If you travel 1st class (also interrail), you can choose your seat on the TGV, normally.
Due to the fact that SNCF no longer makes it possible to book domestic train journeys online in France for Interrail, I (temporarily? ) have the following question:
If you contact the call center of SNCB INTERNATIONAL in Belgium, 0.30 euros/min(!) , would they also be able to book the desired seat or not?
I think I've done it once, but it took a lot of effort.
have no experience with the SNCB hotline 
but i used SNCF Call Center few times and yes they could reserve my prefered seats (if free) disadvantage for me was that the paying process is automatic & French only but the Service Staff explained me everything in advance and so it worked fine.
have no experience with the SNCB hotline but i used SNCF Call Center few times and yes they could reserve my prefered seats (if free) disadvantage for me was that the paying process is automatic & French only but the Service Staff explained me everything in advance and so it worked fine.
Did you have to pay with Visa, Mastercard, ....?
In short, could you only pay with credit cards? And not via Bancontact?
Nice to hear that you could reserve your desired seats in 1st class via the SNCF call center.
I have a bit my doubts about NMBS.
Via the website OUI.SNCF I could see that there was a place available when I called the contact center of NMBS, but NMBS claimed that they could not reserve this place!
SNCF only accepted credit cards but you can easily create a virtual one and load money on it and use it for the bookings :)
SNCF only accepted credit cards but you can easily create a virtual one and load money on it and use it for the bookings :)
NMBS also only accepts credit cards when ordering by telephone.
I didn't know that you can make a virtual credit card, I'll have to find out exactly how you can do that. And also find out how much it all costs.
have no experience with the SNCB hotline but i used SNCF Call Center few times and yes they could reserve my prefered seats (if free) disadvantage for me was that the paying process is automatic & French only but the Service Staff explained me everything in advance and so it worked fine.
With my telephone operator " Scarlet " it is cheaper to call France, to the reservation number of SNCF, than to the premium number of NMBS!
So maybe I should give it a try in the future.
Although I hope that the SNCF will soon allow their online orders with Interrail again, that would of course be the easiest and cheapest.
Only valid for domestic trains in France.
SNCF informed me last year that the possibilities to book online for Interrail have been stopped due to Covid. So if this is really the truth, then it should be possible again someday!
have no experience with the SNCB hotline but i used SNCF Call Center few times and yes they could reserve my prefered seats (if free) disadvantage for me was that the paying process is automatic & French only but the Service Staff explained me everything in advance and so it worked fine.
With my telephone operator " Scarlet " it is cheaper to call France, to the reservation number of SNCF, than to the premium number of NMBS!
So maybe I should give it a try in the future.
Although I hope that the SNCF will soon allow their online orders with Interrail again, that would of course be the easiest and cheapest.
Only valid for domestic trains in France.
SNCF informed me last year that the possibilities to book online for Interrail have been stopped due to Covid. So if this is really the truth, then it should be possible again someday!
The Interrail option was active on the SNCF page till late April this year. Shortly after the borders opened they vanished the Interrail options for an “update” that till now never brought us the option back (I assume they wanna earn more money with standard travelers 
)
have no experience with the SNCB hotline but i used SNCF Call Center few times and yes they could reserve my prefered seats (if free) disadvantage for me was that the paying process is automatic & French only but the Service Staff explained me everything in advance and so it worked fine.
With my telephone operator " Scarlet " it is cheaper to call France, to the reservation number of SNCF, than to the premium number of NMBS!
So maybe I should give it a try in the future.
Although I hope that the SNCF will soon allow their online orders with Interrail again, that would of course be the easiest and cheapest.
Only valid for domestic trains in France.
SNCF informed me last year that the possibilities to book online for Interrail have been stopped due to Covid. So if this is really the truth, then it should be possible again someday!
The Interrail option was active on the SNCF page till late April this year. Shortly after the borders opened they vanished the Interrail options for an “update” that till now never brought us the option back (I assume they wanna earn more money with standard travelers )
I believe you that it was possible to book seats through SNCF, for interrail, until the end of April 2021.
I am already experiencing inconvenience in the year 2020, especially to be able to choose your seats in 1st class.
I have sent another message to SNCF to ask if it will come back, to be able to reserve seats for interrail online.
SNCF only accepted credit cards but you can easily create a virtual one and load money on it and use it for the bookings :)
Can and do you want to give me concrete information on how I can make a virtual credit card and load money on it?
No problem if it doesn't work for you, I'll do my own research via google.
SNCF only accepted credit cards but you can easily create a virtual one and load money on it and use it for the bookings :)
Can and do you want to give me concrete information on how I can make a virtual credit card and load money on it?
No problem if it doesn't work for you, I'll do my own research via google.
There are several companies that offer virtual credit cards i used a offer of my own German Bank when i needed it :)
Bestway is to look for a offer where you can load money on it very easy and fast (For example with PayPal as you have then instand the money on your card instead of waiting for the Bank transfer)
There are lot of topic in the old Facebook group or in every traveler community Just a popular service is for example “Revolut” but you have to find on your own which one is the best.
i used SNCF Call Center few times and yes they could reserve my prefered seats (if free) disadvantage for me was that the paying process is automatic & French only but the Service Staff explained me everything in advance and so it worked fine.
Interesting. And afterwards you get your reservations as an e-mail?
Did you call the number that is on this page? Is it correct SNCF doesn't charge extra fees?
i used SNCF Call Center few times and yes they could reserve my prefered seats (if free) disadvantage for me was that the paying process is automatic & French only but the Service Staff explained me everything in advance and so it worked fine.
Interesting. And afterwards you get your reservations as an e-mail?
Did you call the number that is on this page? Is it correct SNCF doesn't charge extra fees?
Yeah their International hotline i got them once by email and once by pickup from ticket machine or ticket office :D I only paid for the reservations itself not extra service charge
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