Eurostar launches a new logo – and a new loyalty scheme is coming

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• NigelHamilton says:

  25 Jan25 January 07:38

  I have the offer on my platinum card, 15,000 only apparently. And also seems to be an online booking only offer – so my idea of paying in advance for a FHR booking I already made might be out….

• Adam says:

  25 Jan25 January 07:51

  Got the Amex travel deal, wondering if this’ll work if I go through the FHR site??

  • Rob says:

    25 Jan25 January 08:11

    Should work on a pre-paid FHR rate but the pre-paid ones no longer count for hotel loyalty points or status benefits, assuming you book a chain property.

• John says:

  25 Jan25 January 08:10

  “In St Pancras, in particular, the extra border checks mean that the station will have to be structurally altered to cater with longer waiting times”

  Assuming juxtaposed borders will continue to operate, what is the purpose of the large-ish immigration/arrivals hall at St Pancras?

  • Rhys says:

    25 Jan25 January 09:29

    Border checks for entering France etc

  • John says:

    25 Jan25 January 11:18

    Sometimes there are random arrival immigration checks and there could be customs checks too

• AndyC says:

  25 Jan25 January 08:13

  “…which have lead to 30% longer processing times…”
  *led…

  • Rhys says:

    25 Jan25 January 09:29

    My fault – decided to change the tense of the sentence halfway through writing it!

• Mark says:

  25 Jan25 January 08:18

  Is the Hyatt offer new?

  OFFER DETAILS
  Save to Card to get a £100 statement credit when you make one or more transactions up to £250+ in participating hotel(s) at Hyatt Hotels & Resorts by 30/4/2023. Valid once per Card for the first 50,000 Cardmembers to save. Terms, locations, payment restrictions and future communications about this offer will apply.

  • Rhys says:

    25 Jan25 January 09:30

    We literally wrote about it yesterday 🙂

• Steve says:

  25 Jan25 January 08:52

  Are we expecting an increased sign up bonus for The Platinum Card anytime soon?

  • Rob says:

    25 Jan25 January 09:08

    No. I can send you a 50k refer a friend link if you email me though.

• x2000traveller says:

  25 Jan25 January 08:55

  Long standing UK Government policy is that ES has to pay for the UK frontier controls and provide the space in its terminals accordingly. That’s one way UK taxes are kept so low(!) Currrently, ES are also limited by the number of PAF, who do the Schengen controls on the way into the zone, that the French provide. If they are short of even one PAF officer, it certainly seems that the check-in queues become horrendous. If ES provided other terminals again, it would be at risk that the PAF have insuficient personnel available to staff them, meaning stranded passengers and delays…
  The new Schengen visa system is likely to be a complete disaster, as you note, particularly the finger printing requirement. Perhaps ES and the airlines can ultimately persuade the EU (Frontex?) to delay this a bit while they create a proper trusted traveller scheme underwhich all identity stuff is done, and checked, online before hand? The Home Office seems to have manage to do this for all EU citizens who have the right to stay in the UK, as a result of the end of free movement under Brexit,
  The ES departure lounge at St Pancras, in any case, could do with being urgently expanded, in my view. It has never coped will the large number of pax/train that came with the new Siemens trains a few years back. But it’s not just operational disruption that would be the cost: it would perhaps be the Benugo catering area that would have to go with alterations made to the walls and toilet areas at the back of the lounge to create some space? Quite a big bill for that, I would think.
  Although I’m sure it seemed a good idea at the time to devote so much space at StP to shopping, it has meant that ES has to have a very cramped departure lounge area which just keeps in getting under more strain as more controls are introduced. (Readers might recall that, once upon a time, when ES went from Waterloo only c. 1 in 3 pax were ‘randomly’ security screened but it has been total screening for over at least 15 years now. This also takes up a lot of space.)
  The arrivals area is needed so that all inbound pax can go through UK immigration and customs as necessary (2nd check or, occasionallly, the only check). It’s highly unlikely that Border Force could ever be persuaded to make this area smaller. Although it seems unlikely that one could stowaway on an ES train to get access into the UK, I recall that people have attempted this in the past …hence the ability to have 2nd checks.

  • Rob says:

    25 Jan25 January 09:08

    The upstairs area of the lounge is always empty in my experience, even at peak times, due to the general slothful nature of the public when it comes to walking up two flights of stairs!

    • AJA says:

      25 Jan25 January 10:03

      Speaking of stairs, any idea when BA will reopen the upstairs bit of the lounge at LGW? It’s been chained off ever since it reopened.

    • lcylocal says:

      25 Jan25 January 10:59

      I read the reference to the departure lounge here to be to the main departures areas, rather than the Carte Blanche/Business lounge.

      Reallocating some of the customs area has to be surely in scope? If some smaller airports can have a single red telephone, then you would have to hope some reconfiguration can be done.

      I wonder if the pragmatic solution on fingerprinting and photos is to set this up elsewhere in the station/area to be visited in advance by those travellers needing to complete the process prior to going through the gates. There is still some vacant property in the area.

      I wonder if the bigger problem is who pays? There are an awful lot of parties involved – Eurostar (effectively SNCF, SNCB and investors), HS1 Ltd (who own St Pancras), the UK Home Office and DfT, the French, Belgian and Dutch governments and the EU – I suspect all of whom can make a credible case for this being someone else’s problem/bill to pay.

    • Alex Sm says:

      25 Jan25 January 20:16

      But it’s a bliss for those who are not lazy! And an amazing juice bar is a reward 🧋

• Mark says:

  25 Jan25 January 08:55

  St Pancas is a mess. There should be a queue for french residents and one for UK passports. At the moment it’s all mixed. The airports have not a bad system. Something about UK trains that attract incompetent operators.

  • Rob says:

    25 Jan25 January 09:06

    Except that a load of passengers are neither, doing a European holiday and using Eurostar as part of it.

    • patrick C says:

      25 Jan25 January 11:09

      I agree it wouldn’t help much.
      This brexit related stupidity which provides no added benefit to anyone, just huge costs. No refugee or immigrant has ever been really deterred by this system. (Worth adding that the uk actually needs these people but racism is a strong political tool)
      Also a government led.overhaul here would bring significant climate benefits as all too many flights still operate london bxl paris amd beyond.
      St pancras is probably one of the most underused big stations and the HSL1 does not earn it’s maintenance cost as a result. A well run border free station coukd easily accomodate twice the passengers and 2 operators.
      Now while Brits remain blinded by borders one should spend the money to redesign the station whise primary objective shoukd be to run trains not sell clothes

  • Alex Sm says:

    25 Jan25 January 20:18

    What to do with Belgians, the Dutch and others???

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