Hello,
I am located in Canada and am looking to buy tickets from Paris to London on the Eurostar. Does anyone have any suggestions as to the best/cheapest way to do this? I tried a helpful earlier post and went to britrail but they seem to sell only from Paris to London.
Thanks

Sorry the perils of pressing send too soon - I meant the britrail site only seems to sell from London to Paris.

www.eurostar.com has prices in u.s. $ and perhaps loonies but check on the fares in euros from paris - you often get the cheapest rate there.

chose a weekday if possible for best luck. under 26 and over 59 get youth and senior fares that can be great.

Or try www.raileurope.com

It's best to go to the Eurostar website and check the prices for your trip under a number of different nationalities

To do this you need to know how to remove cookies from your machine.

1) Close your internet browser
2) Go to the folder that has the cookies in and find the ones with "eurostar" in their name - there's normally 2 of them
3) delete those cookies
4) Open your internet browser and go to the Eurostar website
5) Pick a nationality
6) Do a dummy booking and note the price
7) Repeat steps 1 through 6 for several currencies
8) Decide which is the best price for you - use www.xe.com for currency conversion
9) Repeat steps 1 to 5 using your preferred nationality
10) Book ticket
11) Collect at station

Are you going one way or are you going round trip (return)...

If you're going one way, don't buy a one way ticket...buy a same day return with the full knowledge that you're going to eat the return coupon or if you're going late in the day make it a return trip with the return after the next Saturday night....I have done this several times and have come up with 20 quid each way so it cost £40 which is $80 US but far better then what I would have to pay for a one way.

Also when you go into the eurostar web site when it asks for country of residence, say the UK...if you say Canada they might direct you to their Canadian partner (it might well be Rail Europe) and also put a cookie into your computer that will re-direct you to the rail europe site whenever you try to go to www.eurostar.com whereup you would have to remove that cookie as suggested above before you could use the real eurostar site.

Once in a great while, it may be that rail europe matches or beats the fares on eurostar.com but that doesn't happen often so it's worth checking.

So, Alan in your scenario, if the OP finds that the best fare is to say they're from a country other than UK or France what currency will they use to pay for the tickets when they pick it up at the station? If they have to pay in advance, how does work on a credit card?

Thanks very much for the great advice. I tried it several ways, but didn't get much difference likely because I have to travel on a Sept weekend. But it is good to know how to do it, and it certainly was preferable to work on that site than some of the others I had been using!
Thanks again for all your help.

If you can't find a low cost Eurostar ticket, check British Airways for one-way flights from Paris to London. Depending on dates / times these fares may be lower than Eurostar. Typically prices are 46 GBP to 90 GBP or $92 to $185 US.

Another airline that may have inexpensive fares CDG-LHR is BMI...I did very well with them a couple of years back but do remember you must add on the price of getting from central Paris to CDG and from LHR to central London and quite fankly flying so much more involves hassles with security and checking luggage and waiting for luggage yada yada yada that the train is almost always the more comfortable alternative.

Hi ST,

>if the OP finds that the best fare is to say they're from a country other than UK or France what currency will they use to pay for the tickets when they pick it up at the station?

In London, GBP. In Paris Euro.

>If they have to pay in advance, how does work on a credit card?

Your CC is billed in the currency of the host country and converted to your currency on your CC invoice.

<these fares may be lower than Eurostar. Typically prices are 46 GBP to 90 GBP or $92 to $185 US>

unless you book Eurostar way in advance and get the cheapest fares - even on short order on another post someone just got a $74 one way ES ticket.

Air prices should also include the cost of getting to and from the airport in each location - about $30 or more even by public transportation.

I agree with xyz123 - figure in costs and hassles of air travel and the train is almost always a more positive and even cheaper way.

Just a note.

EuropebyAir sells these tickets for $99 one way. My understanding is that you have to pay the taxes in person when you check in. Haven't tried it, but thought it might help.

Taxes in UK airports are amongst the steepest in the world - the $99 fare could be $150 perhaps all told plus cost of getting to/from airports

Thanks all. I have been away for a few days so am a little slow responding to the latest posts. Thanks for the suggesions re flights -
we really want to take the Eurostar for this part of our trip and so not looking at flights for this leg. Thanks again.

Actually weather is not as big an issue at JFK as it is being made out to be....

NYC is located just far enough south that most coastal storms in New York at that time of year are rain storms...for the most part JFK is quite capable of handling most weather conditions.

Does it happen that a big storm hits the NYC area and causes lots of flight disruptions...yes but the reality is that it is rare...I think last year there was one disruptive storm (14 Feb) and another one a couple of weeks later.

LHR can be a hassle making a connection...a big one...personally I would rather connect at JFK than LHR.

I've flown into JFK oodles of times in the winter and I think I've only had a problem once because of weather...it is just as likely that any plane will have a mechanical problem which of course has nothing to do with weather as to have terrible weather problems at JFK.

As far as service of the airlines, I would take the opposite tack. I think it was mentioned (I'm not going through the whole thread) so it doesn't make that much difference.

But let me say this...BA does indeed coach passengers on the plane far better than AA...the very fact that they charge you $5 for a small glass of wine with dinner on AA while it is free on BA (and VS) and give you a sandwich at tea time on trans continental flights instead of that ridiculous snack pack is indicative, at least to me, of the contempt AA has for its passengers.

But agreed that's just my opinion.

oops wrong thread...sorry (damn it can't delete errors...what a terrible forum.

You may find the following site useful -

http://www.seat61.com/France.htm