TGV seat selection at TVM?

[30907]

Does anyone know if you can select your seat when using a TVM in France. Specifically this is to buy Interrail reservations - you can't select your seats online via b-europe/Interrail JP

Thanks in advance.

 

[AlbertBeale]

Does anyone know if you can select your seat when using a TVM in France. Specifically this is to buy Interrail reservations - you can't select your seats online via b-europe/Interrail JP

Thanks in advance.

It used to be possible to make a general choice of seat, even if not a specific seat.

In the days when a regular Lyon-Paris train ticket could be used on the TGVs as well as on the old route, providing you paid the cost of a seat reservation (and also - depending on the train - often a supplement too; though sometimes nothing extra apart from the seat reservation) I was heading north with an existing "ordinary" ticket.

At the machine at Lyon I put 7 or 8 francs in the machine - whatever it was (less than £1) - for the TGV seat reservation, selecting a window seat (I don't think you could be more specific). Anyway, the printed reservation clearly said "fenetre".

When I found my seat, it was indeed not an aisle seat - but there was no window (the seats and window didn't line up); it was just a large sheet of metal between me and the outside world. I complained to the ticket guy when he came round, insisting in my best broken French that I'd been defrauded and needed a refund of my inaccurate reservation. We didn't get very far and he called someone more senior.

I ended up in the bar area, with all the on-board staff gathered round, while we spent much of the rest of the journey discussing the philosophical nature of windowness, and whether the reservation was fraudulent if the seat was alongside where the window would have been had there been one [I think perhaps I had a basic command of the French subjunctive in those days] - despite the fact that there wasn't. This was probably all helped by the quality of wine sold on French trains. It ended up a bit like the Monty Python parrot sketch - "ce n'est pas un fenetre, c'est un grand blocage metallique" or somesuch.

I tried again at the Gare de Lyon in Paris, but never did get my 7 francs back.

Sorry if this isn't much present-day help to the questioner...

 

[crablab]

I don't know if this helps, but it's impossible to modify or print Interrail seat reservations via either the SNCF Connect app/website or at a TVM. And there's no seat selection.

So my guess would be no. You might have better luck at an actual ticket office.

 

[30907]

I don't know if this helps, but it's impossible to modify or print Interrail seat reservations via either the SNCF Connect app/website or at a TVM.

Yes I've discovered that with reservations made via b-europe/Interrail.

And there's no seat selection.

So my guess would be no. You might have better luck at an actual ticket office.

Think I'll try the English-language telesales.

 

[crablab]

Think I'll try the English-language telesales

Do let us know the result! I'd be interested to know if that works for future reference

 

[Flying Snail]

I tried this earlier this year.

I was able to get some seat selection option at ticket machines some of the time although the seats offered to me were far less than those available at the same time on the SNCF connect app which I couldn't use for Interrail.

This was 1st class, as even online you can't properly select seats in 2nd class from SNCF, I doubt it would work.

Another thing to consider is these machines are an utter abomination, a barely functional touchscreen and a demand for a ridiculous amount of personal information including e-mail address to be laboriously typed in on the damn thing. Until I actually tried to use them I was surprised that even in a station with a ticket office queue snaking out the building nobody seemed to be using the things.

I tried making an account online and using those details to login to the ticket machines to shortcut the process but that didn't work as the machines refused to accept the login even though they prompted for it.

Ticket offices were also farcical, some still had traditional staff at a proper PC but most were littered with a weird desktop version of the ticket machines with the same awful interface and procedure just this time with a staff member "assisting" which despite the person being friendly and helpful was even slower and more stressful.

Of the booked trains I took; on 2 TGV I used the connect app right up to departure to see which seats hadn't been booked and just moved into my choice of them after departure and on the Intercities I got to the train and found the entire coach I was booked in was missing from the consist and was told dismissively by the train staff to just sit in the one remaining 1st class coach (in seats I had no idea were booked by someone else or not), the full SNCF experience.

 

[Mainline421]

I don't know if this helps, but it's impossible to modify or print Interrail seat reservations via either the SNCF Connect app/website or at a TVM. And there's no seat selection.

So my guess would be no. You might have better luck at an actual ticket office.

You can certainly print them at TVMs unless this has changed within the past few months.

I can't remember if you can select seats when buying at a TVM, but this would probably only be for first class if so. Best just to find a good seat when you get on if you don't like the one assigned, as long as you have a reservation they don't care where you actually sit in my experience.

 

[trei2k]

I agree. You can print them, I did it last week.

In contrast to what has been said so far, I think SNCF have one of the better TVMs out there. The fact you can do Interrail passholder fares for TGV/ICs on them is a great.

Unfortunately, you can't pick seats, but I did get the option for a "solo" seat option on the TVM when I booked a 1st reservation, which I appreciated. So whilst it isn't quite a seat selector with a map, it is reasonable.

I just wish more national railways did something similar.

 

[crablab]

I agree. You can print them, I did it last week.

Interesting, I tried on multiple TVMs and whilst it would recall my reservation it refused to print it.

 

[trei2k]

Interesting, I tried on multiple TVMs and whilst it would recall my reservation it refused to print it.

Sorry, just for clarity, this was me making a new reservation at the machine. It was printed in a receipt style bit of paper. I've never tried to make any modification. Sorry for any confusion caused.

 

[30907]

Unfortunately, you can't pick seats, but I did get the option for a "solo" seat option on the TVM when I booked a 1st reservation, which I appreciated. So whilst it isn't quite a seat selector with a map, it is reasonable.

Thanks, that's useful info, and probably enough for us. I'll test it as soon as I get to France - fortunately, we aren't using any really busy services (other than Paris-Turin which is a single-decker and there was little choice left at 6 weeks' notice anyway).