voyages-sncf.com

I checked tgv-europe, it seems that their prices are on par with rail europe, and I don't want to pay for the flexi ticket and the booking fee/surcharge. I also heard that I cannot print tickets for my train since it does not depart from France. This is confusing!

tgv-europe.com is a multi-language SNCF site. It offers the same range of fares as voyages-sncf.com.

Steve's suggestion won't work because your trip originates outside of France. You would have to book on the Italian version of tgv-europe and have the ticket mailed to an address in Italy. If you choose Great Britain as your country of residence so you can book in English, then you would have to have the ticket mailed there.

However, the good news is that what you wish to do is possible if you book in French on the voyages-sncf site! You can choose to have the ticket mailed to another person so long as the address is in France.

I just used Rail Europe for an overnight train from Paris to Milan and since I chose e-ticket, I only had to pay a fee of $12.95. I got the e-ticket via e-mail within 1 minute of purchasing the tickets. So it worked pretty good for me. There are instructions you can print from the site that tell you how to retrieve your e-ticket at the train station. I hope this would work for you as well, but since you are going the opposite way as me, you would have to test it out and see if e-ticket is an option before you pay.

This got me curious so I just compared Rail Europe with TGV-europe for June 29 (date chosen randomly near end of 90-day period).

Rail Europe had an Artisia berth, including 2nd-class (t6) couchette and reservation, for $87, which is really not bad.

TGV-europe had the same for 45 Euros, which is better.

However, TGV-europe also had PREMS tickets for the same route in a first-class (t4) couchette for the same price of 45 euros.

It is impossible to put a price on the peace of mind that comes with having your ticket in hand, but it is possible to see how much it costs to get it.

On the two tickets I purchased the difference in price was only $14.00 (higher) between Rail Europe and the SCNF site and italia rail site. I chose Rail europe becuase I was able to get e-tickets and not have to worry about cheating the system by telling it I came from another country. For me Rail Europe worked and $14 was worth it. I have seen many other trips that had a significant price difference between all the different websites where you can purchase tickets.

Yeah for me, I'm getting the price of 2 spots in a C4 couchette is more than $100 extra on Rail Europe as opposed to voyages-sncf, italiarail, or tgv-europe. That is hard for me to make it worth it.

But I may have to suck it up!

Maybe someone can help answer this: Rail Europe is overpriced for me only in the accommodation I want: C4 couchette. It;s only wanting to sell me flexible tickets that can be exchanged or refunded, when I want restricted tickets because they are cheaper and I am sure of my plans.

The prices for 2 people in a C6/C4/T3/Double for a July 23 (random day in the future, close to 90 days out) are $216/$362/$356/$498. It's cheaper for me to get a T3 berth than a C4 berth!

Is there a way to get Rail Europe to sell me a C4 ticket that is restricted, and therefore hopefully much less expensive?

Steve,

Does Euraide also let you purchase regular train tickets? I will need about 10 train journeys while I am abroad, including the overnight train. I can't really tell from their website. Also, do they provide services to buy tickets and not just rail pass supplements? I think at this point I want to just buy point to point tickets, will they do this? It would be totally worth the $50 then.

Thanks