TGV tickets - only some show up

zagmund

I'm looking to book a train from Paris to Bordeaux at the start of July. According to db.de there are trains throughout the day - at least one an hour, with two an hour for much of the afternoon

Paris Montparnasse Su, 03.04.11 dep 10:10
Bordeaux-St-Jean Su, 03.04.11 arr 13:11

Paris Montparnasse Su, 03.04.11 dep 10:50
Bordeaux-St-Jean Su, 03.04.11 arr 14:22

Paris Montparnasse Su, 03.04.11 dep 11:30
Bordeaux-St-Jean Su, 03.04.11 arr 14:32

Paris Montparnasse Su, 03.04.11 dep 12:15
Bordeaux-St-Jean Su, 03.04.11 arr 15:27

But when I go onto tgv-europe.com or voyages-sncf.com they only show these trains -
07h15 08h10 11h30 17h20 and then they loop on to the next day and show the same train times again.

Is it possible that this far in advance *all* the trains in the middle fo the day are full ? I know it's coming up to Bastille day, but it's actually more than a week later, and not this particular week.

Or, is there a better way to book French trains ?

z

schemingbohemia

Does it actually allow you to book those trains? I thought you could only buy 60 days in advance?

Maybe check here for assistance
www.seat61.com

zagmund

Yep, you can book alright. It gives prices, etc . . .

I just think it's weird that the exact same trains show up day after day and the exact same trains are missing day after day.

I know most/many trains can only be booked 60 days in advance alright. Maybe they only load up some of the trains now and the balance in 60 days.

z

zagmund

Hmm, looks like it's a partial release thing or else the French are really, really good at planning ahead and really love going on holidays starting on July 1st and only like taking trains bang in the middle of the day. Listed below are the times available for some future dates.

So, either starting 92 days from now about 15 trains a day are fully booked out, every single day for several weeks. Or else they just haven't been loaded onto the system yet. Or (pretty unlikely) SNCF is cutting capacity on this route in the height of Summer.

Now, if only my crystal ball was working . . .

z

<begin obsessive compulsive timetable work>
Sun 01MAY 09h15 10h10 10h10 10h50 11h30 11h30 12h15
Sun 05JUN 09h15 10h10 10h10 10h50 11h30 11h30 14h10
Sun 19JUN 09h15 10h10 10h10 10h50 11h30 11h30 12h15
Sun 26JUN 09h15 10h10 10h10 10h50 11h30 11h30 12h15
Wed 29JUN 09h15 10h10 10h10 10h50 11h30 12h10 12h10
Thu 30JUN 09h15 10h10 10h10 10h50 11h30 12h10 12h10
Fri 01JUL 11h30 17h20 **next day >07h15 08h10 11h30 17h20
SAT 02JUL 11h30 17h20 **next day >07h15 08h10 11h30 17h20
Sun 03JUL 11h30 17h20 **next day >07h15 08h10 17h20
Sun 10JUL 11h30 17h20 **next day >07h10 08h10 17h20
Wed 13JUL 17h20 **next day >07h15 08h10 11h30 17h20
Sun 17JUL 11h30 17h20 **next day >07h10 08h10 11h30 17h20
Sun 24JUL 11h30 17h20 **next day >07h10 08h10 11h30 17h20

munchkin_utd

youre trying to book too early (it seems).

theres the full compliment of trains available to book until June 30th, after which you get the strange limited results.

so, just wait a few days, or weeks, till the 90 days or whatever it is, is up.

also, the TGV europe site is different, and inferior, than the proper sncf booking site, so your better practicing your french and using the http://www.voyages-sncf.com/ site rather than the internationalized one.

schemingbohemia

that is odd alright

BenShermin

munchkin_utd wrote: »

youre trying to book too early (it seems).

theres the full compliment of trains available to book until June 30th, after which you get the strange limited results.

so, just wait a few days, or weeks, till the 90 days or whatever it is, is up.

also, the TGV europe site is different, and inferior, than the proper sncf booking site, so your better practicing your french and using the http://www.voyages-sncf.com/ site rather than the internationalized one.

I just looked up the French site and there appears to be the same problem.

Even more weird is the fact that I looked up services between Paris and Bordeaux for early July on the Deutsche Bahn site and they told me that the route doesn't exist:eek:!

zagmund

More and more curious.

That route was definitely listed this AM on db.de and when I entered Bordeaux it didn't ask me to chose between different locations - but it did just now. Maybe they're in the middle of updating at the moment.

I'll keep my eye on it and see what happens over the next day or two.

z

zagmund

I don't know what the story is, but I've booked my trains now so I can relax.

I tried going via www.raileurope.co.uk but it told me that you couldn't book that far in advance.

I tried going via www.voyages-sncf.com and it could only offer me a single train (the day before my booking date so not much use).

I went to www.tgv-europe.com and got my original limited set of trains and booked the one I wanted at a reasonable price - €117 1st class from Paris to Toulouse for 3 people.

So much for all the booking engines being the same.

z

zagmund

I *think* I've worked it out.

The trains that were listed 'early' were branded iDTGV which is apparently some sort of "getting down with the young people" thing. It also seems to be the low cost branding as far as I can tell.

http://www.idtgv.com/en/discover#/zap/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDTGV

The other 'normal' trains were listed a few days ago. So, I guess that the iDTGV business unit were just a little ahead of the time in terms of getting their times loaded up.

Now, that's that little bit of weirdness sorted out. All I have to do now is work out why it is that the French seem (huge generalisation, I know) to be incapable of desigining user-friendly and search-engine friendly websites. Have you ever tried finding out how to book a tour of the Airbus factory in Toulouse ?

z

muckety

I'm also looking at booking French trains in advance and wonder if anyone can help with a couple of questions.. Is it a lot cheaper (assuming it is) or should I wait until I get there and see if there are any bargains? or what is the cheapest way to book TGV travel for a family (looking at Caen to Paris to start with).

Also I'll be travelling with my kids - When I look at the search engines they are not giving me the child price - is there a discount for under 18, 16 or 12 or whatever? Tks