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purchase & delivery problem: France to Spain train tkt

I am having problems figuring out how to purchase train tkts for my family of 4 to go from France to Spain in June and not have the tickets mailed to the wrong country! I live in CA and follwed Rick's advice, used the sncf tgv-europe.com website, used "Vatican" as my country, found the train and fare I wanted (E384 for 4 people) , but when it was time to enter my credit card and make the purchase, the only delivery option that appeared was "Mail - home delivery", which of course I do not want! I wanted the print at home or pick up at the train station in France option, but it was not on the purchase tickets page. Should I have purchased the tickets anyway? I did not know if the print at home option was going to appear later in the purchase process? I was concerned about doing that because I was required to accept terms & conditions ststing the tickets were no changeable, non refunable, etc. I also tried doing the whole thing again stating my country was France (thinking I could pick them up at the station in France) but the price jumped to E468. I don't know if that would have allowed me to print at home or pick up at he station. Finally, I checked Rail Europe USA site just to see and the cost was approximately $1100. Can someone tell me if there is some way to buy the tickets I want at the E368 price and print them at home? Or can a travel agent in the USA do it for me? Thank you very much.

Posted by
973 posts

I don't have the answer, but you are likely to get better advice if you tell us the actual trip you are trying to book and the date of travel.

Posted by
2 posts

We are hoping to go on the overnight train from Blois, France to Madrid, Spain. Advice on how to accomplsh this ticket purchase & deilvery dilemma is so very much appreciated.

Posted by
2081 posts

hi, i tried to do as you said, but used the UK as my home country. It will ask if you want to goto Raileurope or continue. I chose continue. then it will ask you to confirm....ect. it will ask you to choose your choice of delivery > Mail > Email - this is in the email box. Check the fields entered before validating. Your file references will be sent by e-mail. You can then use them to collect or print your tickets. i dont care to go any further and im not sure if this floats your boat. also, i choose 4 people and it came up with 384 Euros using a 19-june date. i also tried it using the Vatican as the home country and still get the same email box and notes regarding tickets. for what it worth, i will be doing the same route in a couple years so i thought i would see how it works out. happy trails.

Posted by
973 posts

OK, I'm getting the same result. I would expect that it is a PDF delivered to the email box, but can't confirm it. Hopefully someone will contribute later in the day.

Posted by
4023 posts

Thanks to SNCF retoolling its website, tactics for avoiding the RailEurope bump have to be rethought. So far, this has worked for me: On the opening page, when asked for a country, I clicked Other European on the upper right edge of the page. That jumps to the page for finding trains and buying tickets. On the bottom right a box should open asking for countries. There you can click Antarctica or any other neutral location. What follows is more familiar although I have not actually made a purchase.
In general an SNCF ticket sale should be cheaper without a middleman such as an agent or RailEurope requiring a commision out of the sale. But SNCF has always been something of a mystical experience and I doubt the renovations will have eliminated its dark and stormy corners.