A couple Eurostar questions

On 21 Aug 2006 22:48:33 -0700, "drevil0208"
wrote:

My wife and I are planning a holiday to England for early next year...
instead of flying to London we're contemplating flying into Paris and a
couple of days later taking the Eurostar to London...

What I was wondering is.... if you book directly with Eurostar (ie.
calling them on the phone), can you request specific seating? I was
going to book through Rail Europe (it is a *little* bit cheaper), but
they say you cannot request a forward facing seat due to the fact that
the trains sometimes change direction. I think that's incorrect
because I understood that Eurostars always face the same direction (as
they have markers on the platforms for each coach).

Does anyone have any experience booking with Eurostar over the phone?
Are the agents good at providing specific seating (ie. forward facing
by a window... not a pillar!)?

In my experience you can have window or aisle, but not direction. Note
that not all the window seats actually have a real view out!

You can book online at the Eurostar website, as an alternative to Rail
Europe.

Also, we will be travelling on a Sunday in Februrary. I cannot check
fares yet on Eurostar's website for February, so I checked a Sunday in
October. Should the fare be roughly the same?

And one last question... we will both have BritRail passes. It says on
the Eurostar website that you can get a "Passholder's Fare". Can we
get this even if our passes have not been activated yet? (ie. we won't
be in England, until after our Eurostar journey)?

If you know which trains you want, it might be worth checking if a
normal ticket is cheaper than the passholders fare for that service.
Sometimes pass holders faires give extra flexibility, rather than
simply a % discount.
--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

Arthur Figgis wrote:

You can book online at the Eurostar website, as an alternative to Rail
Europe.

Just to add to what others have written, you can book on
www.eurostar.com up to 120 days before your *complete* journey (i.e. the
return date). This is a bit of a pain if you are staying at the
destination for a few days, because you can't book the outward half at
the earliest opportunity.

Look at the calendar in the booking section. It goes only up to the last
available booking day (today, that's 20 December). Check when it clicks
over to the next day (I think that may be at 2359 CET each day, so
earlier in the US) and that's the time to do your booking. Try some
experiments with a dummy booking to check this point - and the fares.

Incidentally, many people (myself included) think it's worth paying the
extra to go first class, provided you can get the cheapest first class
fares.

Enjoy your trip.

Regards

Jonathan

On Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:34:32 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message , at 11:30:48 on
Tue, 22 Aug 2006, Hatunen remarked:
A pass, or a validated pass? They don't become "active" until stamped by
a UK ticket office, and he won't be in the UK until after his E* trip.

Hm. So a passholder discount doesn't work if starting from Paris?

I don't know. I think you are going to have to ask E*.

Eurostar from Paris is handled by SNCF, but I see no mention of
Britrail or Eurailpasses at their web pages.

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

On Tue, 22 Aug 2006 21:24:23 +0100, Jonathan Morton
wrote:

Incidentally, many people (myself included) think it's worth paying the
extra to go first class, provided you can get the cheapest first class
fares.

I see little point in paying for first class on a trip that lasts
less than three hours. Standard class isn't all that
uncomfortable. And surely the meal isn't worth the difference in
price.


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

Jonathan Morton wrote:
Arthur Figgis wrote:

You can book online at the Eurostar website, as an alternative to Rail
Europe.

Just to add to what others have written, you can book on
www.eurostar.com up to 120 days before your *complete* journey (i.e. the
return date). This is a bit of a pain if you are staying at the
destination for a few days, because you can't book the outward half at
the earliest opportunity.

Look at the calendar in the booking section. It goes only up to the last
available booking day (today, that's 20 December). Check when it clicks
over to the next day (I think that may be at 2359 CET each day, so
earlier in the US) and that's the time to do your booking. Try some
experiments with a dummy booking to check this point - and the fares.

Is it possible to book more than 120 days in advance if you call them?

