SNCF Question

Good questions. You might try going to the Man in Seat61 - www.seat61.com - and asking there. Unless someone's hiding in wait here with that expertise.

Thanks Doug, great advice, I did ask Mark at Seat61, who replied:

"Yes, it’s the annual timetable change in early December that’s at work here (there's another lesser one every June). In theory, bookings open 90 days ahead, but this often gets squeezed when they have inevitable problems getting data into the system for the new timetable. For example, I had to wait until 16 October before I could book the trainhotel Paris-Madrid and back for 21 december! Hopefully it won't be that bad this time!"

Mystery solved, now it's just a matter of waiting, since SNCF does not seem to know either . . . .

Chris...you may be a little premature....you're still outside the three-month window (not 90 days) for booking French railway tickets anyway, if you're travelling in December. I can't get any booking availabilites or prices after November 10th. Backtime your journey exactly three months (from the return journey if you want to book a round trip) and jump on the SNCF website the afternoon before your time (anytime after midnight Paris time should work...that's GMT +1)) and you should be able to get access to the best fares right off the top!

Hi Doug,

Actually you can book way further out, using PREMS and IDTGV fares. You definitely have to dig around, but these special fares are actually available up to six months in advance.

It took a while to figure this out, but you can book these special fares up through December 5, and those have been available for the past several months. I can't even begin to explain how to get to these fares, but you CANNOT get to them through the English portion of the site, you must use the main French site and do a lot of digging.

The harvest, however, is killer fares, as I mentioned in previous post, you can currently go TGV from Paris to Avignon for 19E. That fare is NOT available through the English door!

Cheers!

Err, sorry, Hey Norm!

No problem Chris....unfortunately, only the IDTGV trains are bookable up to six months in advance. If those fit your schedule, and your lifestyle, then that's a great deal! But it limits you, for example, to only 2 out of 6 fast trains/day to Avignon....and neither goes to Avignon Center first.

P.S....you might want to tell Mark at seat61 about the IDTGV french gateway trick too...since that would blot out the 90 day (three month) booking window.

I just went to sncf.com and did some dummy bookings. If I enter a date up to three months from now, I can book any Paris-Avignon TGV on that date and I can get PREM'S fares. If I enter a date beyond that time, I can only book the iDTGV. And I got the same results whether using the French version or the English version. I'll happily be proven wrong, but to me this confirms what I've read: Booking is limited to three months in advance, EXCEPT for the iDTGV which allows booking up to four months in advance--and sometimes longer.

Yes, it's confusing!

When accesing the schedule from one entry point on SNCF site, I only get two departures, but using a different booking screen I get many different options for the day!

You are right about limited availablity, Tim. These 6-month advance fares are only on certain city-pairs on TGV lines. But I keep ending up with a substantial savings on dummy bookings by using the PREMS or IDTGV fares, then just plan on buying the local fare beyond that.

I still can't figure out when they will release the new schedule, as Mark mentions, sometimes quite late.

Thanks for all the interest and replies on the subject, your thoughts and comments are greatly appreciated!

Chris....perhaps you could post the access point you used to get these many different options for the day after the three-month booking window...I know I'd love to keep it for reference!

I wish I could! I've bookmark the process part of the way through dozens of times, but every time I click on the bookmark, it is a blank screen.

From the homepage there are about eight different ways to get into booking, then from each of those ways, there are several branches. For instance when you book in the PREMS area, one way gets you to the "only two a day option," where another option will open up a calendar that shows the lowest fares for the month.

For the life of me I can't seem to get to the same place twice in a row, so it's a lot of trial and error (heavy on the error part!).

It seems to be how you handle the dates. I have to sneak up on it, I can't enter the date I want, I have to keep fiddling until I get the calendar, and I can't get directly to the booking calendar with the fares displayed.

I wish I had better directions!

Thanks, Chris, for outlining how you found so many ways to get dates and fares. Now I"ll have to try some experimenting (more accurately, messing around) myself. As if I didn't already spend way too much time on this board!

Here is the IDTGV site that brings up IDTGV fares, which are normally bookable six months in advance, except for now when they have not posted the new schedule.

http://www.idtgv.com/2i/accueil.html&AGENCY=ANYW

This should reliably bring up the calendar with 2 IDTGV fares per day.

Here is the specials page for IDTGV, TGV, last minute fares, car rental specials, and other deals:

http://www.voyages-sncf.com/dynamic/_SvTermDiscount?_TMS=1186855032925&_DLG=SvTermDiscount&_LANG=FR&_AGENCY=VSC&_CMD=processJSP&JSP=gestedit%2Fleisure%2Flayout%2Flaunch%2Ftrain_promos.jsp

This link usually brings up the calendar:
http://www.voyages-sncf.com/dynamic/_SvTermXAQForDiscount?_TMS=1186855136147&_DLG=SvTermXAQForDiscount&_LANG=FR&_AGENCY=VSC&_CMD=processJSP&JSP=%2Fgestedit%2Fleisure%2Flayout%2Fpurchase%2FextendedCalendar%2Fcalendrier_promo_aller.jsp

but sometimes not!