SNCF

[Gardian]

Some of you may recall that I've moaned in the past about the SNCF website and the difficulties of getting the train(s) that you want to be presented as an option (when you know that they exist) and sometimes even of the difficulties of paying with a British-registered card.

Anyway, our elder son has decided to come down for a few days in late June and asked me to check out the SNCF site for pricing whilst he did the same on the RailEurope site. They both access the same database, but obviously ticket pricing comes up in €'s & £'s respectively.

A major transformation!  The site still looks the same (unlike some I could mention!), but is faster and came up with all the travel options, in this case both via Lille and Paris. I got all the info I needed in 5mins flat, whereas before I've struggled for ages.  Better still, the pricing was €35 better for the same trains (€170 vs €205) and markedly cheaper than previous years (sometimes getting up towards €300).  In fact, the return leg at €65 in standard class is a bargain - works out at less than 7p / mile I reckon, and your motor car costs twice that. 

Payment with a British card was no problem.

So .......... good news.  Someone seems to have been acting on the complaints and significantly improved the site. What's more, the pricing looks much more competitive vs the lc airlines.  

[Judith]

[quote user="Gardian"]

What's more, the pricing looks much more competitive vs the lc airlines.  

[/quote]

It always was, as long as you booked reasonably early - and a far more civilised journey too.

[JohnM]

My main beef is that they will not let you book early. When I've been trying to get a group together for skiing, we often do it 6 months in advance, and the trains wont let you book that early. So I end up booking the flight as cheap as I can and not waiting for the trains to become available.