Review: Eurostar Business Premier from Amsterdam to London St Pancras

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• lumma says:

  14 May14 May 04:57

  Why is a train from Amsterdam to London travelling between Brussels and Paris?

  • John T says:

    14 May14 May 05:37

    Agreed. Doesn’t the Amsterdam service go (roughly) Amsterdam Brussels London while the Paris service goes Paris Brussels London?

    That station experience at Amsterdam looks grim from your photos. It’s not very glamorous is it?

    Still much prefer flying AMS-LCY between these two cities given the close proximity of these airports to the cities they serve and the short flight time

    • lumma says:

      14 May14 May 05:57

      Agreed, I did this journey once when you had to change trains in Brussels and wouldn’t do it again. The time saving from Paris or Brussels is great, but the extra travelling time from Amsterdam reduces the benefit, even with the train bring direct

      • EvilDoctorK says:

        14 May14 May 07:56

        Yes the speed of the train after Brussels isn’t particularly impressive ( bar a relatively short stretch of High Speed line in the Netherlands it plods along fairly slowly ) .. At about 4 hours journey time ( plus the Eurostar security/checkin hassle you don’t get on ‘normal’ trains ) it’s definitely not a clear winner vs. flying ( unlike Brussels/Paris where it obviously is )

    • Will in SJC says:

      14 May14 May 06:07

      Not quite. London -> Lille -> Brussels -> Amsterdam and London -> Lille -> Paris.

  • Rhys says:

    14 May14 May 07:45

    Good catch – I meant Lille!

• Pb says:

  14 May14 May 07:00

  Having travelled Eurostar since its inception I lament the deterioration in the comfort and service in terms of food , free even on Standard at the beginning and your backside was not numb when leaving the train .

  • sloth says:

    14 May14 May 09:06

    Have travelled Eurostar standard twice in last 6 months both return and no numb bum to report..

  • John says:

    14 May14 May 09:23

    When was food free in standard? My first trip was in 2008 and nothing then. Backside definitely numb though – which is why I’ll only ever take ES to Amsterdam again if the price is £39 and there are no flight options under £80

• ChrisC says:

  14 May14 May 07:58

  If you use the right platform entrance you don’t have to walk down the platform!

  As you look at Centraal from the front you need the passageway to the far right.

  When I did this in February platform 15 was already cleared of non Eurostar trains and passengers.

  I wouldn’t even call this a terminal. It’s more a service building built on a limited amount of space to get the basic tasks of checking tickets, clearing security and Immigration. Of course they weren’t going to do a major rebuild for a facility that only gets used two or three times a day.

• x2000traveller says:

  14 May14 May 08:33

  Good that Eurostar is going to/from the Netherlands directly. The website offers connections on Thalys in some hours, but these are generally very full trains and now really need a full refurbishment (or more) to bring them up to modern standards. So best avoid these (also because they invariably more expensive than the Eurostar-only option.
  The table featured here is really intended for the wheelchair space, I think, so isn’t necessarily available all the time.
  The food offering indeed does look a little spartan (actually BA Business/Club Europe is still pretty good foodwise, in my view). Eurostar certainly was better pre-Covid (when I last used Business Premier) but perhaps it was off-day or M. Blanc was concentrating on something else?
  Do they offer bean to cup coffee?
  Note that, as well as the flexibility, Business Premier also generally offers much more space: Standard Premier is fine (although only comes with cold snacks) but can get rather/very full. It’s probably the sweet spot on the Brussels route, but less so on Paris on Friday – Sunday – Monday until 1200 when usage is highest. (Also when the BP lounge at Paris is the most useful as the holding lounge there is just not big enough to cope with full trains….)

• Alex says:

  14 May14 May 09:29

  I agree with Pb, things have gone down for years. Leisure select (the old standard Premier) had a warm meal which was substantial. Now the choice in standard Premier is always between some deconstructed chicken and a vegetarian quiche.

  On that topic, the only on-board difference between BP and SP is the warm meal, which is a bit more substantial, and the champagne. And the refills if you’re nice to them in BP.

  With a carte blanche getting you fast track and lounge access, you are right about the sweet spot being SP. Wider seat, and an OK snack.

• Roberto says:

  14 May14 May 09:35

  There is an international 1st class railway lounge at track 2a at Amsterdam Centraal Station.

  Be reminded this is before security & passport control and a bit of a hike to the Eurostar / Thalys platforms

  Also: you are allowed only 1 free drink per person per stay and it can get supercrowded
  Opening hours do not compute with first/last train departures.

  https://www.nsinternational.com/en/stations/nsinternational-lounge

• AquaS says:

  14 May14 May 09:46

  Ultimately the international train services will run from the Amsterdam South station, which still needs upgrading. So this might be the reason why the terminal building for now looks like a shed. Although of course if they get away with it in the years to come, they might copy paste it to South too.

  Not sure if you can use the NS (Dutch Railways) International lounge which is closer to the main entrance, near platform 2. I think premium Thalys passengers use that too. Then that might be a bit of hike to get from there and to the other part of the station to do all security and passport checks. Similar set up in Rotterdam/ lounge outside of the secured area, although at least thats on the same platform.

  Also I have no clue what is actually in that lounge, maybe a stray magazine and some seating plus a drink, whatever that might entail. Might be a slightly more comfortable wait though.

  https://www.nsinternational.com/en/stations/nsinternational-lounge

• RussellH says:

  14 May14 May 11:20

  Rhys: you say “This is unlike the airlines, which typically sell both fully flexible and inflexible business class flights.”

  I would argue the Standard Premier most definitely is the equivalent of an inflexible business class flight. The seating etc. is identical – just the ticket conditions and the food servings are different. There are already airlines that restrict lounge use to those on flexible business tickets, and if you have a split business cabin anyway I can see some airline soon segregating flexible and non-flexible passengers, with the result that those on the cheaper tickets can be served less food and drink.

  After all, the Standard Premier name only came in after the economic problems between 2008 and 2010, when many firms brought in travel policies that restricted staff to travelling in standard class. Eurostar were quite cunning here, renaming Leisure Select as Standard Premier, as they could reduce the food and drink service to demonstrate that SP was inferior to LS.

  My favourite memory of LS was returning from a Flanders trade fair in Antwerp to a German one in London: the Flanders Tourist Office had supplied us all with Leisure Select tickets, but people did not all return at the same time. I found myself the only passenger in my LS car on the train, with a steward who had little to do except keeping on asking me if I wanted another glass of champagne.
  🙂

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