Eurostar to Paris
 

Hi
I plan to travel from London to Paris on a Sunday in September. I will
arrive in London, ex Oxford, about 11am and see there are Eurostar
trains at 12.02, 12.29 and 13.00. I wonder if is necessary to book in
advance or just get to St Pancras as quickly as possible and buy a
ticket then? Are there any cost advantages either way?
Any comments will be appreciated.
Akarana

Eurostar to Paris
 

"Spencer" wrote in message
...

I plan to travel from London to Paris on a Sunday in September. I will
arrive in London, ex Oxford, about 11am and see there are Eurostar trains
at 12.02, 12.29 and 13.00. I wonder if is necessary to book in advance or
just get to St Pancras as quickly as possible and buy a ticket then? Are
there any cost advantages either way?
Any comments will be appreciated.

I would never just turn up at a station to get any train without having made
a reservation, let alone for an international service. What on earth would
the benefits be?

In any event, the cheapest tickets are always the ones paid for in advance.
If you just turn up you would probably have to pay full price. Buy them now
online then relax, safe in the knowledge that your trip is booked.

Ian

Eurostar to Paris
 

"Spencer":
I plan to travel from London to Paris on a Sunday in September. I will
arrive in London, ex Oxford, about 11am and see there are Eurostar trains
at 12.02, 12.29 and 13.00. I wonder if is necessary to book in advance or
just get to St Pancras as quickly as possible and buy a ticket then? Are
there any cost advantages either way?
Any comments will be appreciated.

I haven't used Eurostar since they moved to St. Pancras, but they used to
require you to check in half an hour ahead of train time. So you'll need
to allow for that when reserving.

Ian F.:
I would never just turn up at a station to get any train without having made
a reservation, let alone for an international service. What on earth would
the benefits be?

Well, duh! On earth, you get on the first train available. And on
services that don't require reservations, you get to pick your seat.
I would never reserve in advance unless there was a good reason to do so.

In any event, the cheapest tickets are always the ones paid for in advance.

Sad but true. And that *is* a good reason to do so.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto "Don't anthropomorphize evolution:
It hates that." --John Freiler

Eurostar to Paris
 

Mark Brader" wrote in message
...

Well, duh! On earth, you get on the first train available. And on
services that don't require reservations, you get to pick your seat.
I would never reserve in advance unless there was a good reason to do so.

Well, duh! Obviously I didn't mean local services, which I use on spec most
days. I'm talking about travelling any distance.

Why stress yourself out, having to get to the station early enough to queue
for a ticket and then pay top price? Just book it in advance.

Ian

Eurostar to Paris
 

Mark Brader:
Well, duh! On earth, you get on the first train available. And on
services that don't require reservations, you get to pick your seat.
I would never reserve in advance unless there was a good reason to do so.

Ian F.:
Well, duh! Obviously I didn't mean local services, which I use on spec most
days. I'm talking about travelling any distance.

So am I.

Why stress yourself out, having to get to the station early enough to queue
for a ticket and then pay top price? Just book it in advance.

Why stress yourself out, having to decide in advance what time to travel
and then having to get to the station in time to catch that train?

Unless the pricing is such as to make the other choice impractical,
that is.
--
Mark Brader "Never re-invent the wheel unnecessarily;
Toronto yours may have corners."
-- Henry Spencer

My text in this article is in the public domain.

Eurostar to Paris
 

Mark Brader wrote:

Mark Brader:
Well, duh! On earth, you get on the first train available. And on
services that don't require reservations, you get to pick your seat.
I would never reserve in advance unless there was a good reason to do so.

Ian F.:
Well, duh! Obviously I didn't mean local services, which I use on spec most
days. I'm talking about travelling any distance.

So am I.

Why stress yourself out, having to get to the station early enough to queue
for a ticket and then pay top price? Just book it in advance.

Why stress yourself out, having to decide in advance what time to travel
and then having to get to the station in time to catch that train?

Unless the pricing is such as to make the other choice impractical,
that is.


