Great "Cheap Ferry Tickets": Comparison and booking tips.

1Hattie2

njb286 wrote: »

Are there any ways to save money with Wightlink? I'm planning on using some Tesco's vouchers but we're visiting the MIL and are booked into a campsite Saturday to Saturday in August and the ferry's going to be £160!:mad:

Hi! I use Wightlink reguarly for travel to the IOW... if you are prepared to travel after 9pm on both directions, you could have a Nightflyer return which costs £37.50 return. Failing that, a Dream ticket is £15 for a single leg of the journey, so £30 return - but this requires sailing at midnight! At the moment, they have loads of availability on these tickets... and don't forget that although the sailing times are unsociable it is summer so it will still be light when you are travelling. Alternatively, you could pay to park the car in their car park and hop over as foot passengers for £15 (roughly) return!

DON'T BOTHER WITH THEIR WEB PAGE - RING THEM DIRECTLY!!!!!!! Their webpage said i could travel for the IOW festival return for £109... even if it were a couple of days before and after the festival. I rang them directly - sailing out on the 9pm from lymington on the 10th, and the 9.15pm from yarmouth on the 16th... £37.50 with the Nightflyer return!!!!

Hope that helps :rolleyes:

TiTheRev

curlytail wrote: »

If you collect Tesco vouchers you can use these on various crossings. We used them to take our motorhome over to France vi the tunel last year. The cost was £160 - we used Tesco vouchers and paid £40.

We have also used them for when we go over to Ireland next month.

Ive looked on the Eurotunnel website but cant see how you can claim the Tesco vouchers off the final price. Is it only at checkout, or is there another way? Thanks :money:

eurochatnoir

We're in the process of moving back to the continent and have been shopping around for the best ferry deals.

Seafrance won hands down, with their carnet of tickets. You buy at least 6 crossings in advance (up to 18) and they cost just £32 each way (price comes down the more you buy in advance). You only need to book a reservation for the first trip, after that you just turn up at the port with your booking ref and they promise to get you on one of the next 2 ferries. This worked a treat on Sunday when we arrived in Calais and were on the next ferry back to Dover.

Detailed info and terms are on their website. This deal has to be booked on the phone.

John_Pierpoint

I hope you checked the credit rating of Sea France before investing too much of your money in this uncertain world economy.

Mind you P&O is financed by Dubai (I believe) and that state has its own financial problems.

jfdi66

I too live in France and travel frequently to the UK. But the talk of "miles points" raises my hackles. The companies offering these deals sometimes renege on them - like Eurotunnel who "stole" enough points from me for one crossing four or five years ago, just because they decided to discontinue the regular travller's scheme and wouldn't allow any more bonus trips after an arbitrary date (which I could not fit into my calender). Salopards! Even so, the tunnel is very convenient!
Barclaycard did a similar thing to me about seven years ago with their bonus points system (cancelled and my points with it, and now I hear Airmiles are threatening to cancel the miles earned by their users who do not make any new additions to their account. Who gives 'em the right to play ducks and drakes with their customers?

Shouldn't Martin be looking at these schonky deals???

Moral: Always cash in your points quickly before they are stolen & if you do get a free trip consider it a bonus rather than a right.

simonlang wrote: »

Hi,
I live in france and work in England, and I can quite categorically say thet Transmanche /LD lines has "at the moment" the most comprehensive routing and the cheapest pricing for any of the "long" crossings. Now they have started their loyalty scheme, you build up LD Miles for each journey you make, and the result is every tenth (or less) journey is free. You also get free accomodation upgrade offers regularly. The staff and service is excellent, and you are not paying for entertainment/discos/casinos like on Brittany Ferries. The comments about the Chairman posting replies personally is very true, but the customer service department takes complaints very, very seriously, and takes steps to put things right, but keeps the person with the complaint very well informed on the steps they are taking. If they feel that the complaint is due to a staff failure (very rare) you are virtually guaranteed to get your next crossing free of charge. For a smaller company, they are setting standards (and prices) that the "Big Boys" will never be able to rival.

