New prices for travel with the Avantage card: “Adding 20 euros is huge”

If you have the Avantage card, the guaranteed maximum price for the Paris-Angers train was until now 49 euros. Well, that was before. The SNCF has changed the rules. From now on, it is 69 euros maximum. “69 euros, it’s still quite expensive, today, that’s a lot for people“, reacts a traveler in the TF1 news report to be found at the top of this article. “It’s still a lotalso estimates another, because there is still the 49 euro mark, we tell ourselves that it is below 50 euros, so it is still psychologically significant.”A third judges that”add 20 euros, it’s huge.”

But why can this Paris-Angers now reach 69 euros? With the Advantage card, there are always three types of ceiling prices. For journeys of less than 1h30, it is 49 euros maximum, 69 euros between 1h30 and 3 hours, and 89 euros beyond that.

But the SNCF no longer calculates the duration of trips in the same way. Previously, it took into account the shortest journey time. Now she averages. Let’s take our Paris-Angers. The shortest journey is 1h27. But the average duration exceeds 1h30. The maximum price therefore increases from 49 to 69 euros. In total, around ten journeys saw their maximum price increase as a result. On the infographic below, the lines which go to 69 euros are in yellow. In red, those which cost 89 euros.

“The SNCF must find the balance between the regulatory obligations imposed on it, in particular by European competition standards, and allow everyone to travel in good conditions. It is this balance that they must find, and the pricing policy serves that purpose.“, explains Noémie Bercoff, transport and mobility expert, to TF1.

• Read also

  “Not at all interesting”: is selling SNCF tickets for Christmas really worth it?

So, is this Avantage card, which costs 49 euros per year and promises slashed prices, still a good deal? “It’s really advantageousassures us Matthieu Marquenet, of the ticket reservation site Kombo.co. We calculated the break-even point: as soon as you spend 163 euros on train tickets per year, it is a card that is profitable.“According to SNCF, the majority of travelers with the advantage card will not see a difference, they are already traveling at a price lower than the maximum fare.