Late last night my husband purchased tickets from CDG to Avignon and inadvertantly typed in our first names where we were to enter the last name, and the last name in place of the first name (for our family of four). Are we going to run into issues with this or will they realize the mistake he made?
Posted by
Green Bay
21145 posts
They are train tickets, not airline tickets. The conductor, if he/she even checks names at all, only needs to be satisfied that you are the people who bought the tickets.
Posted by
US Pacific Northwest
10344 posts
Same as Sam; personally I've never noticed a conductor checking correct spelling of names. It's not like airline tickets, where correct spelling is of course critical.
Posted by
106 posts
If they check tickets, and I've been on several TGV trips where they never seemed to get around to it, they most likely will just scan the bar code or QR code and if it checks out as a legitimate ticket, move on with a "bonne journée". I've been using SNCF's trains for quite a while, and I have never had them ask for any kind of identification on the train other than the ticket.
Posted by
Houston, Texas
975 posts
We just returned home from 4 weeks in Europe. I can tell that the SNCF conductors on our trains did not check names. They scanned the tickets and moved on.
Posted by
Coeur d'Alene
378 posts
I just returned from France and rode the TGV three different trips. The ticket was scanned on two trips but names were not checked at all.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Perfect! Thank you all for the info. So helpfull!
Posted by
Knoxville, TN, USA
7209 posts
Same thing for Italian trains. I purchased 21 tickets Venice to Milan like I do every year. I don’t even bother with names, I just let all tickets default to the name on my trenitalia account. Nobody ever checks names...only scan the code.
Of course that’s not the same as a rail pass such as a Swiss Travel Pass. Those names ARE checked against your passport, but if you were off a character or two I doubt it would matter.
Posted by
Queens, NYC
571 posts
I will say that unlike everyone else here, I have been checked on an SNCF TGV train for identification against the tickets, but that being said, I still don't think it will be a problem.
What happened in my case is that on a recent TGV trip (Rennes-Paris Montparnasse) my parents and I, so 3 in total, were all in the same row. This was in second class, so four seats across, so we had two seats on one side and the aisle seat across the aisle. My parents prefer to sit together, so they were in the two seats on one side and I was in the seat across the aisle, but technically that was my mother's seat based on how the website automatically allocated the three seats to the three passengers when I had bought the tickets.
When the conductor came by, he first scanned my parents' tickets then turned around and scanned my ticket (for that seat, so it had the correct seat number but my mom's name), then after a couple of seconds asked to see my ID. Basically, what had transpired is that he didn't realize my parents and I were all in the same group, and because my mom's name is very obviously feminine (and I am a man), he apparently thought there was something fishy with me/my ticket. As soon as he figured out the three of us were in the same party and had just switched seats among the three of us, it was a non-issue and he continued on.
Long story short, I don't think it will be a problem as I think the only reason I got checked is that there was a obvious gender mismatch and it raised his suspicions. If for some reason you do get checked (which I think is quite unlikely), all four of your tickets will have the same "issue" and it will be very easy to explain what happened.