Yes, I agree. I look back with regret to past times when one was able simply
to go to a train station, buy a ticket, and get on the first available train
- more or less whatever one's destination - certainly for journeys less than
an hour or two. Nowadays to get a ticket for a reasonable price it seems one
must plan a journey weeks (or even months) ahead.

Everyone seems to accept this huge inconvenience as normal and necessary -
I've never really understood why. It's one of the reasons I much prefer
travelling by car, politically incorrect though it is.

--
Mike Lane
UK North Yorkshire

Eurostar to Paris
 

Ian F. wrote:

[]
I would never just turn up at a station to get any train without having made
a reservation,

I do it all the time in the UK. I'm not sure if you can do this on
eurostar however... which I thought was the only train service in the UK
which required reservations...

What on earth would the benefits be?

Flexibility.

--
(*) of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
www.davidhorne.net (email address on website)
"The fact is that when I compose I never think of and never
have thought of meeting the listener." -George Perle (RIP 2009)

Eurostar to Paris
 

Ian F. wrote:

Mark Brader" wrote in message
...

Well, duh! On earth, you get on the first train available. And on
services that don't require reservations, you get to pick your seat.
I would never reserve in advance unless there was a good reason to do so.

Well, duh! Obviously I didn't mean local services, which I use on spec most
days. I'm talking about travelling any distance.

I often just turn up for long distance trains in the UK, without a
problem. I'd say I book in advance half the time, other occasions I
can't.

Why stress yourself out, having to get to the station early enough to queue
for a ticket and then pay top price? Just book it in advance.

For leisure travel, yes, but I often need need the flexibility. I never
find buying tickets at train stations here a problem, and the main
stations have plenty of machines. (Indeed, I often wonder why people
queue and assume they have particular questions about tickets, etc.)

Even for leisure travel, the cheap advance purchase tickets may have
disappeared. I couldn't get any cheap tickets for the Barcelona-Valencia
trains for example- not a surprise as it was holy week. This was
compounded by none of their long distance machines working at Sants and
us having to queue for an hour just to get a damn ticket.

--
(*) of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
www.davidhorne.net (email address on website)
"The fact is that when I compose I never think of and never
have thought of meeting the listener." -George Perle (RIP 2009)

Eurostar to Paris
 

Mike Lane wrote:

[]
Yes, I agree. I look back with regret to past times when one was able simply
to go to a train station, buy a ticket, and get on the first available train
- more or less whatever one's destination - certainly for journeys less than
an hour or two.

I have never bought an advance ticket for a journey from Manchester for
less than two hours- even on leisure, the savings wouldn't be enough to
merit it- and on many of the routes advance tickets can't be bought. The
closest journey time where I do often buy advance tickets would be
Manchester-London, which is around 2 hours 5 minutes.

--
(*) of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
www.davidhorne.net (email address on website)
"The fact is that when I compose I never think of and never
have thought of meeting the listener." -George Perle (RIP 2009)

Eurostar to Paris
 

"Martin":
Why ask for advice and then argue with it when you get it?

Why not see if the person asking for the advice is the same person
arguing with it?
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "I don't have a life; I have a program." --the Doctor
| (Michael Piller, Star Trek: Voyager, "Tattoo")

Eurostar to Paris
 

Martin wrote:

On Sun, 19 Apr 2009 09:24:53 +0100, (David Horne, _the_
chancellor (*)) wrote:

Ian F. wrote:

[]
I would never just turn up at a station to get any train without having
made a reservation,

I do it all the time in the UK. I'm not sure if you can do this on
eurostar however... which I thought was the only train service in the UK
which required reservations...

What on earth would the benefits be?

Flexibility.

Not if the train is full.

That's the price paid for flexibility. I've not been on a long distance
train which I couldn't get a seat on for ages.

--
(*) of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
www.davidhorne.net (email address on website)
"The fact is that when I compose I never think of and never
have thought of meeting the listener." -George Perle (RIP 2009)

Eurostar to Paris
 

"David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)" wrote in message
...

I've not been on a long distance
train which I couldn't get a seat on for ages.

