Originally Posted by
Gigantor
I recently purchased TGV tickets (Basel -Paris/Paris-Geneva) on the Swiss SBB website. In the past, the SBB office in Brig would send me paper tickets via post. However, I am very happy to report that the TGV tickets are immediately available for download and can be printed from my computer.
I just had a frustrating day buying TGV from the US, but in the end, SBB saved the day.
Last two Piccolo seats on Paris-Geneva. On TGV-Europe.com (set to "other Europe") I tried all 4 cards (2 credit, 2 debit), encountering Verified by Visa every time, yet they all fail. Finally tried PayPal, which initially went through (+4% conversion premium), but TGV-Europe.com immediately rejected (e-mail from PayPal indicating reversal). Two days later, card activity listed 4 transactions: (1) PayPal TGV Europe, (2) FX fee, (3) PayPal TGV Europe reverse, (4) FX fee refund. I suspect the rejection/cancellation occurred when SNCF detected through PayPal it was a US customer.
So I went over to SBB.com and succeeded on the 2nd card (needed to do Verified too). However, the e-tickets need to be printed on A4, not something readily available in the US. SBB emphasizes the printed PDF cannot be "scaled", and a casual non-scaled printout (on US 8.5"x11") would have the top chopped off.
I happen to have someone flying into the US to bring some A4 paper, otherwise I'd have to do some manual cutting of 11"x17". Rail Europe US, however, gives you e-ticket PDFs ready to print on 8.5"x11" paper.