I have been unable to make a Thalys reservation (Paris to Amsterdam) for my son and I with seats together. After trying to book both tickets at one, by my experience, for the Thalys.com site you can only book one type (i.e,. adult, youth, child) in a go and after that res is complete you click "Add a ticket" on the final screen and then select the other res. When making the first res (I have tried both my adult self and youth son as the first res), I pick a window seat and am given a Coach # Seat #. Then I add the second person res and on the final screen try for seat choice I choose "Beside" and input the coach/seat assign to my first res. I keep get seat # over 100 next to seat 88 (though same coach). I don't believe it is a matter of restricted seats by class (youth vs adult and both are 2nd class) because I have tried this several times alternating either the adult traveler or youth traveler as the first res. I am sure there is some little trick to this that I am missing. I am betting there is someone here that know that trick!!! Thanks in advance.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
I just did a dummy booking and could have booked both tickets at the same time with no extra steps. I let the computer assign seats and they were adjoining ones. Not knowing your son's age, I arbitrarily entered it as 12. If you give me your travel date and your son's age, I'll do a dummy booking again and then report the steps I went through.
Posted by
OP
Chalfont, PA, USA
68 posts
So maybe my problem was that I actually tried to book the seats instead of leaving it to the system??? lol Travel date: 31 Jul
Son's age: 16
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
On the first booking page on thalys.com, after you've entered the information for your departure date, choose "2" from the drop-down menu for the number of passengers. Click on "Book now." Choose the ages of each passenger from the drop-down menus. After you click on "Continue" you'll be asked to give a specific age for your son. Click on "Confirm." You'll be shown the available fares for each departure time on 31 July. The cheapest discount fare still available is €65.00/person (same for all ages). Pick a departure time and proceed to complete the booking.
Posted by
OP
Chalfont, PA, USA
68 posts
I swear, when I tried before the same procedure it would not let me make the second passenger a youth. It was either 2 Adults or 2 Youth (or I am insane). The 2nd dropdown did not include youth. I did clear my cookies before I attempted this again. The fare it gives me is a total of 144 (65 youth + 79 no flex adult). I am just going to cross my finger and book it. Thanks for the walk through!!!!
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
Clearing your cookies was a good idea. I'm happy you were successful this time!
Posted by
OP
Chalfont, PA, USA
68 posts
I was successfulthough not without a hiccup (which I only mention to remind others). My credit card charge by Thalys was rejected by my cc company as it came from Europe. I had already informed my cc company that I would be traveling in Europe on certain dates but this charge was a week before. I tried several credit then debit cards and they were rejected. I ended up calling my Mastercard issuer and they authorized the charge and stayed on the phone with me while it cleared. Now....on to my DeutscheBahn reservation!
Posted by
St. Louis, MO USA
1976 posts
Hi Cindy - I have a tip with regard to the trouble you had with your CC on a foreign website. If you know you're going to book train tickets or other tickets on a foreign website, call your CC company in advance and tell them approximately when you'll make the purchase and on which website. My CC company, Capital One Visa, also wants to know approximately how much the purchase will be. Calling in advance should help prevent transaction issues.
Posted by
OP
Chalfont, PA, USA
68 posts
Tried that, with alerting the cc company ahead....not with mine (not Capitol one lol). As I was on the phone with the cc rep waiting for the Thalys purchase to go through, I said I would be doing another ticket with European charges the next day with Deutsche Bahn and could that be pre-authorized. I was told to "try" to make the charge and if it didn't work to call them back.