Nor have I. Beacuse I book in advance! ;-)

On the odd occasion when I can't travel I have either changed the booking
and paid an additional fee or chucked the ticket away. If the reason I can't
travel is important enough to mean I can't travel, then la-di-dah re. the
money.

Ian

Eurostar to Paris
 

"David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)" wrote in message
...

For leisure travel, yes, but I often need need the flexibility.

I never travel on trains for leisure, always for business. But I plan in
advance and rarely have to make changes. YMMV given your profession, of
course.

I agree re. ticket machines - huge queues at ticket offices, rows of un-used
machines. Most odd.

Ian

Eurostar to Paris
 

Ian F. wrote:

"David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)" wrote in message
...

I've not been on a long distance
train which I couldn't get a seat on for ages.

Nor have I. Beacuse I book in advance! ;-)

That's unfortunately not a guarantee. The only times I've had a problem
with seats has been when the previous service was cancelled- all the
people on that service with reservations would have lost them.

On the odd occasion when I can't travel I have either changed the booking
and paid an additional fee or chucked the ticket away. If the reason I can't
travel is important enough to mean I can't travel, then la-di-dah re. the
money.

I've done the same- bought cheap tickets and then discarded them. But
your original question was that you couldn't see any benefits in just
turning up. Well, maybe you can't, but for me it works all the time- and
affords flexibility and the ability to travel on a whim. As I pointed
out, I often do book in advance when I can commit to particular times.

--
(*) of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
www.davidhorne.net (email address on website)
"The fact is that when I compose I never think of and never
have thought of meeting the listener." -George Perle (RIP 2009)

Eurostar to Paris
 

Ian F. wrote:

"David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)" wrote in message
...

For leisure travel, yes, but I often need need the flexibility.

I never travel on trains for leisure, always for business. But I plan in
advance and rarely have to make changes. YMMV given your profession, of
course.

Yes- a rehearsal might finish early, or a meeting might very well go on
longer than planned- happens all the time. If I do get to the station 90
minutes earlier than planned, then that's an hour of my time wasted.
Once you figure in the savings for an advance ticket, it's often not
worth it. Now, if it's a nice station- not such a problem- if it's
Birmingham New Street....

--
(*) of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
www.davidhorne.net (email address on website)
"The fact is that when I compose I never think of and never
have thought of meeting the listener." -George Perle (RIP 2009)

Eurostar to Paris
 

Martin wrote:

On Sun, 19 Apr 2009 09:31:33 +0100, (David Horne, _the_
chancellor (*)) wrote:

Mike Lane wrote:

[] Yes, I agree. I look back with regret to past times when one was
able simply to go to a train station, buy a ticket, and get on the
first available train - more or less whatever one's destination -
certainly for journeys less than an hour or two.

I have never bought an advance ticket for a journey from Manchester for
less than two hours- even on leisure, the savings wouldn't be enough to
merit it- and on many of the routes advance tickets can't be bought. The
closest journey time where I do often buy advance tickets would be
Manchester-London, which is around 2 hours 5 minutes.

If you start a bit further south of Manchester, where the journey time to
London is under two hours, it is still worth booking in advance. AFAIR it
was you who recommended doing it :o)

Indeed it is, but I was being specific to Manchester. It's always worth
booking in advance when you don't mind being inflexible, and for leisure
travel that's often the case. I'm simply pointing out that there are
plenty of reasons which I (and other travellers have) for not booking
advance at times.

--
(*) of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
www.davidhorne.net (email address on website)
"The fact is that when I compose I never think of and never
have thought of meeting the listener." -George Perle (RIP 2009)

Eurostar to Paris
 

In message , Ian F.
writes
"Spencer" wrote in message
...

I plan to travel from London to Paris on a Sunday in September. I
will arrive in London, ex Oxford, about 11am and see there are
Eurostar trains at 12.02, 12.29 and 13.00. I wonder if is necessary
to book in advance or just get to St Pancras as quickly as possible
and buy a ticket then? Are there any cost advantages either way?
Any comments will be appreciated.

