Eurostar - London to Paris - US$ fare?
 

I am trying to book the London to Paris Chunnel train - it is quoting me the fair in US$ (which I assume has been converted from pounds to US$) - I'm in Canada - and would rather pay in pounds directly - rather than converting from pounds to US dollars to Canadian dollars.

Am I missing something?

What site did you go to? The British site quotes the fare in sterling...in the past the cheapest return fare has been £59 with all sorts of restrictions (non refundable, changeable, books a set number of days in advance, Saturday nite stay over required etc.)

FYI: If you're just going one-way it is sometimes cheaper to purchase a rountrip and throw away the return portion. At least, that was true last November.

Hi Pam,

Good advice from kswl.

The first time you went to the site and it asked you your country of residence, did you enter Canada?

The site sends your computer a cookie and remembers you.

To get rid of the cookie, click on "tools", "options", "delete cookies".

It will remove all of your cookies, so you will have to reenter them at you various sites, including this one.

Also check with www.raileurope.com, sometimes they are cheaper than www.eurostar.com.

((I))

You don't have to delete all of your cookies. Go here:

Tools | Internet Options | Privacy | Sites

And you can enable, disable, or delete cookies from any individual site. Just find eurostar.com and click "Remove."

Hi Robe,

Thanks for the tip.

I have windows 98. the route is
Tools - options - privacy - edit

You're most welcome.

The route is browser- (not os-) specific.

Good advice about being careful booking on line - I'm waiting now for a refund of tickets for 4 (I had chosen full fare - expensive - because sometimes work or life makes me change even the best plans). I had thought I was booking direct w/raileurope and somehow -i'll never figure out how - I had gone "thru an agency". Had to go back and find a phone number which turned out to be a Chicago travel agency - huh? - which had taken my money. RailEurope NY office has told me they're in the process of refunding, but that I probably should have booked directly with them (but, I thought I did!!) Maybe I was cookie'd or something???
Looks to me like I may lose some funds (about $50) for some travel protection charge, but I'm coming clean as a heads up for everyone else.
I always book my own arrangements for fun travel, so if I got caught, I think it was pretty well done. The tickets & info with them never indicated anywhere that an agency was involved! (did I mention that the phone number referenced on my credit card statement has suddenly been disconnected??? That shook me up a trifle..)
So, good luck - I'm hoping to revive the plans in 2006, and will be watching carefully how I book!

Hi JA,

>...I had gone "thru an agency"...<

That is really odd.

((I))

....and here`s a big big price difference between SNCF site and Rail Europe (Canadian site). The quote on First Class return ticket Paris to Caen the same day is $75 Canadian. Go to Rail Europe and it`s $180 Canadian. I believe in companies making a profit, but this is outrageous. I`m visiting the D Day beaches in November and glad I did some checking. And thanks to IRA.........I shall be printing off my own tickets.

Raileurope does have a markup, but it's not quite that bad. The main reason for differences like that is that Raileurope doesn't sell the nonrefundable super-discount PREM tickets. There isn't that kind of price difference comparing the same kind of regular ticket (for which the SNCF price is really 83 euro rather than 121 euro, which is 180 CAD). This is still a large markup (121 compared to 83 euro), but the 50 euro SNCF RT tickets are nonrefundable PREMs. If you know your exact dates and times, those are excellent.

>..This is still a large markup (121 compared to 83 euro), ...<

Darn right. 45% is a very large markup.

((I))

Before booking on eurostar make sure you are absolutely sure of the dates of travel -- no refunds. Just an FYI and have a great trip!!