Eurostar

I%26#39;m having trouble understanding the fares on the Eurostar. I%26#39;ll be traveling to and from Paris from London. I%26#39;m leaving on Sun., and returning on Wed. They site offers flexible, semi flexible, etc. What are they talking about? Thanks

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Flexible means you can change the date/time of each leg of your journey or get a refund, semi-flexible means you can change subject to a rebooking fee, non-flexible means you cannot change or get a refund on your booking if you cancel or miss your train.

Click on the headings in the Select your journey page to see the full t%26amp;c%26#39;s:

eurostar.com/UK/…standard_fare_conditions.jsp

If you know when you are travelling - you seem to - the non-flexible booking is cheapest.

If you miss the train due to circumstances beyond your control, your travel insurance may cover the loss.

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Thanks for your reply. I%26#39;m still confused. When I go to the Eurostar Website I can get tix for the same trains for all 4 of us for less than $1,000. When I put the same info in on the Railroad official site, the charge is $2,400 plus dollars. Something isn%26#39;t right here???

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I%26#39;m not sure what you mean by %26gt;%26gt;%26gt; the Railroad official site %26lt;%26lt;%26lt;. Is this www.eurostar.com or something else?

If you are looking to travel within the next week, availability is very limited and prices can go up almost by the minute. It may be a reflection of this you are seeing across different web sites.

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thanks so much for your quick replies. I think the site that is listed here in America that I%26#39;ve been checking may not be the official site. It%26#39;s listed as RailEurope.com....the official site of the Eurostar. The other site is Eurostar.com, and it%26#39;s listed as the official site. The prices on other sites I%26#39;ve checked that are thru agencies, are more in line with the Eurostar.com site.

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www.eurostar.com (or in England .co.uk) is the company website.

For me, www.raileurope.com does not seem to show the latest availability, then shows prices if I click on %26quot;economy%26quot;, but just errors if I then click %26quot;select%26quot;.

If you can, use the Eurostar site and specify Date Flexibility (+/- 3 days) to see the best prices available. You might find it is worth adjusting your proposed travel dates, even if it means an additional night in a hotel.

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yes, that Rail site is only good in the U.S. I can%26#39;t believe it%26#39;s more than twice the price of the fares on the Eurostar.com site. Thanks for all your help.

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Raileurope is often more expensive then Eurostar site. I put in my address as my address in UK, and picked up tickets at station. I paid 90 euros return, by booking ahead( 89 days ahead exactly) , staying over a sat. and travelling on non peak travel days ( tues, wed, and thurs).

Play around alot with prices,, I have seen some huge differences. My seat got to the station at the same time the persons who paid twice as much as we did,, LOL

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The RailEurope.com site is listed on the TripAdvisor pageas the official site of Eurostar. The real official site is Eurostar.com. By booking on the later we saved close to $1,450.00 for the same days and times that we would have gotten had we used RailEurope. It%26#39;s a big advertising rip-off, and I%26#39;m surprised that it%26#39;s located as a Trip Advisor best deal. Just goes to show that you have to be so careful when sites say they are the %26quot;Official%26quot; site for something.

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Raileurope.com are the US agents for Eurostar (so they are %26#39;official%26#39; for the US). You%26#39;re lucky to have got into the eurostar.com site - generally if US travellers go to eurostar.com and identify their country as US, they get re-directed to raileurope .... which then sets a cookie so the redirection happens automatically. As you%26#39;ve noticed, raileurope add a mark-up to their prices .....

Glad you got a good deal - have a great trip!

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Hi again. I%26#39;ve been doing a bit more investigation into the differences between fares on the Eurostar and RailEurope sites.

SNCF (the French state-owned rail network) are shareholders in both Eurostar and RailEurope, so I guess both sites can legitimately label themselves as %26quot;Official%26quot;. I doubt SNCF would deliberately set out to rip-off anyone but - like everything to do with travel these days - it really pays to shop around for the best deal and book well ahead.

It looks like RailEurope have simplifed the Eurostar fare structure, to bring it into line with all the other rail tickets they offer, leaving out the option of semi-flexible tickets, so Economy = Non-flexible and Freedom = Fully-flexible. Hence your original post ... .

This isn%26#39;t surprising given the complexity of the European rail network, the mix of private and state-owned rail companies and the numerous different ticketing options available. Even at my local station (Gatwick), I am not always offered the best deal for a simple trip into London.

What this does mean is - if the non-flexible option is nearly sold out - you are straight away looking at the full fare, hence the staggering amount of money you have been able to save, by being able to still see non/semi-flexible options on the Eurostar site.

Where Economy tickets are readily available, there appears to be an advantage for US visitors to use RailEurope to book. Due to the current weakness of the Dollar, the Eurostar fares in USD look cheaper to me than the same ticket in GBP or Euros. (I haven%26#39;t checked if there are any booking fees or other terms that would cancel out the difference.)

Anyway, I%26#39;m really pleased you have got your tickets at a good price and I hope you enjoy London and Paris as much as I do.