I would never just turn up at a station to get any train without having
made a reservation, let alone for an international service. What on
earth would the benefits be?

In any event, the cheapest tickets are always the ones paid for in
advance. If you just turn up you would probably have to pay full price.
Buy them now online then relax, safe in the knowledge that your trip is
booked.

Ian
Yes, book in advance for the cheapest tickets, and remember to check if
the return tickets are cheaper than the singles.

And allow time for your Oxford train to be late, especially on a Sunday
when they do repairs to the rail lines. The 13.00 is probably the one
to go for.
--
---
Sheila Page

Eurostar to Paris
 

Martin wrote:

On Sun, 19 Apr 2009 09:58:09 +0100, (David Horne, _the_
chancellor (*)) wrote:

Martin wrote:

On Sun, 19 Apr 2009 09:31:33 +0100, (David Horne, _the_
chancellor (*)) wrote:

Mike Lane wrote:

[] Yes, I agree. I look back with regret to past times when one was
able simply to go to a train station, buy a ticket, and get on the
first available train - more or less whatever one's destination -
certainly for journeys less than an hour or two.

I have never bought an advance ticket for a journey from Manchester for
less than two hours- even on leisure, the savings wouldn't be enough to
merit it- and on many of the routes advance tickets can't be bought. The
closest journey time where I do often buy advance tickets would be
Manchester-London, which is around 2 hours 5 minutes.

If you start a bit further south of Manchester, where the journey time to
London is under two hours, it is still worth booking in advance. AFAIR it
was you who recommended doing it :o)

Indeed it is, but I was being specific to Manchester. It's always worth
booking in advance when you don't mind being inflexible, and for leisure
travel that's often the case. I'm simply pointing out that there are
plenty of reasons which I (and other travellers have) for not booking
advance at times.

Your two hour rule is too rigid.

I wasn't making any rule, I was responding to another poster's "hour or
two" comment, which doesn't apply from Manchester.

It's worth booking in advance, whenever there
is a substantial fare saving to be made.

No- it's worth booking in advance whenever there is a substantial fare
saving to be made, _and_ when you can be flexible.

--
(*) of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
www.davidhorne.net (email address on website)
"The fact is that when I compose I never think of and never
have thought of meeting the listener." -George Perle (RIP 2009)

Eurostar to Paris
 

On Apr 18, 11:44*pm, Spencer wrote:
Hi
I plan to travel from London to Paris on a Sunday in September. I will
arrive in London, ex Oxford, about 11am and see there are Eurostar
trains at 12.02, 12.29 and 13.00. I wonder if is necessary to book in
advance or just get to St Pancras as quickly as possible and buy a
ticket then? Are there any cost advantages either way?
Any comments will be appreciated.
Akarana

Have you tried the eurostar booking website? I ask because September
is quite a ways off right now and sometimes when I've tried to book a
ticket so well in advance, I haven't been able to because of my
earliness.
The main advantage of booking in advance is for cheaper fare. Allow at
least 2 weeks prior to departure to try and secure a cheap rate.

The other advantage is availability (within desired budget). Often,
trying to book a cheapie, say, 3 weeks in advance, has resulted in
been unable to get said ticket for desired time because all said
tickets are sold out.

One other pint which may not need mentioning is that the eurostar
website can, on occasion, take on the manner of a con-artist.
Recently, I wanted to book a special offer, so I clicked on the
specific special offer link. Brussels-London for just 59 euro p/p
return. I filled in the forms specifying my preferred dates and time
of journey (I was nearly a month in advance) and was surprised to be
asked for 730 euro, despite having selected the cheap fare options.

Eurostar to Paris
 

"aquachimp" wrote in message
...

