Eurostar announces the start of Amsterdam rail services

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• Jo says:

  10 Feb10 February 05:26

  OT: I have my Marriott card linked to my curve. My partner’s supplementary Marriott card is linked to his own curve. Are we each both allowed £200 cash from atm per month (total 400) since we hv different curve cards?

  • Genghis says:

    10 Feb10 February 06:09

    Yes

• Peter says:

  10 Feb10 February 06:30

  ‘But your partner….’ Are single people not allowed on HFP?

  • Rupert S says:

    10 Feb10 February 06:52

    (or your business partner)

    • peter says:

      10 Feb10 February 07:42

      Why would my business partner be ‘ikely to have a supplementary Amex Platinum card’ ?

  • David says:

    10 Feb10 February 08:25

    They are probably less concerned about lounge guesting if they are single…

  • Rob says:

    10 Feb10 February 08:29

    Certainly are! But writing “partner (if you have one)” after every reference to partner benefits would get a bit tedious 🙂

    • Peter says:

      10 Feb10 February 08:33

      Point taken ????????

      • JamesB says:

        10 Feb10 February 10:25

        If he did it then sone people would complain that he was omitting ‘bit on the side’

  • guesswho2000 says:

    10 Feb10 February 08:52

    Yes, but I’m guessing most people don’t issue supplementary Amex Platinum Cards to randoms. I’ve certainly only ever asked for one for my other half (fair enough, people may request them for other family members or, at a push, close friends, but I wouldn’t personally.).

• Chris L says:

  10 Feb10 February 06:54

  From the Eurostar website it looks like the train returns empty from Amsterdam and passengers have to get a Thalys train to Brussels before then checking in for a Eurostar service there. All seems a bit convoluted.

  • John says:

    10 Feb10 February 09:07

    No, the train that arrives from Amsterdam forms another Eurostar service from Brussels to London, which departs 28 minutes after arriving at Brussels.

    Eurostar will not sell a ticket that has less than 30 minutes connection time in Brussels, so the options are take an earlier Thalys, or reboard a different Eurostar train. The other option is to book separate tickets and hope for the best 🙂

• zark says:

  10 Feb10 February 06:57

  I have to laugh at the organisation of our immigration controls.
  Seperately, I wonder when Eurostar will have a lounge in Amsterdam ?

  • Genghis says:

    10 Feb10 February 10:07

    I still don’t think the Lille loophole has been properly closed, despite the attempts at segregation

    • RussellH says:

      10 Feb10 February 13:47

      Sorry, Genghis, but the only people I have heard use that term are Theresa May, her (she was still Home Sec at the time) minions spouting her words and the Daily Mail (probably also the Excess and the Star, but I do not see those)..

      Very sadly, instead of the UK joining Schengen (remember, all the non-EU countries in Western Europe *are* in Schengen, including Switzerland) our governments have just been getting ever more xenophobic.How long before someone campaigns for a “Dover Wall”, I wonder.
      🙁

      • Mark says:

        10 Feb10 February 14:17

        I believe it has not been possible now for around 5 years although they implemented a not entirely elegant solution. In addition to segregating passengers on the train, I believe there is a heavy immigration presence on platforms at St Pancras on arrival for the 3(?) trains where the Lille loophole situation occurs.

      • Genghis says:

        10 Feb10 February 14:46

        Most (all?) trains from Brussels stop at Lille. Easy loophole with a season ticket purchase IIRC. Also much less authority presence at Ebbsfleet whenever I get off there.

      • Genghis says:

        10 Feb10 February 14:50

        Not that I’m a DM reader but it’s all I seem able to find to illustrate my point
        http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4146246/Terrorists-fast-train-Britain.html

      • Nick Burch says:

        10 Feb10 February 15:55

        Genghis – While most of the Brussels trains stop at Lille, that doesn’t help. Intra-Schengen customers (eg Brussels-Lille or Brussels-Calais) are only permitted in the end carriage and there are security guards there who prevent those people going into the rest of the train + prevent people from the rest of the train going there. At Lille/Calais the security people clear out the carriage, then get off, and there are other security people on the platform who ensure that the people getting off exit rather than go down to any other carriages

        As a handy tip, Lille to London passengers may want to book a seat in the back of the penultimate carriage, as you’ll then (post-security-sweep) be able to walk through to the last carriage and have your pick of the seats, as the whole carriage is then empty from Lille on to London!

