Booking SNCF tickets On Line

I'm having problems at the moment booking tickets from La Rochelle to
Biarritz on line. I've already used SNCF's facility to book and print
my own tickets from Lille to Nantes, and from Nantes to La Rochelle,
but when I tried to book from La Rochelle to Biarritz, it's only
offered me the chance to collect the tickets from an SNCF office or
have them sent (presumably at my own, not inconsiderable expense) by
courier to the UK. Breaking the journey down into its component parts,
I note I can buy and print out my own tickets from La Rochelle to
Bordeaux (where I would have had to change anyway from a Corail to a
TGV), but the TGV train from Bordeaux to Biarritz appears to be the
dog in the manger, not offering the ability to print out my tickets.

So...anyone with experience of using SNCF's system

i) is there a booking horizon before which tickets can't be booked - I
had kind of assumed 2-3 months?
ii) any other suggestions as to why I can print out my tickets from
Lille to Nantes, and from Nantes to La Rochelle, and La Rochelle to
Bordeaux, but not Bordeaux to Biarritz ?

Many thanks in advance of any advice you can offer me.

Ric

they have changed the system, looks like
own printing is no more desirable

you must print the tickets while in the "gare", before departure

they have special printing machines there

for authentification, you need to slide in
the same credit card as for booking


a écrit dans le message de news:
...
I'm having problems at the moment booking tickets from La Rochelle to
Biarritz on line. I've already used SNCF's facility to book and print
my own tickets from Lille to Nantes, and from Nantes to La Rochelle,
but when I tried to book from La Rochelle to Biarritz, it's only
offered me the chance to collect the tickets from an SNCF office or
have them sent (presumably at my own, not inconsiderable expense) by
courier to the UK. Breaking the journey down into its component parts,
I note I can buy and print out my own tickets from La Rochelle to
Bordeaux (where I would have had to change anyway from a Corail to a
TGV), but the TGV train from Bordeaux to Biarritz appears to be the
dog in the manger, not offering the ability to print out my tickets.

So...anyone with experience of using SNCF's system

i) is there a booking horizon before which tickets can't be booked - I
had kind of assumed 2-3 months?
ii) any other suggestions as to why I can print out my tickets from
Lille to Nantes, and from Nantes to La Rochelle, and La Rochelle to
Bordeaux, but not Bordeaux to Biarritz ?

Many thanks in advance of any advice you can offer me.

Ric

they have changed the system, looks like
own printing is no more desirable

you must print the tickets while in the "gare", before departure

No disrespect meant, but I don't think this is the case. I can print
tickets for the leg La Rochelle to Bordeaux, but not from Bordeaux to
Biarritz. If what you said were the case, then I couldn't print
tickets at all. Similarly, I have (yesterday) just bought tickets from
Nantes to La Rochelle.

I think the answer lies in some sort of seat allocation to the TGV
train from Bordeaux to Biarritz - I cannot buy a PREM ticket on this
particular train, and that seems to be the problem.

On Sun, 22 Jul 2007 15:58:22 -0000, wrote:
I'm having problems at the moment booking tickets from La Rochelle to
Biarritz on line. I've already used SNCF's facility to book and print
my own tickets from Lille to Nantes, and from Nantes to La Rochelle,
but when I tried to book from La Rochelle to Biarritz, it's only
offered me the chance to collect the tickets from an SNCF office or
have them sent (presumably at my own, not inconsiderable expense) by
courier to the UK.

Up till now, SNCF have always sent tickets via the post at no additional
cost.

Regards,

Rian

--
Rian van der Borgt, Leuven, Belgium.
e-mail: www: http://www.evonet.be/~rvdborgt/

Up till now, SNCF have always sent tickets via the post at no additional cost.

And completely disclaimed responsibility if they were lost in the
post, as I recall from previous postings. The former is now a
reasonably regular occurence and I don't want to waste €160 of my own
money on tickets SNCF may or may not post to me from France when it
might be possible to print them out.

wrote:
Up till now, SNCF have always sent tickets via the post at no additional cost.

And completely disclaimed responsibility if they were lost in the
post, as I recall from previous postings. The former is now a
reasonably regular occurence and I don't want to waste €160 of my own
money on tickets SNCF may or may not post to me from France when it
might be possible to print them out.

Your other option is to select collection at a station with your credit
card.


--
Phil Richards, London, UK
3,600+ railway photos since 1980 at:
http://europeanrail.fotopic.net
http://britishrail.fotopic.net

Your other option is to select collection at a station with your credit
card.

Which, in the end, is what I did, with a very helpful screen guide in
English. However, when I put my Amex card in the machine, it
instructed me to go to the ticket office, who helpfully issued me with
the tickets.