One other pint which may not need mentioning

Pints always need mentioning! Just two hours until my first one! ;-)

Ian

Eurostar to Paris
 

On Apr 18, 11:44*pm, Spencer wrote:
Hi
I plan to travel from London to Paris on a Sunday in September. I will
arrive in London, ex Oxford, about 11am and see there are Eurostar
trains at 12.02, 12.29 and 13.00. I wonder if is necessary to book in
advance or just get to St Pancras as quickly as possible and buy a
ticket then? Are there any cost advantages either way?
Any comments will be appreciated.
Akarana

I read somewhere that it was cheaper if you were from particular
countries !

might have been here

http://www.seat61.com/

Eurostar to Paris
 

On Apr 19, 12:35*pm, Martin wrote:
On Sun, 19 Apr 2009 11:32:34 +0100, "Ian F."
wrote:

"aquachimp" wrote in message
...

One other pint which may not need mentioning

Pints always need mentioning! Just two hours until my first one! ;-)

I'm envious. :o)
--

Martin

Nah, just back from a Chinese with the Mrs. I had a couple of colas,
BB spare ribs, Chicken Ti pan, "Chinese" tea with a little two-tier
tray of pralines, fudge and biscuits. She had other stuff. All for
55.70 euro.
Then as we left we were handed a bottle of kuei hua chen chiew,
gratis. (-:

Eurostar to Paris
 

"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 19 Apr 2009 09:24:53 +0100, (David Horne, _the_
chancellor (*)) wrote:

Ian F. wrote:

[]
I would never just turn up at a station to get any train without having
made
a reservation,

I do it all the time in the UK. I'm not sure if you can do this on
eurostar however... which I thought was the only train service in the UK
which required reservations...

What on earth would the benefits be?

Flexibility.

Not if the train is full.

you still have a choice - that of between standing or waiting for the next
and getting a seat.

It might not be a great choice, but it's better than the one you get with a
AP ticket

tim

Eurostar to Paris
 

"aquachimp" wrote in message
...
On Apr 18, 11:44 pm, Spencer wrote:
Hi
I plan to travel from London to Paris on a Sunday in September. I will
arrive in London, ex Oxford, about 11am and see there are Eurostar
trains at 12.02, 12.29 and 13.00. I wonder if is necessary to book in
advance or just get to St Pancras as quickly as possible and buy a
ticket then? Are there any cost advantages either way?
Any comments will be appreciated.
Akarana

Have you tried the eurostar booking website? I ask because September
is quite a ways off right now and sometimes when I've tried to book a
ticket so well in advance, I haven't been able to because of my
earliness.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ES only allows bookings 90 (or is it 60?) days in advance, except for the
"holiday" specials where the booking period is longer.

tim

Eurostar to Paris
 

Ah we had to get martin in there, didn't we ?

"Martin" a écrit dans le message de
...
On Sun, 19 Apr 2009 02:10:37 -0500, (Mark Brader) wrote:

Mark Brader:
Well, duh! On earth, you get on the first train available. And on
services that don't require reservations, you get to pick your seat.
I would never reserve in advance unless there was a good reason to do
so.

Ian F.:
Well, duh! Obviously I didn't mean local services, which I use on spec
most
days. I'm talking about travelling any distance.

So am I.

Why stress yourself out, having to get to the station early enough to
queue
for a ticket and then pay top price? Just book it in advance.

Why stress yourself out, having to decide in advance what time to travel
and then having to get to the station in time to catch that train?

Unless the pricing is such as to make the other choice impractical,
that is.

Why ask for advice and then argue with it when you get it?
--

Martin

martin always competing for the longest, most useless thread
 

"Martin" a écrit dans le message de
...
On Sun, 19 Apr 2009 11:32:34 +0100, "Ian F."
wrote:

"aquachimp" wrote in message
...

One other pint which may not need mentioning

Pints always need mentioning! Just two hours until my first one! ;-)

Buy everybody a pint and the world's your oyster.
--

Martin

Eurostar to Paris
 

Oh dear.

"tim....." a écrit dans le message de
...

