SNCF Groups Team-Managed Booking

SNCF informed us shortly before Christmas of an immediate change to their group booking processes: their offline group booking system has been discontinued until further notice.

As a result, from 1 January 2026, all SNCF accredited travel agencies, including Rail Europe, no longer have access to the PNRs that were previously booked offline until 31 December 2025 for travel in 2026.

Please kindly note online group bookings created on your RailPortal are not impacted by this issue.

This change affects the group PNRs we were holding on your behalf at the end of 2025. To ensure your bookings remain fully protected, we therefore contacted you by email and kindly asked you to re-create these bookings via the SNCF online group booking tool, available in the Groups tab of your RailPortal.

The impacted product families are:

  • French Domestic Journeys
  • France–Spain TGV
  • France–Italy TGV
  • France–Germany TGV
  • France-Luxembourg TGV
  • TGV Lyria

We fully understand that this situation may raise questions or concerns. Please be reassured that our Group Team is working closely with SNCF to determine whether previously held booking details can still be retrieved.

How the online group booking tool helps you

To make this transition as smooth as possible, SNCF’s online group booking tool allows you to:

  • Book groups of up to 99 passengers from the SNCF inventory.
  • Operate in full autonomy (place on hold, update PNRs, i.e. issue, refund) directly from your RailPortal

In light of the change of the SNCF group booking process, what to do if I get a brand-new group booking requests?

- it is recommended that you book your journeys via the SNCF online group booking tool in your Rail Portal. If you cannot find the requested train in the system or looking for special accommodation, the case will be escalated to our team so we kindly ask you create a group booking request on your Rail Portal to handle it offline (please fill in the Special Needs field to share your booking instructions.


- With regards to group bookings that are already loaded into the Rail Portal, either you choose to have them handled offline by the Rail Europe group team, or you book your journeys online via the SNCF online group booking tool in your Rail Portal. Please kindly inform Groups team at groups@raileurope.com




IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Following the discontinuation of SNCF’s offline group booking tool, SNCF is currently handling an exceptionally high volume of requests. This means the usual booking process may take longer than expected.

At this stage, we do not have visibility on how long the SNCF Group Department will take to provide quotations or issue group tickets. As a result, our own response times may need to be adjusted to align with these delays.

v  Temporary booking process during the transition period on PNRs the Rail Europe Groups Team confirmed on the former SNCF’s offline group booking system:

While SNCF works on delivering a new offline group booking tool for its accredited agencies (including Rail Europe), and as the situation is evolving day to day with SNCF, the temporary following process applies until further notice:

1. PNRs originally booked offline (by the Rail Europe Group Department) and currently on hold



To protect your booking:

  • Create a new online group booking in the Rail Portal and place it on hold (user guide available HERE)

What to do next?

  • If online booking is more expensive than the offline PNR we confirmed:
    • Please do not create an online PNR to avoid duplicate bookings If an online booking is already created, please ensure you cancel the online PNR before asking for the issuance of the offline PNR as it is not recommended by SNCF to duplicate PNRs for the same group).
    • Click “Issue” on the itinerary to notify our Group Team that you need to have issued the offline PNR on hold (final numbers are mandatory)  Please ensure you update your final decision by the given TTL on your offline itinerary otherwise it will be automatically cancelled and released.
    • We will then check with SNCF whether the offline PNR can still be issued at the lower fare
  • If the online PNR is cheaper or the same value as the offline PNR we confirmed:
    • Click “Cancel” on the itinerary to notify our Group Team to cancel and release the offline PNR to allow groups team inform SNCF of the cancellation of the offline PNR
    • The online booking can then be issued by yourself instead

For total or partial refund requests on offline PNR issued via SNCF’s former system:

-          Add a comment directly within the offline booking itinerary in your RailPortal

-          Please specify the number of tickets to be refunded so our team can assist you efficiently

For total or partial refund requests on online PNR issued via the SNCF self-service group booking tool - Groups Tab on your RailPortal

-          Open your online group booking on the rail portal to perform the refund by yourself

For further information about each train company’s refund conditions, please click on the link HERE, thank you.

2. Additional ticket requests on previously held offline PNRs

If you need to add passengers to a booking that was originally made offline:

  • 1 to 9 passengers :
    • Book the best available individual fares directly in the Rail Portal
  • 10 passengers or more :
    • Book the best available group fare via the Groups tab in the Rail Portal.

The above-described booking process is not compulsory. If you prefer to keep the PNRs on hold that we confirmed to you on the SNCF offline group booking system, please kindly use the usual booking flow:

-          Open your offline group booking reference

-          Open the itinerary to ask for either the issuance or the cancellation of your PNR on hold

Please rest assured that we are committed to keeping you updated and doing everything possible to ensure your group travel plans are managed smoothly.

We sincerely appreciate your understanding during this transition. Our teams are fully committed to supporting you every step of the way and ensuring minimal disruption to your group travel arrangements.

Should you have any questions or need assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out to us, thank you.

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