Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Exclusive competition: Win 5,000 Club Eurostar points plus top-tier Carte Blanche status

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

This week we are running a great competition in association with Eurostar to celebrate the launch of Club Eurostar.

You can win enough Club Eurostar points for two Anytime return tickets in Standard Premier. You will be able to travel to any destination, on any day you want – guaranteed (as long as cash tickets are still available for sale, obviously).

Club Eurostar is Eurostar’s new improved loyalty scheme. It merges the previous schemes – Eurostar Frequent Traveller and Eurostar Plus Points – into one.

We wrote about the announcement back in September. Eurostar Frequent Traveller was theoretically aimed at frequent business travellers whilst Eurostar Plus Points (which only offered train gift vouchers as rewards) was aimed at the leisure market. After talking to members Eurostar decided to merge the two programs into one new scheme, making it easier to join, earn and redeem.

What is new with Club Eurostar?

Unlike most loyalty scheme ‘enhancements’, Club Eurostar offers some genuine improvements over the two previous schemes.

Club Eurostar will have a very straightforward way of earning points. The scheme is now fully revenue based. For every £1 spent on Eurostar travel you will earn 1 point. Tickets priced in € will be converted to £.

Everyone will earn more points from each trip than under the old schemes with travellers on the cheapest tickets gaining most. A £54 ticket will now earn 54 points rather than 15 points under Eurostar Frequent Traveller, for example.

Redeem for any seat, any day

When it comes to redeeming, Club Eurostar has addressed what was Eurostar’s biggest issue – that many members wanted to redeem for peak Friday night and Sunday night trains but availability was limited.  Top tier Carte Blanche members could always do this, but now it has been opened up to the entire membership.

You can now redeem additional points to guarantee yourself a seat on peak time trains. The additional premium is modest – you will need 50% more points than usual for a Standard seat and just 25% more points than usual for a Standard Premier seat. There is no premium for Business Premier redemptions – you are guaranteed a seat on whatever train you want, as long as there is still one for sale.

If you are flexible about when you travel, you can continue to redeem for ‘value’ redemptions at a lower cost.

Remember that there are no taxes or charges with Club Eurostar redemptions. Your ‘free’ ticket is genuinely free.

Three tiers of membership

Club Eurostar will have three membership tiers instead of the two tiers on the Frequent Traveller programme.

Classique – your status when first joining

Avantage – after 400 points earned or 5 return trips in a membership year

Carte Blanche – after 1,800 points earned or 24 return trips in a membership year

Classique lets you earn and spend points at Eurostar and you will receive special offers.

Avantage has the benefits of Classique as well as the option to spend points at other railway partners (TGV, Thalys, Lyria) and the Club Eurostar shop.

Carte Blanche members can use the Business Premier and Rail Team lounges, get fast track access, have a dedicated Club Eurostar support team, can use the Business Premier ticket office and have a cab waiting at arrival.

Club Eurostar Shop

Another new addition to Eurostar’s loyalty scheme will be the Club Eurostar Shop.

Avantage & Carte Blanche members will be able to redeem their points for a curated range of over 500 items including wines, electronics, travel, home and fashion items. All redemptions include delivery and some products have the option to pay with a mix of points & cash.

Your chance to experience the benefits of an ‘Anytime’ redemption and Carte Blanche status

This week on Head for Points, one lucky reader will win 5,000 Club Eurostar points plus a one year top-tier Carte Blanche membership.

5,000 Club Eurostar points are enough for two Anytime return tickets in Standard Premier. You will be able to travel to any destination, on any day you want – guaranteed (as long as cash tickets are still available for sale, obviously).

Alternatively, 5,000 Club Eurostar points will get you:

three Anytime return reward trips in Standard, with 500 points left over

five Value return trips in Standard (using normal reward inventory)

two Value return trips in Standard Premier, with 1,000 points left over

one Anytime return reward trip in Business Premier, with 2,000 points left over

You left-over points can be topped up via American Express Membership Rewards points or via a transaction with one of the new Club Eurostar partners.

Your Carte Blanche status will guarantee you lounge access in London, Paris and Brussels for yourself and one guest irrespective of how you travel. My review of the impressive new Paris Lounge is here.

How to enter

As always, all you have to do to enter this competition is fill out the Gleam widget at the bottom of this page with your name and email address.

You are limited to one entry per person. Entry is limited to UK residents only and you must be over 18.  The prize is not transferable.

You need to enter by midnight on Sunday 17th December.

The formal version of the rules is in the widget below if you click ‘Terms & Conditions’. Good luck.

Category

Club Eurostar

Comments (73)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • David Betts says:
    11 Dec11 December 06:40

    Entry in to Eurostar contest

    • TripRep says:
      11 Dec11 December 07:18

      ????

      David, you enter the competition by clicking on the “Enter Competition” link above, that redirects you to gleam website where you enter your details…

  • Oli says:
    11 Dec11 December 06:56

    After the devaluation for Carte Blanche holders (now 1,500 points for an anytime standard ticket, vs 900 points before), I think the main benefit of having Carte Blanche is now the fast track check in. Lounges are okay for drinks, poor for food

  • Vivian says:
    11 Dec11 December 07:28

    it says the promotion is not available in my region – I’m out of the UK for a month, is there any way I can still participate in the draw (considering I’m ordinarily UK resident)?

