France’s SNCF ends free last-minute refunds on train tickets

Since March 2020, travellers in France have been able to exchange or cancel train tickets up until the last minute without being charged. This policy has come to an end, French rail operator SNCF has announced.

Published: 13 September 2021 16:56 CEST

France's SNCF ends free last-minute refunds on train tickets

(Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)

The measure had been introduced at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, and applied to all TGV and Intercité trains.

Travellers could change or cancel their tickets right up to the set departure time with no fees, as SNCF tried to tempt passengers back after 18 months of several curtailed travel.

But from Monday, September 13th, the free cancellation policy will only apply up to three days before departure.

“There were unfortunately some clients who were overdoing it, they were holding onto seven or eight tickets, and only keeping one,” SNCF boss Jean-Pierre Farandou told news programme ‘Le Grand Jury’ on Sunday, “so there were several seats that remained empty at the last minute.”

Si le système des remboursements et échanges gratuits jusque 3 jours avant le départ est pérennisé, les modifications de billets après ce délai seront assorties d'une pénalité de 15 euros à partir de demain #LeGrandJury pic.twitter.com/Qbo6fo2OrN

— Le Grand Jury (@LeGrandJury) September 12, 2021

Farandou added however that the policy had been effective during the pandemic: “I’m sure that it contributed to the fact that more people dared to buy a train ticket.”

It will still be possible to exchange or cancel tickets fewer than three days before departure, but for a fee of €15 for TGV Inoui trains, or 40 percent of the ticket price up to a maximum of €12 for Intercités. There are no refunds for Ouigo tickets, but these can be exchanged up to an hour and a half before departure.

Adults travelling on TGV and Intercité trains are currently required to show a health pass, and this will be extended to all over-12s from September 30th.

Farandou said SNCF would be aiming to check passes for “30, 40 percent of trains”.

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“Due to increased costs we don’t have any financial alternative but to close our Bordeaux base in November,” the company’s commercial director Jason McGuinness said in a statement released in French.

The airline has been operating around 40 flights to and from Bordeaux.

In the statement it said the three planes and 90 staff currently based at the Bordeaux airport would be transferred to other, less costly, bases within its network.

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said in March that Bordeaux airport was seeking to double its fees and warned he would shut the base rather than pay that amount.

Bordeaux-Merignac airport said it had “put limits on the financial demands” of Ryanair and would pursue its strategic objective of diversifying the airlines which use airport.

“We don’t wish to see a company which has been installed in Bordeaux for 14 years leave,” the airport told AFP.

“If it would like to work again in Bordeaux, it will be welcome,” it added.

Bordeaux-Merignac in 2023 was the eighth busiest French airport with 6.6 million passengers.

However, this figure is just 85.5 percent of pre-Covid 2019 levels whereas the average for French airports was 92.7 percent.

Bordeaux’s airport was particularly hit by the end of its flights to Paris, victim of a French government ban on any domestic flights that can be replaced by train in less than three hours.