Also, I just found it in the FAQ that you can request a specific seat
if you book with them by phone:

"Please note:
All telephone bookings are subject to a £5 booking fee. This does
allow you to be selective with your seating and give you the
opportunity to speak with one of our knowledgeable sales team who will
be able to offer you advice on your travel arrangements"

So I guess you can request a specific seat in a specific coach... which
is why you pay the £5... I think it's well worth the little extra to
get a good seat.

Nick

Nick
Nick

drevil0208 wrote:

All telephone bookings are subject to a £5 booking fee. This does
allow you to be selective with your seating and give you the
opportunity to speak with one of our knowledgeable sales team who will
be able to offer you advice on your travel arrangements"

So I guess you can request a specific seat in a specific coach... which
is why you pay the £5... I think it's well worth the little extra to
get a good seat.


I hadn't heard about that but my experience on Eurostar has been that
the earlier you book the worse seat you get - they seem to start by
filling all the backward-facing seats with no view, and save the table
seats for groups of 4 who don't always materialise. However, the trains
are rarely full and if you ask the chef du bord (guard) he can tell you
which seats are empty for the whole journey, so you can find better seats.

Simon

On Tue, 22 Aug 2006 13:31:58 -0700, Hatunen wrote:
On Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:34:32 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:
In message , at 11:30:48 on
Tue, 22 Aug 2006, Hatunen remarked:
A pass, or a validated pass? They don't become "active" until stamped by
a UK ticket office, and he won't be in the UK until after his E* trip.

Hm. So a passholder discount doesn't work if starting from Paris?

I don't know. I think you are going to have to ask E*.

Eurostar from Paris is handled by SNCF, but I see no mention of
Britrail or Eurailpasses at their web pages.

That doesn't mean it's not valid. It is according to NMBS, who also sell
London - Paris:
http://alg-voorw.b-rail.be/pdf/NL0303002035%20Eurostar%20Pass%20Hold%20Semi%20Fle x_01082006.pdf
The pass has to be validated indeed.

Regards,

Rian

--
Rian van der Borgt, Leuven, Belgium.
e-mail: www: http://www.evonet.be/~rvdborgt/

On Tue, 22 Aug 2006 22:54:02 GMT, Simon Geller wrote:
I hadn't heard about that but my experience on Eurostar has been that
the earlier you book the worse seat you get - they seem to start by
filling all the backward-facing seats with no view, and save the table
seats for groups of 4 who don't always materialise.

From what I've noticed, Eurostar start to fill a coach from one side,
but I'm not sure if that means they always start at the Brussel/Paris or
London side, or that they start at the front of the train in the
direction of travel. The latter should indeed mean that in each coach,
the backward-facing seats are filled first.

Regards,

Rian

--
Rian van der Borgt, Leuven, Belgium.
e-mail: www: http://www.evonet.be/~rvdborgt/

On Tue, 22 Aug 2006 13:43:20 -0700, Hatunen wrote:

On Tue, 22 Aug 2006 21:24:23 +0100, Jonathan Morton
wrote:

Incidentally, many people (myself included) think it's worth paying the
extra to go first class, provided you can get the cheapest first class
fares.

I see little point in paying for first class on a trip that lasts
less than three hours. Standard class isn't all that
uncomfortable. And surely the meal isn't worth the difference in
price.

It is probably worth the extra if you can get a cheap ticket. In the
past I've got a non-flexible first class ticket for within GBP10 of
the only seats availabe in steerage. It saves finding something to eat
at the destination, passes the time onboard, and/or you can easily
drink that much booze in the time :-)
--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

In message , at 13:43:20 on
Tue, 22 Aug 2006, Hatunen remarked:

I see little point in paying for first class on a trip that lasts
less than three hours. Standard class isn't all that
uncomfortable.

The same argument would apply to most journeys in the UK, but people
still choose First Class. In my experience, E* Standard class can be
extremely crowded and noisy, so it depends what standard of comfort we
are talking about

And surely the meal isn't worth the difference in price.

Partly it's whether or not you can get a different meal at all. At the
stations and the on-train buffet it's just coffee and snacks, and once
you've arrived at the far end surely you want to continue to your
ultimate destination, not delay at some restaurant near the station.
--
Roland Perry