The bun-fight for tickets at half-term
When SNCF put tickets on sale for Jan - March trains in France, those at half-term seemed to sell out (for most trains) almost instantaneously. What's the reason?
Last year was bad, this year was worse.
A week ago, at 5am UK time, SNCF put tickets for for Jan - March 2025 trains on sale, mostly for journeys in France. Within minutes, and indeed seemingly instantaneously, tickets seemed to sell out for trains a February half-term.
It was like Glastonbury, where you have to be lucky to get something.
Apart from the this year and last year, I'd never seen anything like this in the previous 12 or so years or regularly monitoring tickets and fares when they go on sale.
How could tickets sell out so quicky, everyone seemed to be wondering.
There was speculation that perhaps French school groups had pre-booked a lot of the carriages and that's why many trains seemed to say 'fully booked' even thought they'd just gone on sale.
To find out more about this, I asked SNCF and Trainline. SNCF manage and sell the tickets. Trainline is just a reseller.
A spokesperson for SNCF told me:
"More and more French travelers are in favour of train trips ...especially for winter period. The opening of sales for winter/skiing period is always the most popular one. Everybody wants the same trains to Bourg Saint Maurice, Fridays, Saturday and Sunday, especially during the 5 week-ends of French holidays.
For example, yesterday, SNCF Connect registered +15% of visits vs 2023. And at mid-day, SNCF Connect sold +45% of train tickets vs 2023."
The spokesperson said that they carry 40,000 passengers on the route to Moutiers, Aime-la-Plagne and Bourg-Saint-Maurice alone.
Other routes, for example, Paris to Grenoble and Paris to Cluses, Sallanches and St Gervais, tickets sold out on lots of trains quickly too.
When I asked Trainline, a spokesperson told me:
"We've checked and there isn't any record of pre-bookings, so these trains are selling out rapidly purely from public sales. My French colleagues tell me those dates are the Paris school holiday dates too, which may help explain why there is such high instant demand for ski trains."
Obviously, it's good that people want to travel by train, but at these peak February dates the supply just can't keep up with the demand. It's turned into a bun fight for tickets.
If you are still looking for rail tickets at Feb half term
There are some things availble, either independently or as part of a package via ski tour operators.
So it's still possible to arrange a ski holiday by train.
Get in touch and let me know what you are looking for, and if I can help, I will.