Losing TGV Train Tickets
Isn’t everything these days paperless? E-tickets, e-reservations, e-vites, e-confirmations…not quite so in France.
TGV or SNCF is a train operator in France. Whenever you buy a ticket to France or traveling within France, it’s likely through them. Thalys (going from Paris to Amsterdam, Brussels, etc.) is also part of their group.
So, take this as a word of warning. The French take their printed train tickets seriously. If you choose to have your ticket sent to you, you receive a printed ticket in the mail in addition to an email confirmation and reference codes. I bought three tickets (one from Munich to Paris, one from Paris to Amsterdam and one from Paris to Stuttgart) back in April and had them sent to me in Canada. That was all fine. Then on my way to Munich, I thought I lost all three tickets at the airport in Vancouver.
I didn’t think it was such a big deal. I thought I would just get to Munich and print off my confirmation code or call TGV/Thalys and get them to reprint the tickets. I would pick them up or just be able to show my email confirmation with my credit card or passport on the train. After I did some research, I realized there was no TGV office in Munich, as well as no readily available phone number. There is an online form you can submit to ask for help. I did that and this is the response I got:
Absolutely ridiculous. You can get on a plane with just your passport and you can’t get on a train with an email confirmation and your passport? So I would have had to buy all new tickets and just consider my old ones lost money. Stupid.
The good thing was that this motivated me to REALLY look for my tickets, which I finally found stuffed in a Hemingway book in my purse. Ernest, you always come to the rescue!
So this is just a word of warning, as I thought the paperless ticket age was upon us.
DO NOT LOSE YOUR TRAIN TICKETS.
Wow, you would think in this modern age the could re-issue you your tickets. I’m glad you found them in the end, I missed a train last summer by turning up on the wrong day, it was so annoying!
