Confused about Eurostar
 

On Britrail's website they give a phone number to call with questions. When I called I talked with someone in Montreal who works for a third party.

I want to get a Britrail pass combined with a Eurostar ticket. Through Britrail's third party, I was quoted a one-way price of $99 or $129 RT. She stated that the Passholder rate was higher than the one she was quoting me. On Eurostar's website, they quote $75 (passholder) for a one way ticket. $129 is a good price for a RT ticket, but I'm only going one way.

What's the best way to book both a Britrail pass and Eurostar ticket in advance? How do they get the tickets to us here in the States? Are there added fees to the online quoted rates? We want to book sometime in the next two weeks. Thanks.

Rail Europe can handle all of that for you (www.raileurope.com and there's a phone number on the website, if you'd prefer to call), but they do charge some steep shipping fees.

Better than RailEurope is Budget Europe, in Ann Arbor MI, a Rail Europe agent whose staffers definitely will be able to answer all your questions. (800-441-9413). I've dealt with them for years and bought Eurostar tickets and passes - they've booked Eurostar tickets for years. It's really rare these days to be able to talk to anyone who knows anything, but believe me they do. Anyway, a pass holder fare is $75 and a BritRail qualifies. (Did you consider the relatively new BritEngland pass for travel only inside England?) Budget Europe sends out an actual reservation ticket with a seat and car number on it and then at check in you just feed the ticket thru the machine. (For passholder fare your railpass must still be valid - on a flexipass the two month period or on a consecutive day one the consecutive days). There is a $15 booking fee. RailEurope i believe also charges a $15 mailing fee, but Budget Europe and some other RailEurope agents do not. eurostar tickets can be booked up to 9 months in advance. Passholder fares are in limited allotment on some trains so advance booking is essential to guarantee passage at that fare. Currently US prices thru RailEurope or their agents are significantly cheaper than in the UK (compare on www.eurostar.co.uk - plus one ways don't seem possible on that site as of course most Brits obviously go round trip. Maybe the Montreal office was quoting you Canadian loonies.

"There is a $15 booking fee. RailEurope i believe also charges a $15 mailing fee, but Budget Europe and some other RailEurope agents do not. "
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Budget Europe does have a $15 fee? Or does not? I thought the advantage of dealing with them was that you didn't have to pay the fee. Or is budget Europe different from BETS.

It you pick up the ticket from Budget Europe, do you still have to pay the $15?

Budget Europe Travel Service (BETS) is the same as Budget Europe. They charge RailEurope's $15 per order booking fee for all the eurostar reservations (not per reservation) but don't charge the additional $15 mailing fee that i believe RailEurope charges along with the $15 booking fee.

Oh ok. Based on the Rail Europe site, the $15 is the shipping fee. But, they don't have any other $15 fees. They charge a $7 premier train fee, but I think that is standard. Sounds like BETS is charging the same prices as Rail Europe then. I was thinking (hoping!) I was about to get a deal:)

I bought my tickets when I was there in Paris for the $75. Might be a better option than to pay for the all the extra fees.

Might be a better option depending on the day you travel and how far in advance you do it. There are simply no pass holder fares available on some days and this is why they should be booked in advance to guarantee one the day you want. But slack days yes probably get at gate. When did you buy the $75 pass fare - last Sep in France i asked at a station and they said a pass holder fare would be about $95 - also when did you buy as the exchange rate has plummeted in recent months. Pass holder fares can be changed once in Europe without charge.

As it turns out, the Britrail pass I want does not qualify for the Eurostar discount, so we are buying two one-way tickets between London and Paris. I've searched Eurostar's website and they state that they will mail the tickets, or we can pay 5BP for special delivery. As they were quoting dollars for the cost of the tickets, will they mail to the U.S.? Has anyone ordered tickets through their website and gotten tickets in advance? The other option is to buy the tickets and pick them up there at the self service machine.

By the way, the one way fare quoted for the day/time we want is $90, and tickets are available 90 days in advance.

Thanks all for your input.

