Advice for using www.sncf-connect.com
Tips for using www.sncf-connect.com
What to do if your credit card is rejected
How to collect tickets from the
self-service machines
What is www.sncf-connect.com & what can it sell?
-
www.sncf-connect.com
is the official French Railways website which sells tickets for train
journeys in France and for international journeys to or from France, at the
official SNCF price with no booking fees & a range of seating options. -
SNCF's website used to be www.voyages-sncf.com, this was changed to oui.sncf in December 2017 to reflect its new Oui branding, then changed yet again to sncf-connect.com in January 2022.
Alternatives: www.raileurope.com & www.thetrainline.com
-
Raileurope.com
sells the same tickets as www.sncf-connect.com at the same prices. Started as
Loco2.com by two young British entrepreneurs who take the
train into Europe themselves, it accepts all
credit & debit cards and as long as you get a print-at-home or collect-at-station
ticket (which you will for most trains within or starting in France) you can
use it wherever you live. It allows you to choose upper or lower deck on a TGV Duplex, has a
via box, and it's the only European train booking site which allows you
to start your journey at any UK station, not just London. It's now also connected to the National Rail (Britain), DB (German),
ÖBB (Austrian),
Italo, Trenitalia (Italian) and Renfe
(Spanish) train ticketing systems, too. -
www.thetrainline.com
also
sells the same tickets as
www.sncf-connect.com at the same prices in euros
with the same seating options, the same print-at-home & collect-at-station
tickets, and it also sells
Billet Bambin
and Espace Privatif.
It now connects to the DB (German Railways), ÖBB (Austrian), SBB (Swiss), Italo
& Trenitalia ticketing system as well.
There's only a few tickets it can't sell as they aren't enabled for
e-ticketing.
 Tickets bought online at www.sncf-connect.com can often be printed at home, sometimes they must be collected at any staffed station in France. If you select the option to collect your tickets at the station, you normally collect them from the self-service machines like the one shown above. How to collect tickets from these self-service machines If you don't have a chip n PIN credit card (many Americans haven't) don't worry, you can still select this self-service option, then simply go to the staffed ticket counter instead, with your credit card to prove your it's yours. |
|
Tips for using www.sncf-connect.com
-
When does booking open? Booking opens up to 4 months ahead. They often open further ahead than this over the summer. However, the 4 months can shrink significantly for dates immediately beyond the timetable changes on the 2nd Sunday in December. Bookings for dates after the December timetable change typically open in mid-October.
-
If it prompts you with a choice of stations, it's usually best to select the one with the 2-letter code for the country in question after the place name, for example 'Milan (IT)' for Milan, 'Vienna (AT)' for Vienna, 'Berne (CH)' for Bern and so on. If it's in Germany, pick the one which includes 'Hbf' (=Hauptbahnhof or main station), for example 'Cologne Hbf (DE)'. For Paris, select 'Paris - all stations (TGV-FR)'.
-
Season Ticket & Loyalty program: Unless you have a French Railways loyalty card or season ticket, leave these boxes alone!
-
Child fares: If you've kids, keep your wits about you and check the system isn't charging you more for your kids than for you! I've seen it charge €74 each for me & my wife and €114 for each of my two small kids. Why? Because the €74 advance-purchase fare is programmed in as an 'adult' fare even though it is good for anyone of any age, so for the kids the computer insisted on quoting the only official 'child' rate it knew, which was €114. www.sncf-connect.com isn't clever enough to substitute the adult price when this is cheaper than the child price. There's no problem with a child travelling on an adult ticket, just not the other way round! Also note that if you are booking Paris-Germany trains, you'll get the more generous child age limits if you use the German Railways website int.bahn.de.
-
Booking Eurostar: It can be better to book a Eurostar ticket between London & Paris as a separate journey at www.eurostar.com. Use the recommended Eurostar times shown on the relevant pages of this website as a guide, but feel free to choose an earlier Eurostar from London, or a later Eurostar returning from Paris, if these have cheaper seats available than the recommended Eurostar connection, or if you want to stop off. Don't forget that on your return journey, your departure date from Paris to London will be the day after your departure date from Italy to Paris!
-
"There are no places available" when you click Choose my place to select seating? This simply means that this particular train doesn't offer seat reservations, perhaps because it's only a local train, so you can sit where you like, you cannot reserve a seat. It does NOT mean the train is full. Funny how this badly-word phrase panics people, though.