"aquachimp" wrote in message
...
On Apr 18, 11:44 pm, Spencer wrote:
Hi
I plan to travel from London to Paris on a Sunday in September. I will
arrive in London, ex Oxford, about 11am and see there are Eurostar
trains at 12.02, 12.29 and 13.00. I wonder if is necessary to book in
advance or just get to St Pancras as quickly as possible and buy a
ticket then? Are there any cost advantages either way?
Any comments will be appreciated.
Akarana

Have you tried the eurostar booking website? I ask because September
is quite a ways off right now and sometimes when I've tried to book a
ticket so well in advance, I haven't been able to because of my
earliness.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ES only allows bookings 90 (or is it 60?) days in advance, except for the
"holiday" specials where the booking period is longer.

tim

Eurostar to Paris
 

On Sun, 19 Apr 2009 08:06:32 +0100, "Ian F."
wrote:

Mark Brader" wrote in message
...

Well, duh! On earth, you get on the first train available. And on
services that don't require reservations, you get to pick your seat.
I would never reserve in advance unless there was a good reason to do so.

Well, duh! Obviously I didn't mean local services, which I use on spec most
days. I'm talking about travelling any distance.

Why stress yourself out, having to get to the station early enough to queue
for a ticket and then pay top price? Just book it in advance.

I've had no problem buying ICE tickets in Germany the day of my
departure. Cheap advanced tickets weren't a factor, though, as I
had a BahnCard50.

--
************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

Eurostar to Paris
 

On Sun, 19 Apr 2009 10:42:33 +0200, Martin
wrote:

On Sun, 19 Apr 2009 03:32:04 -0500, (Mark Brader) wrote:

"Martin":
Why ask for advice and then argue with it when you get it?

Why not see if the person asking for the advice is the same person
arguing with it?

because you weren't interested in the advice you got?

Mark didn't ask for advice...

--
************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

Eurostar to Paris
 

Hatunen wrote:
On Sun, 19 Apr 2009 08:06:32 +0100, "Ian F."
wrote:


Mark Brader" wrote in message
.. .

Well, duh! On earth, you get on the first train available. And on
services that don't require reservations, you get to pick your seat.
I would never reserve in advance unless there was a good reason to do so.

Well, duh! Obviously I didn't mean local services, which I use on spec most
days. I'm talking about travelling any distance.

Why stress yourself out, having to get to the station early enough to queue
for a ticket and then pay top price? Just book it in advance.


I've had no problem buying ICE tickets in Germany the day of my
departure. Cheap advanced tickets weren't a factor, though, as I
had a BahnCard50.

Thanks all. Lots of comments, some well worthwhile.
Cheers
AKARANA

Eurostar to Paris
 

David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*) wrote:

It's worth booking in advance, whenever there
is a substantial fare saving to be made.

No- it's worth booking in advance whenever there is a substantial fare
saving to be made, _and_ when you can be flexible.

I've never done this, but what about of you're sick on the day, or
otherwise change your plans. Can you get a full refund?

Eurostar to Paris
 

Mike O'Sullivan wrote:

David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*) wrote:

It's worth booking in advance, whenever there
is a substantial fare saving to be made.

No- it's worth booking in advance whenever there is a substantial fare
saving to be made, _and_ when you can be flexible.

I've never done this, but what about of you're sick on the day, or
otherwise change your plans. Can you get a full refund?

Good question- I imagine no if you don't have insurance, but you're
usually offered the choice of fairly cheap insurance when you buy your
ticket, and I imagine if you took that out, you'd be covered. I believe
it would also cover you for costs of running late (e.g. if you miss a
concert you had tickets for etc.)

--
(*) of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
www.davidhorne.net (email address on website)
"The fact is that when I compose I never think of and never
have thought of meeting the listener." -George Perle (RIP 2009)

Eurostar to Paris
 

On Mon, 20 Apr 2009 07:29:44 +0100, David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)
wroteÂ*:


I've never done this, but what about of you're sick on the day, or
otherwise change your plans. Can you get a full refund?

Train reservation systems will offer you both cheap non refundable
tickets and more expensive exchangeable refundable tickets.

Eurostar to Paris
 

In article , Spencer
writes

Thanks all. Lots of comments, some well worthwhile.

