Why book sncf second class now?

Posted by BarbaraJ (Georgia) on 07/30/15 12:46 AM

I've spent hours today on sncf's website, booked a few legs of our journey in France when the price/confirmed seat seemed to indicate that was the way to go.

However, there are some legs, traveling second class, that say "seat reservations not required". What does this mean? Do they sell a certain number of tickets for each train until the maximum number of passengers for that train is reached? Do trains without reserved seats sell out? Do prices go up at a later date?

Should I "book" as many legs as I know we will travel via train now even without confirmed seats?

Should I also book trains in the Netherlands & Belgium on this site? Or, would it be more advantageous to book on another website?

Also...when browsing a while back, I just let Afghanistan be my "ticket collection country". Now, when trying to book a leg that I'd like tickets mailed to me, it's preventing my credit card from being accepted & I don't see a why to replace it (permanently) with USA. With tickets purchased for e-ticketing at home, there's no problem....USA appears!

Any help with these questions & the website problem would be deeply appreciated. We are leaving in 7 weeks so I'm eager to wrap up all ends.

Posted by Susan

07/30/15 01:53 AM

219 posts

Prices do go up so there might be a significant savings by buying ahead.

As an example, last year when we were in France we weren't sure if we'd be going to the Dijon area or not so I waited until we arrived at the Dijon station to buy tickets back to Paris. They were 89€ pp vs as little as 20€ when I was looking maybe 6 or so weeks before our trip. You also run the risk of the trains being full if its a popular route. On our Dijon to Paris train we got the last seats leaving that evening, it was a Sunday and many people were heading back to Paris after the weekend.

If money was not an object, it would definitely be more convenient to buy them last minute. As I bought our CDG to Lille leg ahead of time, picked a train 3 hours after our arrival from the US to be safe. Air France went on strike just before our trip, I was able to switch to a Delta flight leaving the same evening only an hour and a half earlier. Needless to say, we arrived at CDG an hour and a half earlier, flew through passport control, customs and found the train in good time. So now we had a really long wait, early in the morning after no sleep, watching all the other trains going to Lille go....

I had issues using my credit card that time. It took quite a few tries but finally went through. I printed them at home and I use France as my collection country as to not get rerouted to the Rail Europe website.

It asks for the collection country each time you start the process from the beginning. Not sure why it won't let you switch.
http://en.voyages-sncf.com/en/

Posted by colleen

dallas, TX, USA

07/30/15 02:21 AM

227 posts

Use the el capitaine train site and avoid Rail Europe. We love it and the site is easy ro use.

Posted by Elizabeth

L'Occitanie, France

07/30/15 03:39 AM

10623 posts

Reservations aren't required on local trains. If those were short trips, that may be the reason. Prices on local trains don't fluctuate.

Posted by Laura B

San Francisco Bay Area

07/30/15 05:45 AM

5697 posts

And about trains selling out -- if reservations are not required, you may buy a ticket for a train without having a seat (think about riding a city bus ... standing room!)

Posted by Laura

Rick Steves' Europe

07/30/15 06:13 PM

16895 posts

It now does work to choose USA as your ticket collection country on SNCF, especially if you're trying to use one of the credit cards that they accept (Verified by Visa, MasterCard SecureCode, or Amex SafeKey), but when doing so you usually have to click an additional link to keep you on the SNCF page instead of transferring to Rail Europe. Rail Europe does sell some competitive rates, but not all of them.

Trains that don't require reservation cannot sell out. Without the reservation, they have no way of counting how many tickets or rail passes people plan to use on a particular train.

SNCF describes each fare offered with varying names, with "Tarif Normal" being the most obvious indication of full fare; prices will never go higher than that.

Posted by BarbaraJ OP

Georgia

07/30/15 11:42 PM

77 posts

Thank you, ladies! I appreciate the suggestions & support. We'll see how it goes...