I received some advice earlier about taking Eurostar from London to Paris rather than flying. I've been on the Eurostar site, and as far as I can see, I'm paying around $400 to take first class Eurostar round trip. I will be paying $153 round trip to fly. What am I missing? Flying seems like a no-brainer.

Eurostar fares in the $153 range are available, if you can tolerate some restrictions. Plus, you don't have to travel to and from airports.

Nice one, comparing a full cost, fully refundable, 1st class Eurostar ticket with a no-frills, no food, toyally restricted 2nd class (at best) trip between 2 airports.

cheapest tickets on Eurostar are 90USD reutrn, cheapest 1st class are 190USD

Cheapest first class return fare thru RailEurope is $190 - Leisure I-3 fare - in second class you could go for as little as $90 return. I always recommend BETS (800-441-2387), whom i've dealth with for years, for their Eurostar expertise and not charging some of RailEurope's fees. Compare US prices with www.eurostar.co.uk for fares in pounds - could be cheaper on some days perhaps or more expensive. In first class you do get a full meal with wine or Champagne and much much bigger seats.

I'm one of the people who replied to your original post. Standard fare (2nd class) is perfectly comfortable on the Eurostar. Bring your own food on board and relax. I forgot to mention in my earlier post that when you select a particular train on a particular date, you will be shown the higher-priced, fully-refundable fares first. Scroll down to see if each leg you want offers a $45 choice. (That is the best you can get.) If the cheapest seats are gone on one leg, you still might be able to get a $45 quote on the other leg, thus paying only a little more than $90 for both legs.

Just to point out that www.eurostar.co.uk will take you to the same site as www.eurostar.com - if you want to see prices in different curencies you have to delete the eurostar cookies first then go back into the Eurostar website

1) One doesn't need 1st class on Eurostar -- 2nd is much more comfortable that coach on an airplane.

2) you need to factor in the cost of getting to/from the airports. The train goes city center to city center.

3) the train is actually faster since you don't have the trips out to and in from the airports, plus the advance check in for the Eurostar is shorter than for an airline.