
Maybe try again in case the system wasn’t working that day?
Posted by
Used to be Steilacoom, now it’s Las Vegas
2296 posts
You may well have solved the problem by now, but you might take a look at www.seat61.com. It’s a website that walks you through each phase of the ticket buying process. Sometimes the smallest thing will trip up a purchase. I haven’t used SCNF since I discovered trainline and loco2, but I have a vague memory of there being a problem with the amount ($$) we were trying to spend with SCNF. At that time, SCNF had a limit of how much you (foreigners) could spend at a time. We were able to make the purchases by splitting the it into smaller amounts.