-
Don't worry if your seat numbers aren't consecutive! The system does normally book all of the passengers on one booking in seats next to each other! For example, seats 62 & 68 in a 2nd class car on a Eurostar Italia Frecciarossa are in fact side by side. And in a 2-bed sleeper, berths 21 & 25 are in the same compartment, with 22 & 26 in the compartment next door. For seat numbering plans for European trains, see the train seating plans page.
-
Names on e-tickets: Remember when entering you name that the first box marked 'name' = your surname, the second box marked 'forename' = your first name. Although it's not the end of the world if you get first name and surname the wrong way round, SNCF isn't an airline!
-
Credit card rejected? See below for advice.
-
You'll need the original credit card to collect the tickets. If you're booking a journey that starts in France, you can choose to collect tickets at any main French station (you cannot collect from stations outside France, so bear that in mind). You need to show the same credit card that you used to make the booking. With a print-at-home e-ticket, you don't need to have the original card, although the name on your ticket and in your passport should match. How to collect tickets from the self-service machines.
-
Is a chip & PIN credit card necessary to collect at station? No. www.sncf-connect.com says that only cards with Chip & PIN are accepted for collecting tickets from the self-service machines, which is true, but you can still select this option without a chip & PIN card and simply collect your tickets from the staffed ticket counter instead, quoting your booking reference and showing the original (non-chip & PIN) credit card used to make the booking. The confirmation email you will get after booking actually says this, even if the website doesn't!
-
Need a train seat numbering plan? See the train seating plan page.
Credit card rejection? The solution
-
SNCF has tightened up on credit card acceptance to reduce fraud. Unfortunately, this means I'm getting a steady stream of 'My card was rejected' emails, especially from Americans and Australians.
-
Sometimes it's your own bank that's stopped the payment if it thinks it's a potentially fraudulent overseas transaction, so it's worth calling them.
-
Payment limits for foreign cards? One report suggests that sncf will only accept a maximum booking value of around €150+ per day or €300+ a week on any one foreign credit card, although these things are difficult to research and check. But it might be handy to have a second card if you want to buy many expensive tickets. Also, if a card is rejected for any reason, their website may automatically reject that card again if it is used within the next 24 hours, so you may have to wait.
-
Solution 1: Use www.raileurope.com instead. www.raileurope.com accepts credit cards from any country, so it doesn't matter where you live as long as you get a print-at-home or collect-at-station option, which you normally do for most journeys within or starting in France, & for Eurostar, Lyria & Milan-Paris TGVs.
-
Solution 2: Use
www.thetrainline.com instead, now also available in English. Google Chrome will translate anything you don't understand.
Started as Captaintrain.com, Thetrainline.com
is a private website which has been allowed to link directly to the SNCF's ticketing system to
sell tickets in competition with SNCF's own websites - this followed SNCF losing a court case about
anti-competitive behaviour. So Captaintrain (now Trainline) is the David to SNCF's
Goliath. They offer the same trains & prices as sncf-connect.
www.thetrainline.com
accepts credit cards from any country, so you can use it wherever you live as
long as you get a print-at-home or collect-at-station option for your journey,
which you normally do for most journeys within or starting in France, & for
Eurostar, Lyria & Milan-Paris TGVs.
How to collect tickets from the self-service machines
-
These self-service machines are installed at all main SNCF stations, but not at stations outside France other than Luxembourg.
-
If you bought your tickets online at www.raileurope.com or www.thetrainline.com, all you need is the booking reference and lead passenger name, you don't need the credit card you used.
-
However, if you bought online at www.sncf-connect.com you'll need to insert the original credit card, which will need to be chip n PIN for the machine to work. If your credit card isn't chip n PIN and you bought from sncf-connect.com you'll need to collect from the staffed counter, rather than from the machines.
-
Step 1, walk up to a self-service machine & touch the UK flag for English.
-
Step 2, now touch the catchily-named File & Electronic Ticket collection button.
-
Step 3 if you bought from www.sncf-connect.com: Touch the equally catchily-titled Prepaid file collection with a debit or credit card (Telephone or online purchases) button. You now insert the original card used to make the booking and your tickets print.
-
Step 3 if you bought online from www.raileurope.com or www.thetrainline.com: Choose the bottom button, Collection with a file reference number. You simply enter your name and booking reference, you won't need the credit card.
