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Post by googleygoo on Jun 17, 2009 23:19:12 GMT -5
In my past trips to Europe, I have always bought train tickets while I'm in the country, but since this time I will be traveling during peak tourist season, so I'm thinking about buying my tickets in advance. I'm planning to go to Normandy (from Paris) for about 4 days in July and I have a pretty good idea of my itinerary. Actually, I think I will need to take certain specific trains in order for my itinerary to work.
Has anyone bought train tickets online either from Rail Europe or directly SNCF using the option of printing from a kiosk?
It seems that buying directly from SNCF will be a lot cheaper but I don't want to dish out a chunk of money if I end up having problems at the printing kiosks.
Any personal experiences from fellow travelers would be much appreciated!!
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Post by WillTravel on Jun 18, 2009 0:40:08 GMT -5
I haven't done printing from a kiosk, but just self-printing. I presume that self-printing is not available?
One very important point is that you keep and have the credit card you used to make the booking, whether you self-print or print from a kiosk.
I seem to recall that if you can't print from a kiosk for some reason, you can get help at the ticket counter, but look into that more.
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Post by googleygoo on Jun 18, 2009 9:55:20 GMT -5
Thanks, I'll look into the self printing. I was on the SNCF website right before going to bed and didn't look at all the options! I didn't want to have to print things at home before I leave but maybe I can print everything in Paris and carry the tickets through the rest of the trip in France.
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Post by WillTravel on Jun 18, 2009 12:02:12 GMT -5
Some tickets don't allow self-print, so that may have been the case with yours. But I've always found the savings worthwhile to book ahead on such routes.
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Post by googleygoo on Jul 29, 2009 21:38:36 GMT -5
So, I'm back from France and I thought I'd report back in case there are people out there considering buying train tickets online in advance from SNCF.
I bought tickets online from the SNCF site with a U.S. credit card, using the option to print the tickets from a kiosk. Unfortunately, when I got to France, the kiosk couldn't read my credit card, so I had to go to the ticket counter and ask one of the sales person to print them out for me.
So, my advice is, make sure that you get to the train station early enough so that you can sort out everything before the train departs.
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Post by WillTravel on Jul 30, 2009 10:03:59 GMT -5
Thanks for reporting back. I hope you didn't have to pay for a new ticket!
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Post by Eagle on Jul 30, 2009 14:20:08 GMT -5
googleygoo,
Thanks for the post.
I suspect the reason the ticket machine wasn't able to "read" your credit card is that especially in France, the machines will ONLY accept "chip" credit cards now. That's one reason I made sure I had one of the new cards before my trip this year. I used the ticket machines at CDG and it worked fine.
Have you started planning the next trip yet?
Cheers!
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Post by googleygoo on Jul 31, 2009 16:19:20 GMT -5
No, I didn't have to pay for new tickets. I had all of my confirmation codes and the credit card that I used to buy the tickets. When I went to the SNCF ticket counter, they found my purchase using the confirmation codes and luckily the machine at the counter was able to read my credit card.
I was able to buy metro tickets from the kiosk machines with my credit card. And I also used my credit card at machines for tickets at the Louvre and at Versailles. I guess the ticket kiosks at Gare Montparnasse was more picky...
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Post by Eagle on Jul 31, 2009 23:24:01 GMT -5
googleygoo,
The transition to "chip" cards (both debit and credit) in well underway, so might be something to consider before your next trip.
I found that the ticket machines at CDG would ONLY accept chip cards, however at the ticket office they were able to process the older magnetic strip cards.
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