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One of the advantages of the SNCF Voyageur program (as touched on in this existing question here) is VOTRE CARTE CONTIENT VOTRE BILLET. This means that when booking your ticket online, you can enter your Voyageur membership number for getting points, and opt to have your ticket "loaded" onto your card. You then don't need to collect or print tickets, you just show your Voyageur membership card during a ticket check, which gets scanned much like tickets do. (Show them the QR code on the back, they scan it with their handheld device, it goes green, all good!)

One disadvantage of this is that you don't have a handy ticket with train times on it, and especially not seat numbers. This can make boarding a little tricky.

Obviously you can hunt through your emails to find the booking confirmation, and look up the train + seat details from that. You can also write down the details or print them out, but that's an extra thing to loose, and partly negates the point of the card!

Is there perhaps an app for your phone or tablet from SNCF, where you enter your Voyageur card details, and it tells you about seat+train details for upcoming trips? (Ideally with caching for offline use!). Or can you show your card to someone at the station to recall the details? Or a ticket machine? Or something else for when you're at a station with no internet, knowing your're on a train "about quarter past 8" with no idea of what seat, and only a best guess of if that means the 8:12 or 8:22!

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Print a Reminder at the Yellow SNCF Self-service Machines

You should be able to print an e-ticket reminder using one of the SNCF self-service machines (the yellow ones) you can find in most stations. All you need is the card you used to book/purchase the ticket. This SNCF documentation page (in French) explains how. Here is the equivalent page in English, which is much less informative.

The homepage of the self-service machines will show you something like this (modified from the image found on the aforementioned SNCF documentation page):

SNCF Self service

Click on the button next to the huge blue arrow to access the memo-printing menu. In case you don't speak French, the machine allows you to select four other languages including English.

The self-service machines work only with chip-and-pin cards. If however you don't happen to have a chip-and-pin card, you can always print out your e-ticket reminder at the manned SNCF ticket offices inside the station. The aforementioned page also explains this.

SMS Reminder

Upon booking via the Programme Voyageur you can ask for an SMS reminder, which you should receive 24h prior to departure. This will contain key information such as departure time and seat. Note that the SMS service can be requested only upon booking, and if the booking happens before 12:00 noon on the depature day at the latest. Quoting from the SNCF Programme Voyageur page:

  • +de tranquillité

Automatiquement, vos billets de train sont enregistrés dans votre carte de fidélité. Vous recevez un mémo voyage par e-mail. La veille de votre départ, un SMS** vous rappelle les informations clés de votre voyage : placement à bord, horaire de départ

** le SMS n'est proposé que si la commande a lieu au plus tard à midi la veille du départ du train.

Your SNCF Account / SNCF Mobile App

There is also the SNCF website, on which you should have registered your card, which will show you you past and planned journeys. The SNCF android app allows you to login to this website to retrieve your ticket details. It does also mention the possibility of storing your e-ticket. I have never tried this app but I'm betting on it requiring internet access to connect to the website, so both these solutions don't fit your requirements.

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    The app works for offline use (once you registered your trip), keeping information about the time, train, coach, seat numbers. I personally prefer the SNCF Direct app which is better at offline caching and if you find some connection on your way to the station, it tells you the platform in notifications (as they announce it rather late it is actually not so useful)
    – Vince
    Feb 11, 2015 at 19:29
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There is indeed an android Voyages SNCF app, you can import existing tickets in it ! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vsct.vsc.mobile.horaireetresa.android&hl=fr_FR

Once you've done this, you can access your e-ticket (actually a QR Code) anytime, even in airplane mode.

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    Does it remember your tickets for offline use? (eg Can I import my tickets after booking, and then several months later when at a station with no internet, recall them?)
    – Gagravarr
    Jan 30, 2015 at 9:35
  • @Gagravarr The app description does indeed mention something about storing the ticket. I could not find out if this is done by querying the SNCF website, thus needing data connection, or not. I have also never used the app, so I can't help either.
    – JoErNanO ♦
    Jan 30, 2015 at 11:40
  • I don't have an Android phone, so I can't test if either, but hopefully the OP or someone else can try it and confirm one way or another!
    – Gagravarr
    Jan 30, 2015 at 14:28
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    Sorry I was stuck in the mountains for a few days :)) It does store your tickets for offline use. And if you don't trust the app, you could still do a screen capture of the QR code ;)
    – Isaac Clarke
    Feb 12, 2015 at 10:02
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    Add this info into your answer. ;)
    – JoErNanO ♦
    Feb 18, 2015 at 17:27

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