overnight train from paris to florence credit card denied

Call the bank/group that issued your card...tell them what you were trying to do, and see if the transaction was attempted but refused. It may have been a security measure by your card issuer to prevent fraud....they should be able to remove such a block for you.

Were you booking with French or Italian rail? I have seen all over this board that booking in Italy with an American credit card is not possible.

Alternatively, do what the others said and call your card issuer, as they may have denied your transaction to prevent fraud.

It was the French site. I actually got a call from my credit card fraud department within two minutes of trying to make the transaction and they unblocked and I tried it again to no avail.

Wait a while, try again, and if it doesn't work. call the CC company back.

I also had trouble buying train tickets with my VISA card. I ended up having a representative from the CC company stay on the phone with me while I was purchasing online. She could see that the charge was not going through, and did something to "reclassify" the purchase. The charge came through on the bill as miscellaneous groceries, or something similar, but whatever she did worked.

I assume you are trying to book on tgv-europe.com. If so, the issue definitely is not the fact that you said you live in Great Britain but are using a US credit card. The site doesn't care where you live. People book this way all the time to avoid being bumped to the Rail Europe site.

As others have said, either wait a while and try again or book while you are on the phone with a customer service representative from your credit card provider.

Popular night trains like this one can sell out weeks in advance so don't wait until you are in Paris to buy your tickets. My wife and I have shared space in a couchette with strangers. No problems. I recommend you go for bunks in a 4-person couchette rather than a 6-person one. All couchettes are the same size. The only difference is in how many bunks are pulled down. You will feel much less crowded in a 4-person couchette.

Your daughter-in-law's sister should have no trouble booking tickets on either tgv-europe.com or trenitalia.com.

For some reason I have noticed that my debit card works far more consistently than my credit card in Europe. I have been able to get cash at a machine with my debit card and then go buy what I want. If you use a debit card, you must know your PIN.

Is it possible that the site realizes that the credit card has a US billing address? If it senses that it doesn't match up to where you say you live, that could be a problem, too. You might have to fess up to your actual location for it to work.

The problem is that if you fess up to where you live then you cannot get the much lower rate because it automatically kicks into the Eurorail or whatever it is. I am getting pretty frustrated with this. I don't know whether to pay the extra money or just take my chances when we get there. For people with experience with the overnight train, has anyone actually been in a sleeper compartment with strangers?
Barbara

WooHoo!!!!!! I finally was able to purchase the tickets. For whatever the reason I just tried it once again and it went through. Obviously my credit card company unblocked the purchase. I am so very excited. I got the first class double sleeper and I saved $200.00. How great is that!!!!