Club Eurostar is adding a £32 fee to all points redemptions

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• meta says:

  5 Aug5 August 11:35

  This totally odd. Obviously a better use now is £10 off for 200 points x 2. When there is a seat sale for £29 one-way you are clearly better off than paying £16 for redemption at 500 points.

  • Tom says:

    5 Aug5 August 11:48

    Yes, was going to say – interesting to see how the values stacks up against taking the vouchers. But perhaps that’s what Eurostar want now, to stop people taking good-value redemptions.

    Funny timing coming just a few days after the piece on whether the overall travel points scene has got better or worse in recent years. Another step down.

  • Alex says:

    5 Aug5 August 11:54

    That’s always been the case. The idea about the award tickets (in any program) is that you would only use them when tickets are expensive. Now the calculation for Eurostar is changing a little but not much. A 29 pound ticket is always better in cash. When they reach 120 pounds then you do your maths.

• Alex says:

  5 Aug5 August 11:51

  I travel the Paris route regularly, I’ve had a Carte Blanche for 10 years now. It’s been a bit harder to keep it in the last few years through less work travel, so I used to buy cash tickets all the way. In that sense having the points is useful to invite friends and family over, or for emergencies where you needed a last-minute ticket. It’s still there, but not “free” as before…

  It’s disappointing to say the least, but ever since the SNCF upped their stake in the company it’s been going downhill. Their compensation for delays used to be the best in class (you used to get a free one-way ticket in the same class of travel for delays above 2 hours, and they were fully flexible!). And the catering in Leisure Select (the old Standard Premier) was really good; especially when you compare it with the cold chicken or veg quiche nowadays. I’m wondering how bad it’s going to be when they merge with Thalys. I’m bracing for impact because that’s going to be another opportunity for them to devalue the program. But remember that they have a monopoly on the most convenient way to travel so not much incentive to make their program too attractive.

  Slight correction though, the fast track lane was open at St Pancras last Friday.

• Nad says:

  5 Aug5 August 11:58

  Hahahahahahahahahahaha lmao. £32 on redemption?!? Better off buyIng cash ticket

• Nick says:

  5 Aug5 August 12:08

  I’m puzzled by this. The email from Eurostar says the ‘network fee’ is paid to their suppliers… who exactly do they mean?

  • Alex says:

    5 Aug5 August 12:45

    Use of the tracks and tunnel, plus a station fee at StP and GdN I would expect. Basically your points pay for the staff, seat and train, and the network fee pays for that.

    • Lady London says:

      5 Aug5 August 15:41

      And all those fees to SNCF they’d be paying anyway as soon as they send 1 train with 1 person on it. The marginal cost per passenger even with Covid loads is going to be Zero if rounded to the 4th decimal place.

      Do they think we’re stupid using that as their excuse and claiming it’s an actual change from what their costs were anyway?

      • Mainline421 says:

        5 Aug5 August 17:13

        Fees are charged to Eurostar on a per passenger basis. Although unlikely to affect many here the fact that “Network fee” is £16 means they’ve been overcharging for people with Interrail tickets £25 for “seat reservation fee!”

  • Aeronaut says:

    5 Aug5 August 12:46

    Presumably refers to track and station access fees, e.g. those payable to Eurotunnel (for use of the Channel Tunnel), to HS1 Ltd (for use of HS1 line and stations), to SNCF Réseau and to SNCF Gares & Connexion (lines and stations in France), to Infrabel in Belgium and to ProRail in the Netherlands.

    In particular, access charges for HS1 have recently increased, though not by as much as HS1 Ltd had proposed as the ORR (the relevant regulator) stepped in to cap the charges.

    • Lady London says:

      5 Aug5 August 15:33

      It’s cr*p. There is no change in either their fixed costs they’d have to pay anyway. And the marginal cost per passenger remains infinitesmal.

      I took that email for the fudge it was. Basically they are removing the value from the loyalty program. They destroyed the reachability of Carte Blanche tier for almost everyone only a few months ago and now they’re destroying the rest.

      This will not be the last time any regular passengers of Eurostar will be gouged. I am sure there will be more bad news from this program before next April.

      • Aeronaut says:

        6 Aug6 August 09:42

        @Lady London – as others have pointed out, for passage through the Channel Tunnel itself the charges Eurotunnel levy on Eurostar are based in part on the number of passengers the train is actually carrying – so running a train through the tunnel is not a fixed cost, it depends on how many pax are on board.

        Also, Eurostar are now leaving every other seat on the train empty (though couples and families can still sit together).

  • Charlieface says:

    5 Aug5 August 14:16

    It’s the stupidest thing: most of their costs are to suppliers and any business will be the same

  • Alastair Mackie says:

    5 Aug5 August 15:51

    Probably an oblique way of referring to the hefty track access charges they need to pay to Eurotunnel. IIRC they are levied on a per passenger basis and take up quite a chunk of a cheap ticket.

• zark says:

  5 Aug5 August 13:09

  Eurostar used to offer £29 each way fares (non-refundable,non-changeable) on many trains around 6 weeks after opening up £39+ each way fares (one way fares always £10+ higher). These offers have all disappeared, but at least they are offering £39 each way until Christmas (changeable currently with certain limitations). From the New Year it appears that lowest each way fares are now £44.50 and no sight of reductions,so far.
  All of this suggests an increase in the cheapest round trip from £29*2=£58 to £39*2=£78 to maybe £44.50*2=£89. An increase of 53%….
  £89-£58=£33, which looks very much like the new £16 each way=£32 redemption fee.
  All a lesson in how to increase prices hoping that nobody notices, except for us at HfP!

  • ADS says:

    5 Aug5 August 20:34

    seems like they will drive business into the arms of the airlines … when demand eventually returns

    • Brian says:

      6 Aug6 August 08:47

      People who want a city centre to city centre trip won’t switch to airlines.

      • J says:

        7 Aug7 August 16:58

        +1 j

• J says:

  5 Aug5 August 13:17

  I treat Club Eurostar as a bonus anyway – would not have any influence on my decision. I would never fly from London to Paris or Brussels as the train is a lot better experience… Done it to Amsterdam too a few times and although it’s slightly longer than flying from City it’s less faff and more convenient. They once spoke about a London-Cologne Eurostar route but it has never materialised…

  • Lady London says:

    5 Aug5 August 15:37

    Thalys is the Cologne route. Unfortunately Rob mentioned Thalys and Eurostar will merge. A shame as Thalys was generally pretty good.

• letBAgonesbe says:

  5 Aug5 August 13:45

  I also dropped them a message last week about their “flexible changes” policy.
  Any ticket you buy, you can change 14 days before departure.
  I think today, when travel restrictions can change in the matter of few hours, this is completely useless.

• Feeling a little devalued says:

  5 Aug5 August 14:27

  Does this mean that, on a paid-for journey, upgrading to a higher class using points becomes better value then using points to cover for the whole journey?

  • Rob says:

    5 Aug5 August 14:34

    Yes, could well make a difference given the £32 charge for using all points.

  • Lady London says:

    5 Aug5 August 15:46

    Not, as soon as they work out you coulddo this. Then it will disappear.

    And Eurostar has form for retroactively removing the ability to change tickets after tickets had been sold with changeability in their terms and conditions. Was a while back, but them doing that stank and I can smell it now.

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