    • Nick M says:

      10 Feb10 February 15:52

      When I was traveling between Ashford and Brussels on a weekly basis a few years ago, I could more often than not just walk straight out when I arrived in Ashford (and the train always stopped in Lille)

• john says:

  10 Feb10 February 07:24

  I was ready to book up until reading about the train change on return

  Brussels Eurostar can be bit of a scrum at the best of times, exacerbated by not opening the check-in as early as at Paris or London, I wouldn’t fancy the queue created by a train decanting a few hundred people in one go

  For business, at 3:41 the train would be quicker for me than LHR-AMS given the time to/from airport and the hassle/limitations of airport security, to say nothing of the rammed cabins and cramped seating compared to a comfy Eurostar seat with wifi and a power socket

  • Prins Polo says:

    10 Feb10 February 09:59

    That assumes though you work at St Pancras Aron your meetings in Amsterdam are right outside of the train station.

    • Prins Polo says:

      10 Feb10 February 09:59

      And*

    • john says:

      10 Feb10 February 11:34

      That’s why I wrote “quicker for me ” 🙂

      At the AMS end depends where the meeting is, for me Centraal is also better than Schiphol for onward journey

• mark2 says:

  10 Feb10 February 07:32

  OT
  Some people have been concerned about points progress not showing on Amex Platinum cards upgraded from Gold.
  My wife got a gold card on 12 Jan 18 and upgraded to Platinum about 14 days later. Today she received the 20,000 points without ever seeing a mention of the upgrade bonus online .

  • JamesB says:

    10 Feb10 February 10:29

    My dad also got his 20k a few days ago for a card update late December.

    • JP says:

      10 Feb10 February 19:20

      The meter has never shown for the Gold -> Plat upgrade.

• jovanna says:

  10 Feb10 February 08:09

  OT: Does anyone have the email for Virgin Flying Club? Only 500 miles posted when I rented from Avis the other week, rather than the 6000 that I was expecting under this: https://headforpoints.com/2018/01/18/good-virgin-atlantic-deal-6000-miles-2-day-avis-car-rental/

  The Virgin website has a section to claim missing miles for flights but, because this was through a partner, you’re directed to claim directly with that partner. That section looks as though it’s for claiming miles that have not posted at all. There’s nowhere to flesh out why you’re claiming. I expect Avis to say that the miles have posted, if they respond at all.

  Virgin appear to be running the promotion, so they should know but I can’t find an email address on their website.

  • HeathrowFlyer says:

    10 Feb10 February 08:15

    I’ve had a similar issue with the Avis Black Friday deal. I’ve been credited the standard Avios for a 3 day rental but the 5,000 additional points are nowhere to be seen.

    Sent an email to Avis Tuesday and still waiting to hear back…

    Has anyone else successfully received the Black Friday Avis Avios?

    • Bach says:

      10 Feb10 February 10:06

      Nearly 6 weeks to get a response from Avis saying: this is due to IT issue, our team is working on it…

  • Rash says:

    10 Feb10 February 08:24

    Hi, I have had the 6000 points posted after 6 days of dropping off the rental. Did you book through the avis/virgin link or directly on the Avis website? Maybe this makes a difference…. I booked through the avis/virgin link BUT it can be more expensive than the normal Avis website.

    • jovanna says:

      10 Feb10 February 10:10

      I booked through the main Avis website. Unfortunately, that could be it. I have another one over next weekend. I imagine I’ll be out of luck again.

  • Czechoslovakia says:

    11 Feb11 February 08:28

    Shame problem here, but the Budget and LH version. M+M sorting it out.

• John says:

  10 Feb10 February 09:14

  You don’t need to possess a railcard to book railcard-discounted tickets. You only need it at the time of travel.

  You can’t get a physical card if you choose a digital railcard (unless you buy another one). This means that you commit a criminal offence if your phone runs out of battery while you are travelling on a railcard-discounted ticket.

  Your options are then to buy an anytime undiscounted ticket, which may be refunded on production of the railcard later (one chance per year from most train-operating companies), or to provide your details and be prosecuted or settle out-of-court.

  • David says:

    10 Feb10 February 09:33

    Of course you can also purchase a railcard at any staffed station and receive it straight away if you are travelling soon. As with airline boarding cards I would always want a printed backup in case the technology fails.

  • JamesB says:

    10 Feb10 February 10:35

    I think Rob meant that if you want to purchase a ticket for say today or tomorrow, then it was no longer a problem if you did not have a railcard already because you could get one quickly by opting for the digital card..

  • Andrew says:

    10 Feb10 February 11:46

    Rather than get into a pathetic panic about “criminal offences”…

    Perhaps just plug your phone into one of the handy sockets scattered throughout most of the trains, buses and coaches I travel on in the UK? Most of them now seem to have USB sockets too.

    Could you perhaps also disclose how many people have been given a criminal record for not presenting a railcard in, say, Scotland over the last 50 years?

  • Martin Valt says:

    10 Feb10 February 12:34

    I am unclear as to precisely how one might go about “settling” a criminal prosecution out of court.

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