  • Toby says:
    11 Dec11 December 07:36

    Didn’t Eurostar claim that the food options they showed off at the press launch of the Paris lounge would be there by the end of the year? They don’t have long to go (but there is still no sign of them).

  • zark says:
    11 Dec11 December 07:54

    I had an old Eurostar Plus,EPP membership ( not the Eurostar Frequebt Traveller,EFT) which has been transfered to the new Classique account. My existing £20 evouchers and pending points for future journeys have all disappeared although most, but not all future trips are listed on my new account.
    I believe Eurostar said they ‘will convert your outstanding points into an e-voucher before we transfer your account’.
    This has not happened yet.
    Anybody else with an old EPP account have the same experience?

  • IslandDweller says:
    11 Dec11 December 08:11

    I’m getting the “not available in your region” message. I’m in London.

    • Rob says:
      11 Dec11 December 08:35

      This happens occasionally with companies who have IT networks which are routed abroad. Use your phone.

      Not sure why the widget does not show on iPad like usual, must be something to do with the sote rebuild. I have also just noticed a tablet formatting issue too which we need to clear up.

      • tony says:
        11 Dec11 December 08:37

        Not showing up on a MacBook using Chrome, either….

        • Rob says:
          11 Dec11 December 08:56

          Thanks. Was OK in testing last night using Windows in Chrome. It may be a Cloudflare issue, which is new as of Friday.

          No major issue as you can click through anyway.

        • Graham Walsh says:
          11 Dec11 December 09:42

          Same here, Windows 10 with Chrome 63 and not displaying

          • Rob says:
            11 Dec11 December 10:44

            Gleam should be fixed now. Something odd happened to the coding during the site transfer.

            What is odder is the way the site is formatting on an iPad – hopefully get that sorted today. It’s like whack-a-mole ….

            (EDIT: formatting issue now fixed too, and the black bar has gone.)

        • john says:
          11 Dec11 December 10:20

          Fine here on my MacMini using Chrome 62

      • IslandDweller says:
        12 Dec12 December 21:22

        Tried to use my phone. Exactly the same message. Still in London. No VPN.

    • tony says:
      11 Dec11 December 08:36

      You’re probably connected via a non-UK ISP. You do however have six days to find a wifi hot spot….

  • Frenzie says:
    11 Dec11 December 08:37

    Rob decided not to mention that you would now need a laughable 45 000 AMEX points for a Business Premier ticket.

    • Mike says:
      11 Dec11 December 08:45

      That’s eye wateringly expensive ????

      • Rob says:
        11 Dec11 December 08:52

        Two points:

        a) who redeems for that? Standard Premier is same seat with marginally worse food, which is fine for me. If you have Amex Plat you get lounge access anyway.

        B) given the cash cost of Business Premier, 45k Amex is not actually a terrible deal

        • Frenzie says:
          11 Dec11 December 09:52

          Rob, I appreciate that you have AMEX platinum but a very high percentage of your readers don’t.

          So for most people to get fast track and lounge access it will be 45 000AMEX point.

          Please don’t compare to cash cost that are paid by businesses.
          You may compare to Club Europe redemptions.

          • Rob says:
            11 Dec11 December 10:41

            That is surely not logical though? Business Premier costs what is costs (for cash) and a points redemption will always reflect that in some way.

            More importantly, Business Premier – for cash – doesn’t move about much. The “real” price of a business class flight changes sharply based on whether you stay away for a Saturday, whether you fly ex-EU to avoid APD, whether you buy in a sale, whether you buy well in advance etc.

            Business Premier on Eurostar doesn’t tend to be discounted so, if you were planning to spend £490 on a return trip to Paris, using 45000 Amex points is clearly a very good deal.

        • Genghis says:
          11 Dec11 December 10:01

          Do you need fast track and lounge access?

        • Frenzie says:
          11 Dec11 December 10:10

          No, I don’t need anything.
          I don’t travel business class because I need it.
          I do it because I enjoy it and makes travel more special.

          The same way as I don’t go to a Michelin star restaurant because I need it.
          And I don’t buy a Mercedes because I need it.

  • Gabriel says:
    11 Dec11 December 10:01

    Is it possible to merge 2 old Eurostar Frequent Traveller and Eurostar Plus Points accounts in the new one?

    • john says:
      11 Dec11 December 11:38

      you can move points between two accounts now (in multiples of 100), it is ‘instant’, probably the easiest way

      if you end up with <100 'orphaned' points, you could top up with some amex points to complete emptying the unwanted account

      otherwise you'd need to try the helpdesk

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Latest Forum Posts

Get 40,000 bonus points (worth 40,000 Avios) and £300 dining credit with The Platinum Card

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get £10 when you spend £150 on your free Currensea card

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? SPECIAL OFFER TO 12TH MAY EARN POINTS WORTH 30,000 AVIOS WITH CAPITAL ON TAP

Get 20,000 bonus points, four airport lounge passes and your first year free with American Express Gold

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!