A couple of days ago , I wrote about how I decided to buy a Eurostar ticket.
Which is all well and good – I have the ticket I want, but alas – assigned in the wrong car of the train.
Eurostar Class 373 power car waiting for its next duty at Paris Nord – from my archives (2001!… I really need to do some more photography..)
Allow me to explain. Eurostar trainsets (or if we’re going to be sort of precise The Class 373 Trans Marche Super Train) aren’t exactly short – made up of two power cars and 18 coaches.
Seating in these varies, offering:
- Business Premier (A Business Class Product in 2 – 1 seating)
- Standard Premier (A Premium Economy product with 2-1 seating)
- Standard (A “Normal” seating product in 2-2 seating)
This, being me of course, I’ve booked Standard – What do you expect for £40?
Standard is in Coaches 1 to 5, and 14-18, whilst Standard Premier/Business Premier is at the centre of the train in coaches 7-12. Coach 6 and 13 are Bar-Buffets.
Now, for those of us who travel in Standard, and have electronics, there’s a useful fact to remember: Coaches 5 and 14 have power sockets at seat according to Eurostar.
However, I was assigned in Coach 4. No power for muggins.
I therefore dug around on Eurostar’s website, and after getting a bit lost – I reached out to them on Twitter… who came to the rescue!
So I dialled the magic number, and found my way through the menu system. After chatting after a moment, I was reassigned a seat (with a window too) in Car 5 – a power socket. I thanked Eurostar via Twitter
Quick, effective customer service – all done with “a smile” and without a fuss. These are things I like.
I’ll have the full look at Eurostar’s Standard product and how it compares to a short-haul flight coming in January/February next year 😉
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Did you check to see if there was any way to use points to purchase Eurostar tix? I saw that the UK Amex site allows it, but I am not UK based. I assume I could use my Barclay points, assuming Eurostar codes for Travel. Any other ideas?
Thanks
There was an option to use Avios via the main Avios programme, however thus would had required a return ticket – I only need a single this trip.
I believe Head for Points has a better analysis – however a £40 cash fare is cheap – BA wanted £69 for a single to London from Orly (less from CDG – but my trip brings me back to the Orly)
It makes travel interesting….
The Eurostar is great. Just booked another trip today. Favourite way of getting from UK to Brussels or Paris, by far.
Admittedly, as a recovering train geek, I remember my Eurostar trips fondly (and fun on TGV’s too). Unless you’re desperate for Tier Points, or making point to point connections, Eurostar is pretty perfect between London and Paris/Brussels – with low check-in times, and centre to centre service.
As a train geek and someone with a slight obsession of things that move at a rather quick speed (best memory I have of this is on the Thalys to Rotterdam, buzzing past the E19 motorway, which was at a standstill, at 200mph). I am a big fan of Eurostar and they are considerably quicker than flying for me since I live in Belgium and Brussel-Zuid/Bruxelles-Midi is only 25min away from where I live.
I may get some flak for this, but I do wish the UK would just join Schengen so we could do away with all the security theatre and ID checks and just have it like the TGV and Thalys trains where you just go to the station and get on.