TGV Seat Selection

Out of curiosity, how did you manage to make the SNCF site to work in English. I have tried saying I am from other countries and can't seem to make the site work even if I have it in english. Also, I am interested in the Family Carre too, How can I selected that while making my reservation? anyone know?

For the TGV Lyria service (a joint venture of French and Swiss railways,) the SNCF site takes you to the TGV-Lyria.com website which, if you want to pick up your tickets in Switzerland, takes you to the Swiss rail site, sbb.ch. On the Swiss rail website, it lets you use a graphic to choose your seats, a feature as yet unavailable on the French service. So, to change your seating position, you should contact the Swiss rail people....sbb.ch

Kelly,

I used the SNCF site in French. Unlike the TGV-Europe site, it offered me ticket pick up in the station. TGV-Europe only offered tickets by mail - which wouldn't work for me because you can't choose US as your country. I think my situation may be unique because I am buying tickets from Switzerland to France. For TGV tickets for travel within France, TGV-Europe also offers the option to print tickets - in which case it doesn't matter what country you select.

I checked the SBB site too, but the tickets I wanted to buy were not available. I don't know why. I think it may have something to do with the fact that I bought tickets for late June. I don't think the SBB site has loaded all the summer schedule. In my case, I bought the tickets at exactly the time they went on sale (3 months in advance). I was able to get a cheap rate. I honestly think that there was only one set of cheap tickets for the entire train. I bought 1 adult, 1 young person and 1 child. Right afterwards, none of these ticket prices was available. I'm glad I didn't wait for SBB.

However, on SNCF, I couldn't find a seat map. They allow you to pick your seat, but if you don't know what seat you want, this is hard to do. I didn't explore every option so perhaps the seat maps are there somewhere. The SBB site shows sample seat maps but it says some trains vary.

In the online help on SNCF, I found a FAQ posting that says you cannot change your seats online. The feature is not available. I wrote a note to customer support to ask for a change of seats. I will post back the reply when I receive it.

Good luck.

David, you're correct....your situation is unique, not just because it's Switzerland, but because it's Basel, which has an SNCF office where you can pick up such tickets. Since the Lyria service is a joint operation, you still might want to check sbb.ch if you have no luck with SNCF.

Thanks for that tip.

I just checked sbb.ch and now my trip is showing up. I didn't find it when I looked it up before. I think SBB posts new routes a little later than the SNCF site.

SBB site is much easier to use since it offers English. Also, seat selection is clearer. The TGV-Lyria site is also very helpful, but it quickly redirects you to SBB for ticket buying. I couldn't find any online feature to change seat reservations.

Oh well. I'm happy that I got a good price on SNCF, and my seats are fine (regular carre). I'm not hopeful that I will be able to change them, but I'll let you know.

• David

I heard back from SNCF. They will not change my seat reservation.