As others have said, booking as far in advance as possible might give
you big savings. The amount might depend on how popular your time of
travel is, for example, a weekend or public holiday. I once looked at
Eurostar fares for the following morning - the cheapest return fare from
London to Paris I could find was about UKP350 per person, and flights
were about the same. But just now I've checked fares for tomorrow for
around the time you're thinking of, and the return fare per person is
UKP160.
--
congokid
Eating out in London? Read my tips...
http://congokid.com

Eurostar to Paris
 

In article , "David Horne,
_the_ chancellor (*)" writes

stations have plenty of machines. (Indeed, I often wonder why people
queue and assume they have particular questions about tickets, etc.)

I find that the queues for the ticket machines move more slowly than
that for the ticket office windows - at least at Marylebone Station.
Here there's one queue per machine, and if you join a queue that turns
slow it's difficult to move to a faster one, whereas there are often 3-5
staff on hand at the ticket office.

I think slightly different systems operate at other stations. Victoria
is similar to above, but at Kings Cross isn't there a single queue for
all the ticket machines?
--
congokid
Eating out in London? Read my tips...
http://congokid.com

Eurostar to Paris
 

Martin wrote:

On 20 Apr 2009 09:08:51 GMT, JuanElorza wrote:

On Mon, 20 Apr 2009 07:29:44 +0100, David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*)
wrote :


I've never done this, but what about of you're sick on the day, or
otherwise change your plans. Can you get a full refund?

Train reservation systems will offer you both cheap non refundable
tickets and more expensive exchangeable refundable tickets.

David's question is as applicable to cut price air fares.

It wasn't my question! :)

--
(*) of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
www.davidhorne.net (email address on website)
"The fact is that when I compose I never think of and never
have thought of meeting the listener." -George Perle (RIP 2009)

Eurostar to Paris
 

congokid wrote:

In article , "David Horne,
_the_ chancellor (*)" writes

stations have plenty of machines. (Indeed, I often wonder why people
queue and assume they have particular questions about tickets, etc.)

I find that the queues for the ticket machines move more slowly than
that for the ticket office windows - at least at Marylebone Station.

If so, it makes sense to use the ticket window, but I'm talking about
stations where the opposite is the case.

--
(*) of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
www.davidhorne.net (email address on website)
"The fact is that when I compose I never think of and never
have thought of meeting the listener." -George Perle (RIP 2009)

Eurostar to Paris
 

On Apr 18, 11:44*pm, Spencer wrote:
Hi
I plan to travel from London to Paris on a Sunday in September. I will
arrive in London, ex Oxford, about 11am and see there are Eurostar
trains at 12.02, 12.29 and 13.00. I wonder if is necessary to book in
advance or just get to St Pancras as quickly as possible and buy a
ticket then? Are there any cost advantages either way?
Any comments will be appreciated.
Akarana

I've got an add question to this one.

I note that if you travel to or from any train station in Belgium, the
ES ticket price will be inclusive of the train to get to and from
Brussels.
So, if you travel to Belgium, arrive in Brussels, you can then
continue onto, say, Brugge, without paying extra.
It would be like being able to go from Oxford to London and off to
Brussels with an all in one ticket, except off course in reality you
can't.

What I would like to know is does the same deal go when travelling to
France

Eurostar to Paris
 

In message
,
aquachimp writes
On Apr 18, 11:44*pm, Spencer wrote:
Hi
I plan to travel from London to Paris on a Sunday in September. I will
arrive in London, ex Oxford, about 11am and see there are Eurostar
trains at 12.02, 12.29 and 13.00. I wonder if is necessary to book in
advance or just get to St Pancras as quickly as possible and buy a
ticket then? Are there any cost advantages either way?
Any comments will be appreciated.
Akarana

I've got an add question to this one.

I note that if you travel to or from any train station in Belgium, the
ES ticket price will be inclusive of the train to get to and from
Brussels.
So, if you travel to Belgium, arrive in Brussels, you can then
continue onto, say, Brugge, without paying extra.
It would be like being able to go from Oxford to London and off to
Brussels with an all in one ticket, except off course in reality you
can't.

What I would like to know is does the same deal go when travelling to
France
No,


--
---
Sheila Page