Raileurope/eurostar/one way tix...

HI!

I%26#39;ve been advised by a few folks on the TA boards to purchase a *round trip* Eurostar from Paris to London because it%26#39;s cheaper, and to just *throw away* the return.

Sooo.... hubs is on the Rail Europe web site about to buy tix on line, and for 2 adult and 1 youth %26quot;round trip%26quot; is 193.00 in US bucks. However, go to the next step and they charge just as much for the return!! Soooo... the grand total came to 386.00!! The one way trip for the three of us comes to 231.00.

Sooo... it appears to be %26quot;cheaper%26quot; when you first look at the round trip, but at least through this agent, they charge plenty for the return!!

Just wondering if Eurostar changed their pricing structure, (cause TA folks are usually pretty on top of things!) Or if this is because we%26#39;re going *from* Paris to London, instead of the other way around? Or did I completely misunderstand?

Baffled...

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I suspect it%26#39;s just because you are using the Raileurope site (an US based travel agent) instead of the Eurostar or the SNCF (french railway) website.

The price structures didn%26#39;t change.

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The problem being that you are using Rail Europe, a company whose sole purpose is to ovecharge guillable North Americans for tickets that can be bought for less from the rail operators themselves.

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I just checked on www.eurostar.com and a one way ($96) is considerably cheaper than a roundtrip ($148).

maybe i%26#39;m just another %26quot;guillable%26quot; american, but I%26#39;m not seeing how a roundtrip is cheaper than a one way....

any explanation if someone knows would help.

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I%26#39;ve just run a couple of checks and it *seems* that both RaiEurope AND the N . American (but ONLY the N. American) Eurostar site have finally put an end to the nonsense of pricing one way tix more expensively than the cheapest RT tix.

On the UK version of the Eurostar site a RT from London to Paris in early May is £59 (~$115) while a one way is £155.

On RailEurope a one way for the same date (May 8) is $94 whie a RT is $148. No doubt a shipping charge will be added but the ONE WAY fare still looks pretty good.

I will take the previous poster%26#39;s word for the N. American Eurostar site%26#39;s fares.

So yes, it now appears that the conventional wisdom is wrong and that, IF you are only travelling ONE WAY you should *probably* use the N. American version of the Eurostar site to book your travel. At the very least from now on I will advise people to check this site as well as checking on either the UK or French Eurostar site for ticket prices.

I think this dchange has happened only in the last week or two. Certainly it was not true late last year that RailEurope and/or the N. American Eurostar site were the least expensive places to buy tix. In late December RT tix purchased on the European Eurostar sites were still the way to go.

Kudos to those who sussed this out!.

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They used to follow the airlines model, where one way = FULL fare, while return fare is deeply discounted. But no more.

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Thanks for asking the question I was thinking either I was checking the wrong way since it didn%26#39;t make sense to me either.

I was checking round trip and it was giving me a price for each way and the total was more than one way.

I do however get a minimal discount as I am a %26quot;senior%26quot; (note it keeps getting younger and younger) LOL.

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how do you generally get your tickets if you buy online? looks like the website says you get it at the ticketbooth, kind of like a %26quot;Will Call%26quot; system.

anyone have experience with this?

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Dlaw go to the London Forum and use this search term

Eurostar ticket Pickup

It should bring back my question on this and answers. Think I asked it about Jan 12.

I would think the same holds true for Paris but you may want to post as a separate question on Paris Forum

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I, too, had trouble figuring out how to make the RT cheaper than OW. But, at $89 for an adult and $53 for students, I felt pleased with the prices.

I ordered our tickets online from Eurostar just a couple of weeks ago. To pick them up, I am to take the copy of the confirmation they sent me and the SAME credit card I used to pay for it - to a train station in Paris. This saves the shipping fee. I do plan to pick them up upon arrival in Paris, as opposed to waiting til the day of departure, in case there is a problem. Other posts have warned that you need to bring the same credit card you used to buy the tickets. If you have a different card, they seem to have trouble with the whole process.

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Hi all.

If you search for same day return tickets, they *can* be cheaper than buying a one-way ticket.

Mez.