Here is my experience with a Eurostar fare.
Message: I'll share my 2 cents worth as I have just completed travel plans that examined all aspects of getting to Paris from London.
With the help of many on this board I finalised travel that starts from LGW.
as we arr.at 06:30 and continue by Thameslink train to London Bridge change to South East train to Waterloo East and walk to Waterloo International for train #9018 at 10:39am arr. Gare du Nord 14:17.
Bought Leisure 1Day returns as they were the cheapest that would allow travel before 11am and use only outbound portion.
Contrary to some that post here RailEurope was cheaper than what I could find on Eurostar and total price included mailing and reservation delivered to my home.
I spent a lot of time using a variety of departure spots including Luton, Stansted,Heathrow and this was the easiest and suited our schedule.
As Gatwick was not included in other posts, now you have a bigger picture to hopefully arrive at what suits your travel plans.

Just wanted to let people know that I went through the whole adding up the tickets and fees for Eurostar again. Now I am realizing that if you let eurostar.com identify you as a person from the US, you can get tickets for as little as $90 with no additional booking fees (for me, its going to cost $105, but that's because I want to leave in the morning on a Tues- I can't wait until the noon train). I assume this is the equivalent to Rail Europe's leisure fare, however, you are not paying the $7 premier train fee or the $15 shipping fee.

With the $ being in the toilet, it just doesn't make sense to sign on as a British user in this situation.

Just an FYI for anyone looking for a fare.

Just an update to let you know our plans at the moment.

PalQ, I took your advice and called Budget Europe in Michigan and spoke with Linda. I was impressed with the amount of time she took to assist us. They are holding seats for us on the Eurostar, and we are deciding on what passes we want to buy in addition to the Eurostar tickets.

We are paying $90 each for the Eurostar -- the same figure quoted on www.eurostar.com. Linda will help us with seat assignments. Budget Europe will charge us a one-time $15 fee for booking the tickets -- that's for the order, not per ticket. In addition, if we spend at least $250, they will waive the $5 mailing fee. Package will be sent certified mail.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will post here again once the transaction is complete to let all of you know how it went.

By the way, I sent an email question to Eurostar and they responded saying that someone would be addressing my question shortly. In the meantime, I got my answer. If I wanted Eurostar to send my tickets to me by special delivery, it would have to be sent to the same address as my billing address. As I am not home to accept the package, I would have wanted it sent to my work address. Just one more reason I'm happy to work with Budget Europe.

luvtotravel, are the tickets refundable that you bought? Or exchangable for a different time? If they were, I would definitely pay the extra $5 to get them from Budget Europe.

Thanks.

ewt: the tickets are non-refundable.

ewt, I can't figure out how to let eurostar.com classify me as an American to purchase the ticket. Can you tell me how?

Hi Maureen,

I think you have to clear your cookies. You probably set it up so you would be identified as a British customer previously, so you are receiving your rate in GBP. Anyway, clear your cookies, then shut down your internet browser. Reopen it and go to eurostar.com. It should ask you what country you are from. Say U.S.

Rates will come up in $ and you will notice that there are a lot of seats that are $45 or $60 if you are trying to book roundtrip.

Good luck! Let me know if you have any more questions.

Thanks, ewt, I'll try it. I needed to clear my cookies anyway!

It worked like a charm, ewt. Comparison shopping, I found Budget Europe to be $270 for two adults and two youths, vs. eurostar.com's price of $390 for same. So even with the $15 fee, I'm way ahed with Budget Europe. Besides, it's nice to deal with a live body on the phone who can answer questions. Thanks, again.

Another update to let everyone know that Linda at Budget Europe was great. We received our travel documents -- sent certified mail. I would work with them again. Very personal service. The internet is great, but sometimes I like to work things out with a person.

Britrail responded promptly to my email question. They will not send tickets in advance outside the U.K. We would have needed to pick up our tickets at the station.

PalQ, what is this "BritEngland" pass you mention? I googled it, and the only thing Google came up with was your posting ;) I'd like to know more about it.