Can't buy ticket from Switzerland to London

Kughoassang42

When I try to buy the ticket, I either get a 403 error page or it lets me enter my info but then says “Aucune offre n’est disponible.”
Is there an outage currently?

RolandP

Hello Kughoassang42

We do not know. We have no clue about your travel dates; consequently, we cannot verify.

Kind regards,
Roland

Danhiel

Hello Kughoassang42

Tickets for the TGV Lyria should be available from March 11th.

https://www.sncf-connect.com/aide/l-ouverture-des-ventes

Kind regards
Danhiel

Kughoassang42

RolandP

Vallorbe to London St-Pancras, 27th of July, departure at 8 AM.

RolandP

Hello Kughoassang42

As a general rule of thumb, tickets are not available more than 90 days out.

This date is too far in the future. You may check with SNCF, though.

https://www.sbb.ch/en/help-and-contact/products-services/tickets/europe/tickets.html

Kind regards,
Roland

Krist

In such a situation the website should not throw an error, but just pop a message saying: You can book these tickets form dd.mm.yyyy onwards".

When it comes to properly informing people why the ticket they want cannot be produced the SBB site still has a lot of room for improvment.

RolandP

Krist

Provided the SNCF inventory system is throwing an useful error code and not simply: no records found.

Best regards,
Roland

Danhiel

Hallo RolandP

Sorry, but the error message is bad. If the system cannot find the date of the start of sales, the text « no longer » is confusing. For me it means that tickets are sold out:

A link to a help page would be better.

Kind regards
Danhiel

RolandP

Hello Danhiel

This topic is not new and can only be solved once a global system for train bookings accross Europe is in place.

SBB is showing what SCNF is returning upon request.

The link towards a help page is a great idea, you could suggest it to SBB.

RomanoS

RolandP

This topic is not new and can only be solved once a global system for train bookings accross Europe is in place.

This is correct and we know! Not the correct information, but we cannot do anything at the moment.
BR
Romano

Krist

The problem is the formulation. When a tourist from Australia sees “there are not longer tickets available” the next site they visits is google flights. Or Europcar.

Better would be “we cannot currently sell this ticket”. Trenitalia does this better.

Danhiel

Krist

I reported this error to the SBB.

Danhiel

I found two examples of UIC reply codes. It should be possible to give more information, especially if the train is sold out or currently not available.

RolandP

Danhiel

Still, it is not possible to determine the booking start date.

Kind regards,
Roland