We%26#39;d like to book tickets from Paris to London on the Eurostar and have found that the online price is about $60AUD cheaper than doing it here in in Australia.
To collect them we%26#39;ll need to do so from the ticket machine at the station anytime from purchase to departure day.
However, having not used this system before we wondered if there was anything - problems, pitfalls -we need to be aware of before buying them online.
Has anyone else bought them this way and what were your experiences with the system?
How long before departure should we get to the station?
While we can request seats side by side, they%26#39;re not guaranteed, so does getting there earlier help to get a seat you want?
Thanks for your help - Jay2000
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Although I always get my Eurostar tickets over the internet, they come by post. However, when we went through St Pancras last month there were a lot of ticket machines and people seemed to be using them efficiently and easily.
You should, in my view, aim to be at St Pancras around two hours before departure. A lot of people come much later, but I like to be there and get through security early. Security takes anything from 10-30 mins to get through depending on the amount of people and trains going, of course!
You%26#39;re seats are allocated when you book them. The lack of guarantee is merely to cover the company%26#39;s back, in our experience, as we have always been seated side by side on all our Eurostar journeys. But, no, getting there early has no effect on the seat you have booked.
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Jay,
No probs at all. I bought mine online last year and had no issues at all. By the way, are you using the US Eurostar site? We are only talking a few dollars, but your Aussie dollar gets you more value than buying through the UK or French sites. In any case, it pays to check the price on all of them.
I didn%26#39;t use a ticket machine but rather went to the counter to get my ticket. The seat number was allocated at the time of purchase, so getting to the train early made no difference.
I was there about 30-45 mins before departure. There were loads of people getting on the train, so there was a bit of wait in line to get through customs and immigration.
After customs etc. there is a small waiting room and you can buy a fairly decent coffee and pastry for breakfast.
I got a very early train on a Monday morning that arrived in London at 9am - just in time for work...how depressed was I imagining all these people having spent the weekend in Paris? :)
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Thanks for you replies - much appreciated.
I was wondering Mez - can you tell me web site address for the U.S. site? Is it railpass?
Regards, Jay
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We booked for our family to travel from Paris to London on the English site for Eurostar. We booked after Christmas to travel at the end of March, had no problems at all. The tickets arrived in Aus from England about 5 days after we booked. Would certainly recommend doing it this way against picking the tickets up in Paris. The seats were allocated on booking so need to worry as they put our family together. So much easier to have the tickets when you leave Aus against trying to pick them up in Paris as if you experienced any problems would hate to have to deal with some of the staff we experienced on our trip.
We did get to the Gare Du Nord about an hour early but it was so easy getting through customs %26amp; immigration especially compared to airline travel. We thoroughly enjoyed the trip.
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Hi Jay.
No - Railpass adds fees on.
I used www.eurostar.com. The first time you visit, you are asked to select a %26#39;home%26#39;. This installs a cookie on your PC. I go through the motions of a booking to see the cost then repeat the process selecting a different %26#39;home%26#39; on Eurostar. You do need to delete the cookies when doing this so the site no longer registers you have visited before.
It honestly doesn%26#39;t take long and was worth it price-wise. My one way ticket last year cost about AUD30 less buying it through the US site than the Uk site after taken conversion into account.
For online conversion, I use www.xe.com. You won%26#39;t get a rate as good as the ones they use, but it%26#39;s good for comparisons.
I hope this helps.
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In booking on eurostar.com, I%26#39;ve found that one-way tickets are cheaper on the US website than the UK or French ones, but booking round-trip (return) tickets is usually cheapest on the UK site. It definitely is worth checking out all the different fares offered each time you book.
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We booked roundtrip London-Paris Eurostar passage online last winter and everything turned out great! We booked well in advance of our trip and had our tickets mailed to our home. (I understand that it is also very easy to retrieve electronic tickets in the train stations.)
Book as soon as possible for the best rates! The cost goes up as the travel date nears.
We booked Economy seats and found them to be just fine. We were assigned the seats we had requested -- no problem there. Our train car wasn%26#39;t full, so changing seats would have been possible if we had wanted to. (Note: Some seats in the car face %26quot;backwards%26quot; -- if that is an issue for you, you may want to inquire about that.) There is plenty of room for stowing baggage on each car, and there are storage racks for lighter items above the seating area. Light fare can be purchased in the snack car.
We arrived at the stations about an hour before departure and that was plenty of time. Passing through Customs and Immigration at both St. Pancras and Gare du Nord was quick and efficient. However, we were there in late winter -- if you are traveling in the summer it may be more crowded, requiring more time.
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I have a dilemma that needed some assistance please. We bought 7 tickets from Paris to London on line and received our assigned seats. However, my son%26#39;s girlfriend will be joining us, so we bought another ticket for the same time BUT our seats are in carriage 3 for departure and return. Her seat is in carriage 4 for departure and carriage 17 for returning. There are such distance between the carriages, is it possible to change her seat when I arrive at the station to get my tickets? if not, what%26#39;s the distance between carriage 3 to 17, the train must be pretty long and carry that many passengers.thank you
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It is a looong way from carriage 3 to 17, you can but ask, it depends how full the train is.
With regards to backward and forward facing seats, I find it annoying that you cannot specify as I always like forward facing.
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If you pick up your tickets at the station at Gare du Nord, go upstairs, there are machines up there specifically for Eurostar tickets.
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