As you may know it's a holiday weekend so prices are high for that day. So it's not about the trip, it's about the concrete date.

It's cheaper the next day (from 119 €) or when not using the direct trains (e.g for about 100 € than 135 € / 146 for the direct train; leaves 13.16, arrives 23.28 so it's 3 hours longer than the direct train at 13.25.

17 May is the Friday before Whitsun, so there will be lots of people travelling who have the Monday off.

In addition, SNCF see international passengers as a cash cow and there are only 2 direct Barcelona-Paris TGVs on that day. The 13:25 from Barcelona is already fully booked in 2nd class, so that explains the high prices (€269 in 1st class)

I suppose your friends don't have a pass and just want to buy regular tickets? Do they live outside of Europe or do they have non-European passports?

I see on eurail.com there are one country passes for France available for only 1 travel day. 1st class is € 111 (discounts for under 28 and over 60) and the TGV reservation is €35, so still considerably less than €269. The 9:28 TGV on 18 May still has 2nd class available: 1-day France pass €87 plus €35 pass reservation. Pass reservations Barcelona-Paris can be booked on www.raileurope.com (desktop website only).

A one country pass for France is valid in the TGV from/to Barcelona.

In any case, don't wait too long to book. Prices will only go up and I suspect the TGVs mentioned will be fully booked a few weeks in advance.

That is very good information, Thank you ! Is it also valid on other international TGV (beside the obvious Luxembourg and Freiburg ones) ?

Personally I wouldn't recommend a 9.28 departure when arriving by cruise ship in the morning. 

For the next departure 1st class is needed.

That's the next day, so should work :)

Now that you mention it...

Thanks for the suggestions. My friends are about to buy the 111Euro pass but it clearly says “ Can I cross the border? Not with this Pass, ” I know you’ve given the link that suggests you can but I am not sure how that works. Can you please confirm that my friends are safe buying the one country pass to get from Barcelona to Paris. If it fails, can they get a refund?

This is the train they’re looking at. How can we confirm that it will be ok in a one country pass

The product sheet referenced says all that Barcelona to France travel is valid for “Adults or children in possession of a EURAIL or INTERRAIL PASS covering at least the French network.” The French, one day pass covers at least France so it seems to fit, but I don’t understand the link between the Product Sheet and the Eurail France pass. I don’t want them to spend a pile of money only to find out it doesn’t apply. 

The product sheet is from Belgian railways, who also sell these reservations, and who are AFAIK the only ones to publish the exact terms and conditions agreed with SNCF (the operator). You can also book via Belgian railways themselves but they have an extra €4 booking fee. However, wherever you book the reservations, there's only one type of pass reservations for this train (and Belgian railways sell them directly from the SNCF system using their API).

Currently, the 13:25 on 17 May has seats in 2nd class again. I see at least 9, so maybe a group cancelled.

Thanks vdborgt. I passed this on to our friends. Appreciate your help. I’ll keep the question open in case they have more questions. I have to go to work today so may not know outcome till tonight, our time.

Uh Oh! A Once Country Pass is a One Country Pass and doesn’t apply to Barcelona to Paris!

Our friends followed your suggestion and bought a one country, one day pass, went to make the reservation but it was rejected as not valid on the pass, so the fact sheet you provided is incomplete or in error. 

They ended up making alternative arrangements, and were able to get a refund, but I need to alert you that this info is incorrect, in case anyone else stumbles across it. Is there any way to change the right answer so people don’t go straight to the wrong answer?

Rob

This is more like Eurail not adhering to their own terms and conditions and SNCF's. Maybe @rvdborgt will be able to explain better.

The Eurail page to book reservations is known to be unreliable and showing wrong data/prices. On the other hand the fact sheet has always been correct and I don't see why it wouldn't be the case here too : SNCF is known the sole operator of this route (same for TGVs to Luxembourg and Milan) and thus they get all the money.

SNCF call center would probably have been able to sell the reservations.

My friends tried to use the suggested SNCF web site and it too confirmed that their ticket could not be used on this run. I don’t know where the fact sheet came from but I guess this demonstrates that the Fact Sheet it not that factual and needs to be updated. 

The SNCF website can't book pass reservations, so I'm not sure where they tried. The Eurail booking website has this incorrectly implemented, so it won't be helpful. It'd also more expensive.

Just go ahead and book reservations on www.raileurope.com. Desktop website only. Use "Add rail pass” and the choose the Eurail pass for the correct class. Ignore the fact that it says "Global pass” because there's just one type of pass reservation for this train.

We've had a discussion about this before:

It could be that Eurail's contact person at SNCF doesn't know their own conditions, which means Eurail have been told incorrect information. In any case, the previous discussion doesn't look like it's finished.

@Mukhammad, what's the status here? As you know, according to SNCF, the OCP for France IS valid to Barcelona, Milan, Luxembourg, Freiburg and Geneva. IMO, it shouldn't take this long to clear this up.

Hi,

The comment was raised “The SNCF website can't book pass reservations, so I'm not sure where they tried.” 

I haven’t spoken to them again but I understood that they followed the link earlier in this post that said “You can also book via Belgian railways themselves”.

Fortunately they got a refund and ended up catching a train the next day. It messed them around a bit and meant they have to spend another night in Barcelona instead of Paris, where they’d hoped, but it was sorted. My reason for posting was to ensure anyone else wanting to try this realised that it doesn’t work as suggested. Maybe a phone call or some other approach would make it happen, but it doesn’t work on the web site. Maybe the web site owner should be made aware of the issue.

Ah OK, that's not SNCF (=French railways).

I do wonder what exactly happened. What does "it was rejected as not valid on the pass” mean? What did the Belgian Railways website do at what point? Was there some sort of error message when they entered the pass number? In any case, their product sheets are official tariff information, which means that they're obliged to honour them, regardless of what their website does.

@rvdborgt the dedicated team is still developing the strategy on this particular OCP Pass. A reminder is sent to them. I'm sorry for the long waiting time!

@Mukhammad For the time being, can't you just align the information with SNCF's conditions? We've all seen what they are. Belgian railways aren't making their product sheets up themselves.

@rvdborgt I understand your point, but further development needs to be done as there's some obscure information received from the railway company