No I do not work for nor am I connected with LD/Transmanche, but I do recognise Value for money and good old fashioned service.

Simon

hymer584

TiTheRev wrote: »

Ive looked on the Eurotunnel website but cant see how you can claim the Tesco vouchers off the final price. Is it only at checkout, or is there another way? Thanks :money:

You first need to exchange your Tesco vouchers ,via Tesco, for Eurotunnel vouchers. For every £1 in Tesco vouchers you get 4 times the value, ie for £25 of Tesco vouchers, you get £100 Eurotunnel vouchers. You can do this online. You will receive your vouchers by post, only takes 3 or 4 days. Once you have those, look on Eurotunnel website, pick the crossings you want, ring Eurotunnel, (you cannot book online using Tesco vouchers) stating that you wish to make a booking using Tesco vouchers, tell them the crossings you want, and you will be told how much (if anything) there is to pay. We have a motorhome and usually the cost for return is £122. We usually have £30 Tesco vouchers, meaning they are worth £120 in Eurotunnel vouchers, so there is the princely sum of £2 to pay!! We've done this for a few years now.
Once the booking is confirmed, you will be given a reference number which you will have to fill in on the form which comes with the vouchers, send the form and vouchers to Eurotunnel and you will get confirmation by email direct from Eurotunnel.

Montefiore

I've come across a link which offers an 8% discount off LD Lines ferries for East Sussex County Council staff.

Does anyone know if this would be restricted to those staff only, or whether anyone could use the link to get the discount, e.g. anyone finding it through Google, like me, or through this forum, like you :-).

Would you be required to show proof of employment for example either during booking stage or at the ferry point.

Here's the link-aferry.com/eastsussex


Thanks!

TiTheRev

hymer584 wrote: »

You first need to exchange your Tesco vouchers ,via Tesco, for Eurotunnel vouchers. For every £1 in Tesco vouchers you get 4 times the value, ie for £25 of Tesco vouchers, you get £100 Eurotunnel vouchers. You can do this online. You will receive your vouchers by post, only takes 3 or 4 days. Once you have those, look on Eurotunnel website, pick the crossings you want, ring Eurotunnel, (you cannot book online using Tesco vouchers) stating that you wish to make a booking using Tesco vouchers, tell them the crossings you want, and you will be told how much (if anything) there is to pay. We have a motorhome and usually the cost for return is £122. We usually have £30 Tesco vouchers, meaning they are worth £120 in Eurotunnel vouchers, so there is the princely sum of £2 to pay!! We've done this for a few years now.
Once the booking is confirmed, you will be given a reference number which you will have to fill in on the form which comes with the vouchers, send the form and vouchers to Eurotunnel and you will get confirmation by email direct from Eurotunnel.

Thanks and great first post!

Luiz01uk

I'm looking for ways to reduce the cost of the ferry to N Ireland - we're sailing from Stranraer/Cairnryan to Belfast/Larne in August

Not the best time of year to be going, I know...

Also, can't travel at 'anti-social' times which is the best way of reducing the fare.

It's been a while since we've been over there, but I'm sure Stena have reduced prices around June-time in the past. It's a bit of a gamble because you want to be sure of a place on the boat, and I'm not sure it's worth waiting in case that was a one-off.

I'd appreciate any advice / experiences ?

Best wishes

Luiz

Saint_Nick

Luiz01uk wrote: »

I'm looking for ways to reduce the cost of the ferry to N Ireland - we're sailing from Stranraer/Cairnryan to Belfast/Larne in August

Not the best time of year to be going, I know...

Also, can't travel at 'anti-social' times which is the best way of reducing the fare.

It's been a while since we've been over there, but I'm sure Stena have reduced prices around June-time in the past. It's a bit of a gamble because you want to be sure of a place on the boat, and I'm not sure it's worth waiting in case that was a one-off.

I'd appreciate any advice / experiences ?

Best wishes

Luiz

I have been looking for the start of August and to take the car we are looking at around £280-300 return.

The best way that I can see to reduce it is by using Tesco Clubcard Vouchers but at the moment I have very few. I am sure that because there is little competition the prices are kept higher than they should be.