With its Avantage cards, the SNCF promises great discounts on train journeys. But following recent and discreet changes, the reductions are proving less attractive than expected.
The train is the preferred means of transport in relation to the environment and the ecological crisis we are going through. The problem is that prices are getting higher and higher – so much so that it is sometimes cheaper to go by plane, which is a shame! Fortunately, budding travelers can take advantage of the Advantage card.
For 49 euros per year, it offers capped second class prices and 30% reductions on TGV Inoui and Intercités tickets. In the event of high traffic on a journey, the price increases but cannot exceed a certain ceiling. This card was created as a response to recurring criticism of the high price and constant increase in fares on TGV lines. It was a success since, three years later, 4.5 million customers were won over.
At the origin of the Avantage formulas, the prices were particularly attractive, with prices capped according to the duration of the trip: 39 euros maximum for journeys of less than 1 hour 30 minutes, 59 euros for journeys between 1 hour 30 minutes and 3 hours and 79 euros for longer journeys, including last minute bookings. But in 2023, SNCF revised these ceilings upwards to 49 euros, 69 euros and 89 euros respectively. Significant increases, which already reduced the interest in the reductions.
And in 2024, the SNCF has further discreetly increased the fare ceilings of certain lines for Avantage card holders by changing its calculation rules. From now on, the group takes into account the average journey duration, and no longer the shortest journey duration, which has had the consequence of increasing the ceiling price on around ten lines. So, on a Paris-Angers for example, the shortest journey is 1h27, but the average journey time exceeds 90 minutes. And the ceiling price thus increased from 49 euros to 69 euros!
These adjustments had already been applied in February 2023 for five routes, namely Paris-Rennes, Paris-Lorient, Paris-Poitiers, Lille-Strasbourg and Lille-Lyon, which saw their ceilings increase by one level. The SNCF did it again last July – still without warning users. In total, nearly ten journeys are affected and have seen their maximum price increase considerably, including the Paris-Angers, Paris-Morlaix, Paris-Mâcon, Paris-Chambéry and Marne-la-Vallée-Chambéry routes. .
In addition to a dubious calculation method and absent communication, the pill is all the more difficult to pass as this price change is significant. 20 euros is not nothing! For certain journeys, prices now exceed the symbolic bar of 50 euros, which is difficult for users to swallow.
Faced with the ire of users, the SNCF wants to be reassuring. The company thus clarified to BFMTV that these increases “only concern the highest 2nd class price levels. The majority of travelers with the Advantage Card travel at a price lower than the capped price”. According to the carrier, the majority of Advantage card holders will continue to pay a fare lower than the newly set ceiling while benefiting from reductions for children or preferential fares on other lines not affected by these increases. She maintains that the Advantage card remains the best way to “travel at controlled prices”. The fact remains that these increases and, above all, the lack of communication risk going badly, especially since the SNCF is once again under fire after the opening of the Christmas ticket office.