Hi there, I plan on purchasing the Paris 2024 Navigo pass for all our metro needs while we are there for the Olympics. My question is, if I order the 7 day pass, and choose to reload it for the additional days we are there, will the days be the same price as buying in advance? Or will the next 5 days that I need be more expensive? And on that note, should I just buy a second preloaded card now? Does that make sense? *I am aware of the extra 2 euro charge for the physical card *
1 answer
It'll be the same price as buying in advance, (except slightly cheaper as you wouldn't be charged for the 2nd physical card).
The price for buying the 12 days of Paris 2024 Pass online now would be the same as buying a 7-day card online now and renewing that card for 5-days in Paris (except you pay an additional 2e for the 2nd physical card).
This is because 12-days on a single card isn't possible (each card maxes out at 7-days). So to get 12 days online now you'd have to buy both a 70e 7-day card (10e/day) and a 60e 5-day card (12e/day) to make a total of 12 days (plus the 2e cost of the plastic cards themselves). There is no option to buy any days between 7 & 14 and any day period beyond 7-days is split onto two cards. And you don't get the 7-day daily price because you bought more than 7-days worth of pass in total.
This is a weird unfortunate limitation of of the Navigo Easy card & system the Paris regional train authority has used. It's been like this for several decades now, believe it or not.
My recommendation is don't buy more than 7-days of Paris 2024 pass online as there's no significant benefit. Renewing in person in Paris can be done at any Metro, RER or Transilien station ticket machine paid by credit card, so in my opinion, it's pretty stress-free to do. The ticket machines operate in several languages so should be OK to navigate.