Bergdrache
Traveller
1 comments
Posted 2 years ago
Hello everybody,
today I was trying to book the seat reservations for my interrail trip starting next weekend. One of them was for the SNCF connection Paris - Barclona. The interrail reservation system then told me that for this particular train the seat reservation is only available in paper form and that it will take too much time to deliver it before my trip begins. So I wanted to ask if anybody knows if I can book the seat reservations also at the train stations in paris the day before travel (under the assumption that there are still enough free interrail seats in the specific train)? In other words: Can I go to some SNCF customer counter at, for example, the Gare de Lyon on Saturday and ask them for a seat reservation for the train to Barcelona on the next day?
Flo
Traveller
10723 comments
Hi!
Yes, this definitely should still be possible at SNCF ticket counters.
I am writing "should" since SNCF has a quite erratic policy regarding Interrail reservations...
Given availability of seats it should be no problem. Back in the day I preferred going to one of the "quieter" Paris stations regarding long distance travel (ie St Lazare, Bercy or Austerlitz); I would recommend walking across the river to Austerlitz if GDL would be too busy.
Would be interested in hearing from your experiences regarding this train and reservation.
Also, you might check at one of the ticket machines but I doubt that they will sell the reservation.
Flo
Bergdrache
Traveller
1 comments
Hello Flo,
thank you very much for your helpful answer, this makes me quite optimisitic! I will try to get the seat reservation at Austerlitz and let you know if everything worked out.
nltrainer
Traveller
1336 comments
Tip/hint: if you are still not on the way:
you can only do the special REServation-with a very long and not quite straightforward method on the machines only for In FR and to DE and CH on direct TGV. Prices extra to go to Spain are very high-you could save money, but spend more time, to use any TGV to Perpignan and then change to a local TER train to border=Port BOU then 2-hourly RENFE rodalies tren to BCN. This is also always possible if this direct train is full. Both last 2 trains are locals with any RES.
On the ´official´ EU/INterrail forum there are many, many, even more questions and requests for this 1/day direct train and so very hard to book.