sthubbar

OK, so I guess I'm figuring this out a little late.

2 adults + 1 (5yr old) child

Checking on Bahn.de seems there is a direct train TGV 9575 from Paris to Munich on October 5th and it's saying there are not tickets. It says that for all 3 of the options on the site.

The only trains I can find are RailEurope.com for much more.

Here are the options I can find:

$282 - TGV 9575 bahn.de - No tickets?
$721 - TGV EST 9553+ICE 595 RailEurope.com
$787 - SAS 566+2657 (air)

Right now, seems like air is the best choice at those prices.

What better options, or way to get on the TGV 9575?

Thanks.

Revilo199

You always need to buy your ticket from the railway authority of the country in which your journey begins. This is why DB won't sell you the tickets.


In this case it is SNCF, www.voyages-sncf.com
From there you can buy your tickets for the TGV from 203€

KQ321

Actually, AFAIK the Paris-Munich TGV is operated in cooperation between between SNCF and DB, and so bahn.de should be (and as far as I can tell, is) able to sell tickets on this route.

Looking at bahn.de it seems that TGV9575 on October 5th is indeed fully sold out in second-class (it's a reservation-required train, so it is possible for it to be sold out). I haven't checked www.voyages-sncf.com to see if SNCF have a separate contingent of tickets for this train. However, it seems that First class is available on bahn.de, at €318 total for your party (for a Europa-Spezial ticket - note the conditions).

However, there is also an earlier direct (TGV 9571, dep Paris 07:25) which also has availability in First Class, at €238 total for your party.

It seems clear that trains on the 5th are already very booked up, and prices will continue to rise (or availability will disappear entirely) so you would be advised to book ASAP.

sthubbar

KQ321, thanks for the info. I tried booking the special fair in 1st class and it takes me all the way to confirming the reservation and then says "Forget it, all full" or something like that.

Yes, I also saw that 7:25am train and I think if the choices are 1) Get up at 5am or 2) Pay twice as much and take a plane later in the day, we will most likely choose door #2.

KQ321

That's strange... What exactly is it saying at the end? And what have you selected regarding seat reservations? Sometimes, when you get an error at the very end of the process (having entered payment details and clicked the final 'confirm') it is simply because the system cannot make your requested seat reservation (ie: there is still availability, but just not in the specific type of seat you requested) - although it doesn't actually tell you that.

So, it might be worth trying again, and either
a) turn off the seat reservation request option entirely, or
b) leave the seat reservation options as "any" and "any".

You could also try calling DB (or SNCF) to see if they can book it for you.

sthubbar

KQ321, thanks for all the suggestions. I did another flight search on Kayak and the low price fares had disappeared and I got concerned that our options where disappearing rapidly. I remembered that the previous lowest price fair was on SAS so I went directly to their site and they still had the affordable fares so I quickly booked one.

Decision made, we pay more and sleep in.

Thanks.

stut

Not sure if you've actually booked yet, but...

Bear in mind that AF only offer full-fare one-way tickets. Therefore buying a return ticket and skipping the return leg can actually be significantly cheaper than a one-way. Looking on 5th Oct, there's some decent deals.

Nico40

That's not the reason.

On these services, SNCF and DB "code-share" the trains. Standard price is the same but each one manages its own sotck and sometimes is own fares.
So you may see availability on the SNCF side after DB has sold its stock, or the contrary.

In that case, the best way to find the best fares is to use www.capitaine-train.com, a third party retailer which has access to both SNCF and DB stocks.

sthubbar

stut, great idea. You are right. I returned the SAS flight with 1 stop and exchanged it for a 6:15pm AF flight non-stop. Should give us 1/2 a day more in Paris.

Thanks.

MHG

You are not correct regarding the requirement to buy from the originating country´s carrier.
This applies only to "regular" trains - which those cross border TGV/ICE trains are not !

The TGV/ICE trains between France and Germany are operated almost similar to code share flights.
Which means one operator supplies the train set (+ driver) but both carriers provide onboard ("cabin") crews.
Both carriers have their own inventory of seats and one carrier will not (can´t even?) sell seats from the other carrier´s inventory.
So, if DB has sold out all their seats it may well be possible to book a seat out of SNCF´s inventory but it is only possible through SNCF.

It is even possible that on a particular train one carrier´s cheap fare buckets are sold out already but on the other carrier´s inventory they´re still availlable ...

stimpy

Yes and other weird things can happen. They have DB controllers on TGV trains sometimes. I once bought a domestic France ticket onboard a TGV that had come in from Frankfurt, and paid onboard to the DB controller and promptly forgot about the whole matter. About a month later when looking at my credit card statement, I was surprised to see a charge from DB when I hadn't been to Germany at all. I was about to protest the charge, when I finally remembered what happened.