Skip to main content

I plan to use a 3 month pass next year for several excursions to the mainland. One of them is to meet up with a cruise in Italy. We will be travelling over Easter so flights are high, and after all the issues this year with limited availability of Eurostar it is a risk that all reservations for Easter will disappear quickly, leaving me with a dilemma we have seen several times this summer.

So I wondered what the cost  of buying a ticket would be when you buy ahead.

I was amazed that not only were the prices for my target date already listed I could buy them. 

The cost of a journey from London to Brussels was only £52 in standard. Compared with the prices of E* reservations of £30 to £40 it .was a small premium to pay for the security of our journey.

We will still use our pass to get to London and an onward from Brussels.

A quick scan of returns to the UK show similarly priced trains also available.

.I have no doubt these prices will change (upwards) as we get into the next year

Why don't you buy a pass holder seat on the Eurostar for your trip and save 20 EUR?

Because I don’t know when they will be available to pass holders, and it is vital to my plans that I can guarantee the E*in order to pre-book hotels (albeit on  free cancellations).

The key is that this journey is over Easter, which I hadn’t realised when booking the cruise.

If I wait for IR availability it means several months of routine checking and then hoping the train I need is available.

One other concern is that Eurostar will wait to see how many fare paying passengers are booking before deciding how many to release to pass holders. On a mid afternoon train to Brussels in the days before Good Friday I suspect that demand will be high and pass reservations low to zero ( a bit like Ryanair dynamic pricing - prices rocket if flight booking quickly)

Unfortunately we only have this one IR option to get across the channel so can’t reroute.

Already convenient flights are as expensive as the total rail journey will be with hotels and reservations, and nowhere near as much fun as a trip with Easter weekend in Germany and through the alps.

Since they have/or are to INTroduce the 4th Direct to NL/AMS here in NL they now promote- RETURNS from 88€ (less as 80gbp)-but I dk if that would also work starting from the UK-side.

For slack times like nov availability is very good for these.

Since they have/or are to INTroduce the 4th Direct to NL/AMS here in NL they now promote- RETURNS from 88€ (less as 80gbp)-but I dk if that would also work starting from the UK-side.

For slack times like nov availability is very good for these.

Absolutely correct - If we had wanted a return there were deals lower than two singles, but we only required the single at the moment as return is flexible and we will probably fly back, keeping a second I/O day in the bank for the rest of the pass.

OOI Eurostar are offering free exchanges if more than 7 days before travel date (Only pay extra if fare is more than you have paid). None are refundable.

It seems that Eurostar have widened their booking window:

https://help.eurostar.com/faq/be-en/question/How-far-in-advance-can-I-book-Eurostar-tickets

It used to be 180 days and the Belgian railways pass reservation page still seems to use that (currently until 30 March). Their normal booking page however can book much further ahead.

It may be that booking a pass reservation by phone (Eurostar, Belgian, Dutch railways) more than 180 days in advance does work.

Reply


Terms and Conditions & Privacy Policy