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

"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

"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

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

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.

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

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)

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)

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)

"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")