Eurostar Question - Where are you experts on this topic?
 

We are thinking of taking the Eurostar from Paris to London for the day (on a weekday, 11/22 to be exact). I have two questions that I don't see answered on the website.

1. Can you just show up at Gare du Nord, buy a ticket and board or must you book in advance?

2. When I price the trip online, why, pray tell, is the price for a Senior and the price for a youth more expensive than for an adult? Can I just buy 3 adults instead of breaking it down into youth and senior?

Thanks for helping me out.

On raileurope.com a child's ticket is $38 (second class) and an adult is $120 (Leisure 1 Plan). Odd that a Senior ticket would be more.

If you're returning to Paris, the tickets are cheaper each way. The above is for one way only.

Reservations are compulsory on this train but there's nothing saying you can't go to the station and buy a ticket/reservation on the next train. If seats are available.

As I recall they do want you checked in at the station well ahead of time.

I have only caught the Eurostar at Bruxelles Midi and London Waterloo, but I am assuming the Paris process would be the same. In both places tickets are read only by a machine, which does not enquire about ones age. So I see no reason why you could not buy an adult ticket for a student or senior.

There were plenty of empty seats on the two trains I was on last week; I am sure they would have been glad to sell more tickets at the last minute.

Thanks for the info. I see that if you book on the US site, they do not ask for ages, just number of passengers with the option of breaking out a child, 4-11 years of age. On the main Eurostar site, they break it down into 4 age categories.

I cannot imagine why the price for an adult was $47, for a youth was $75 and a Senior was $90 on the outbound portion of the ticket. Child's price was $38 on all legs of the ticket.

Becareful purchasing from European Rail.com I specifically stated that I wanted ONE WAY tickets on Eurostar from London to Paris and was sent round trips. I know some RTs are less expensive, you just don't use the return portion of the ticket. However, these would have been cheaper as one ways. I didn't open the tickets for a couple of days and by then it was too late to complain or change anything. Our tickets were pretty expensive to begin with---they seemed much higher than Rail Europe, which is in the States. We also had to pay an exhorbitant fee for fed-exing the tickets.

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1. Can you just show up at Gare du Nord, buy a ticket and board or must you book in advance?
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You can buy at the eurostar ticket office just before you travel but this is not recommended for the same reasons people usually don't just show up at the airport to buy tickets for their plane journey (lower cost when booking ahead, risk that it's booked, etc).

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2. When I price the trip online, why, pray tell, is the price for a Senior and the price for a youth more expensive than for an adult? Can I just buy 3 adults instead of breaking it down into youth and senior?
<<<<<

trying to make sense of eurostar fares is like trying to make sense of airline fares.

In summary, for most purposes, treat a trip on the eurostar as you would a plane journey rather than a ride on a metro/subway/tube.

I don't know about Question 2, but do *not* show up and buy a ticket. You may pay through the nose. The tickets are priced like airline tickets. When I did this in July, I missed my train. The next train I could take would have been 150 pounds. (I chose to wait.)

Also, pay attention to the cancelation and change policies, if you expect plans to change -- some tickets are nonrefundable and not changeable.

If you buy a ticket online, try the UK website -- it may be cheaper -- see this thread:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...p;tid=34510103

Delete all your cookies from your browser if you want to start afresh as if you're living in the UK.

Hi crepes,

I went to www.eurostar.com and plugged in 1 Sr. 1 Ad, 1 Yth.

Standard fare, Paris to London is 30GBP each; London to Paris is 37 GBP ea,at 8:49 AM EST.

If you just show up to buy a ticket the day of travel, it will be about 86 GBP each.

Thanks everyone for all the good advice and info! Fodorites are the best!

PS,

That would be 86 GBP each way.

Is the 86 GBP a reduced fare?

I'd say, be prepared to pay more. They quoted a rate of 150, I think, or something like that. Actually a few years ago, I showed up to buy last-minute tickets, not knowing better. It was probably more than 200 for Paris to London (this was when the dollar was stronger). I'd have forgotten how much I paid, but when I was going through one of my boxes, I had apparently kept the ticket receipt.

Showing up at the last minute is really not a good idea for this Eurostar train.

Sorry -- 150 pounds, then 200 dollars.

ira...i believe you that you just looked it up and i'm too lazy to check it myself but i can say that i have never paid a fare that cheap. i have travelled eurostar probably 50 times for business and pleasure...booked ahead, booked last minute, stayed a weekend or not, high season, low season, etc.

without knowing exact times of the traveller, i think it's more realistic to budget at least 150-200 r/t for an adult booked in advance. this seems to be the average that i've paid. Unless i am doing a day return (on business, of course, as no one should ever go to paris or london for just one day and call the experience "pleasure".)

150/200 GBP, i mean. i forgot there are at least some poor souls who still work in dollars here :)

You're very close to the departure date (for bargains) but I've always bought Eurostar tickets for a London Paris daytrip (or more) from eurostar.co.uk. And I live in New York.
If you get the timing right, and are willing to take a perhaps less than desirable train time, the fare should be 59GBP roundtrip (for a second-class adult fare). They will be mailed to you at no additional cost. The fastest the tickets have arrived is 3 days, the slowest is 5 days.
You begin your session on the website by stating you're in the UK (otherwise you'll get redirected), but at the end provide your US address.
And as others have told you, there's no way to get a decent fare at the station on the day of departure.

>...ira i believe you that you just looked it up...<

Yes, I did.