Oktoberfest: Sums

I decided I was going to Munich at the beginning of the month but didn't actually start buying tickets until about two weeks before I was due to travel.

With a bit more spontaneity I could've got the tickets even cheaper, and perhaps had a better choice of seats, but I do tend to over-think and faff about with spreadsheets while other people simply snag tickets, so I only have myself to blame if I miss the best offers.

When I first looked, the abomination that is SNCF Connect would have sold me a through-ticket from Limoges to Munich on the Intercités and a TGV for 223€ return in first, my Carte Avantage bringing that down from somewhere closer to 300€. I'd have been able to chose my seats but there weren't any places isolées available on the Pairs-Munich TGV when I looked. The return journey would've started from Munich Hauptbahnhof at 06:46 and I wasn't prepared to make Hostess get up that early to ensure I left on time.

In the end I booked the SNCF and DB legs separately, paying with a card that gave insurance in the event of cancellation or delay. By buying the entire journey as one through-ticket from either operator I'd have had a little less flexibility (the SNCF site doesn't allow you to choose change times, for example) but would've had guaranteed arrival and/or return under the EU's Rail passenger rights.

I bought the Thiviers to Limoges tickets using my Poor Person's Railcard. I'd otherwise have paid 12,50€ each way.

Here comes the exciting bit (no, really):

Booking on the Intercités and TGV now within the same window of opportunity, and a better choice of seats, the price is 181,20€ in first (with the Carte Avantage) or 260€ without. At the time of booking there was negligible difference between travelling in first and second, which seems to be the case now: 153,50€ return in second with the discount, 213€ in first.

The DB site will sell the same journey non-discounted for more or less the same price. The SNCF site can't sell a through return from Angoulême because the outward journey involves a Ouigo. The Bahn site will, but with multiple connections.

Something I couldn't fathom about booking a train from Paris to Munich is that the SNCF can sometimes sell you a seat cheaper on the ICE with a choice of seat - more than the DB web site can manage - and the DB site sometimes sell you a seat on the TGV without a choice of seat but at least with a choice of window or aisle. I'd hoped to get a panorama seat on the ICE but the nice carriage with the window into the cab was absent on at least two of mine, and at the other end of the train on one of them.