The countdown is on! This Wednesday, October 2, the SNCF opens the ticket office for trips between December 15, 2024 and January 8, 2025. With the school holidays and end-of-year celebrations, the crowds are likely to be high. Booking in advance saves money.
© Lily FRANEY / Getty Images
– To guarantee your place and save money, make your reservation as soon as the SNCF ticket office opens to maximize your chances.
Responsiveness will be essential. Train regulars know it well: to get affordable tickets for the Christmas holidays, you have to fight. There SNCF ticket office which will open this Wednesday October 2 at 6 a.m., for journeys from December 15, 2024 to January 8, 2025, and risks being stormed. A situation also observed during the summer season. Trainline, a train and bus reservation platform in France and Europe, explains in a September 2024 study that, among the most popular destinations in 2023, up to one in four trains could be fully booked within three days following the departure. opening of end-of-year sales. New this year, you should not travel too heavy. Since Monday September 16, the number of bags per person is now limited.
In addition to securing a place on the date and time of your choice, getting ahead is also a way to savings. The ticket sales company specifies that booking during the opening week of the ticket office allows you to obtain the most advantageous prices. In 2023, passengers who booked up to 11 weeks before their vacation were able to save up to 38%, according to Trainline. However, from the 10th week the economic benefits are already less significant.
October 1 strike: a black Tuesday in transport?
Favorable train ticket prices for the fastest travelers
In the cases presented by Trainline in its study, passengers who had booked their Paris-Metz trip in 2023 when the ticket office opened, i.e. 11 weeks in advance, had saved on average 22 euros per ticket. This figure decreased the following week, with a saving of “only” 9.50 euros on average. Other cities popular during the holidays were more accessible when the ticket office opened. A Paris-Lyon cost on average 14 euros cheaper, and a Paris-Nancy on average 20 euros cheaper during the opening week of the SNCF ticket office, details Trainline. This data does not take into account SNCF reduction cards, another way to save money.
Last year, when the ticket office opened on October 4, the crowds on the site caused a SNCF Connect malfunction. Contacted by Capital, SNCF justified this slowdown by “exceptional attendance (…), well beyond expectations”, with up to “1 million connections per minute this morning”. SNCF noted a 230% increase in connections “compared to the already record level of last year’s holiday sales opening, which was already 10 times the connections of an average day”. This year again, first come first served.
Receive our latest news
Every week, the key articles to accompany your personal finance.
