Issue with Eurostar & delayed train

gmarie

First off, sorry for the long post!

Last week I went to Paris for the night and booked via the Eurostar website to travel from Doncaster to Paris (return), with a change in London. Unfortunately, my Doncaster to London train had a 56 minute delay, meaning I would have missed my Eurostar connection.

Initially it said my delayed train was 20 minutes delayed and due at a certain time, and so when a train to London Kings Cross pulled in at that exact time, I hopped on it. Turns out it was the wrong train, I never heard the announcement saying it was a different train as the station was pretty noisy. As it was the wrong train, I needed to buy a new ticket for that journey, fair enough. Anyway, I made my connection and had a great evening in Paris. It wasn't until I checked online that I saw that the delay ended up being almost an hour due to signalling issues. I then realised I definitely would have missed my connection if I waited for the right train!

So, I paid for train tickets that I didn't use because of a delay. I then wondered if I could have received some kind of compensation for that delayed train? I emailed Eurostar and their reply is "Unfortunately, as your Doncaster to London tickets were not booked through Eurostar as a through ticket and part of your Eurostar journey, but separately as a stand alone through the local rail provider, I'm afraid we cannot offer you any refund or reparation for the tickets you chose not to use due to the delay on that date."

Which has me completely confused, because I did book them as a single journey, the entire process was completed on the Eurostar website at the same time. I received two booking numbers, one for Doncaster to London, and one from London to Paris, but they're on the same page under 'my bookings' and that journey is titled 'Doncaster to Paris gare du nord return'. They say contact my rail provider. Are they trying to fob me off, or are they just confused about my situation? I haven't booked anything with Virgin East Coast (my Doncaster to London provider), I just collected the tickets from my local station as instructed by Eurostar. The downside is I didn't keep any outbound tickets, I left them in Paris when clearing out loads of receipts and rubbish in my purse, I just figured I didn't need them now that journey was over!

They then say "For future reference, we can book domestic and Eurostar tickets together as a through ticket and when you do so, you are covered under the conditions of carriage which means that if one part of your Journey is delayed, causing you to miss your connection, you would be placed on the next available service free of charge.". I thought that's what I had done, and was fully aware of this, I just got on the wrong train by accident and thankfully everything turned out alright in the end.

It's pretty obvious I didn't travel on my planned train as I still made my planned Eurostar train, so unless I teleported into London, I obviously used a different travel method. I'm not desperate to receive my money back, I know it's a big ask especially without the original tickets, but it'd be nice, it'd go towards paying my Laduree macarons off! Any help is appreciated! Thank you!

securityguy

A through ticket booked on the Eurostar website should be CIV-protected.

Read the low down here:

http://www.seat61.com/UKconnections.htm#.VvW_7mOhU0k

yorkie2

There is a lot of text there, but not the key facts we would need to give appropriate advice.

I'd suggest you post in one of the forums here, and state your full booked itinerary, along with the journey you actually made, details of any conversations you had with rail staff regarding the delay, and details of all the ticket(s) you booked, and what it is you are trying to claim back.

I am guessing you may have booked a ticket for travel with Virgin Trains East Coast to London, then Eurostar to Paris, but you actually boarded a Hull Trains or Grand Central service, in order to avoid being late into London, and consequently late into Paris. If so, then unfortunately if HT/GC are not feeling charitable then you are not going to be able to recover the money from them, so next time seek staff advice, and if you are advised to stick to VTEC, then do so. You would then be entitled to delay compensation if a delay on VTEC causes you to be more than 30minutes late into Paris.