Eurostar Chaos!

I%26#39;m planning to travel from London to Paris via the Eurostar in September. I know you can%26#39;t book your tickets until 120 days before your return date. I still haven%26#39;t reached that 120 days yet, but went on their website to see what is available for my planned departure to France on Sept. 13. To my shocking horror the cheapest ticket was 154 GBP (and that%26#39;s just one way)!!!

I%26#39;m not sure if there is just something crazy going on with the Eurostar website or what. I looked at a gagillion other dates throughout the summer, including trains that leave next week and all of them had some of the cheapest, standard, non-refundable fare available (approx. 29 GBP one way) and various other low fares way under 100 GBP.

Does anyone know how their system works and if the cheap fare will be available for my dates in Sept? If not this would surely put a hault to my travels if a round trip ticket approximated to be 308 GBP (almost $620 dollars!!!!) I spent less on my flght to London!!!

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Wow, those prices are horrid, and yes, there must be some reason and we were able to do it much cheaper two years ago( about 45 euros each return).

I would like suggest you look into the cheapo airlines,, you can fly on them way cheaper then those prices. I just booked a one way from Hanover ( northern Germany) to London for only 120 euros for two all taxes in !

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PS Doin%26#39;t look just at one way fares, they can actually be higher then returns sometimes,, look at return fares then just don%26#39;t use return leg.

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dunno what youre doing - RailEurope (the UK one, not the US one) is showing £29.50 for the outward leg of a return trip leaving London to Paris on the 13 Sept.

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Thank you both for your help. I was looking on www.eurostar.com and I%26#39;m hoping it%26#39;s just a glitch in their system. The UK Rail Europe sight definitely has more reasonable fares stated (thankfully!). I%26#39;ll have to consider flight options as well.

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I traveled between Paris and London numerously but only used Eurostar once, due to not able to finding cheap tickets. All other times, I flew via British Airways. The plane tickets were always from $60-80, much lower than Eurostar fares I found at that time. You should definitely try to find a better fare by entering round trip dates. But if you still can%26#39;t get anything, flying ain%26#39;t that bad. It%26#39;s of course a bit of hassle of transfer to and from the airports but the ride itself is only around 45 mins.

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Bonjour Stéphanie99,

In my opinion the cheapest way to travel from London to Paris is by coach, it should not cost more than 35€ single in September and they also have promotions for midweek travels.

Of course it takes much longer but if you are fit you might even enjoy it as I find the ferry crossing between Dover and Calais a pleasant experience.

This is their website:

www.nationalexpress.com/eurolines/home/hp.cfm

Hope this can help

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Just check that you%26#39;re looking for trains departing at off peak times of day, ie midday or very early (like 5am). The fares are higher for the trains departing at say 8am to 10 am, than they are at 12midday. Also, look on Mondays to Thursdays. Friday and the weekends can be higher.

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I wonder if my travel dates has anything to do with it. I was planning on Thurs. Sept 13 - Tues. Sept 18. Is there some national holiday around that or something? I%26#39;ve searched a gagillion other thurs - tues fares on the eurostar site through the whole summer and 59 GBP roundtrip fares available on just about all of them.

Guess maybe I should start considering other options! Thanks again for all the suggestions :)

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Nevermind, found the answer to that - Rugby World Cup, held in France Sept 7 - Oct 20. Great.

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Thanks for this post.

My wifes sisters are visiting from USA in september and were taking them to Paris for few days.

Checked the other day re tickets and had just gone on sale for 9th-12th sept. Now just checked and the 10am trip planning on 9th has gone up to double, had to book the 1130am train to get the £59 return.

again thanks, spurred me into making the booking.

Ian.