Terrible Eurostar experience

someanonbloke

I recently booked a Eurostar ticket. I arrived 30 mins before departure. It was an early morning train on a weekday. There was a reasonable queue in front of me but I was under the illusion that, having booked a ticket and been allocated a seat number, it was simply a matter of going through customs and security.

Amazingly, I was told that there was a problem with departures and I'd have to go to the ticket desk to sort it. There were several other people in a similar situation to me.

The ticket desk tried to sting me for another ticket at £200. I refused to accept their hustle and was told to speak to another ticket agent. After being palmed off to several agents, one of them, seeing that I was slowly getting more irate, eventually backed down, wrote a code on my ticket and I was ushered through the ticket turnstyle to be placed on a slightly later train. Other passengers ended up paying an extra charge to be placed on the next train.

A sting operation like this from Eurostar was the last thing I was expecting early in the morning and is more the sort of thing you expect when travelling in Asia. I was very disappointed by this attempted sting as I thought unscrupulous behaviours here in UK were a thing of the past - :rotfl:

In spite of the quicker journey time, I won't be travelling Eurostar again.

Westin

Were you cutting it too fine on time? They recommend a minimum 30 minutes for checkin and clearance formalities, 45 minutes at busy times.

http://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-info/your-trip/check-in

If just a minute or two outside of that then I guess they can potentially refuse passage on your booked service especially if queues ahead of the first scanning point are busy.

Tighter French passport control checks and heightened security recently have lengthen queuing and wait times at Ports and Eurostar stations. These have been quite well publicised recently.

Sorry that you missed your booked service. Turning up a little earlier and relaxing with a pre departure Costa might be preferable next time.

Voyager2002

You had obviously missed your train. Under normal circumstances people who arrive late (with less than 30 minutes to pass security) are generally allowed through, but with heightened security they knew that you did not have enough time for this. And since you had not allowed the thirty minutes that is a condition of travel, they were within their rights to insist that a ticket valid only for a specific departure was no longer valid, and ask you to buy a new ticket if you wished to travel at a different time.

Had you been flying, that would have been that, and your only options would have been to buy a new ticket or go home. What is remarkable is that they chose to amend your ticket without charge, in effect treating you as if you had arrived before the 30-minute closing time.

All in all, I think that this was exceptionally good service on their part.

Westin

Had you been flying, that would have been that, and your only options would have been to buy a new ticket or go home. What is remarkable is that they chose to amend your ticket without charge, in effect treating you as if you had arrived before the 30-minute closing time.

All in all, I think that this was exceptionally good service on their part.

I'd agree Voyager2002.

I would think that Eurostar staff are showing flexibility on ticket changes and amendments given French border force security delays at the moment. Ferry operators I believe are doing the same.

If caught in this situation I would like to think that polite words with the Eurostar/P&O/DFDS staff would find rebooking options given and likely to be free given the circumstances. Those front line staff must be fed up with the distruption as well.

Of course, top-tip is to allow extra time to complete security formalities.

Alan_Bowen

The early morning is the busiest time for Eurostar departures and the queues are much longer than normal. It would be madness in my view to think you could turn up as normal after all the events in France, and expect to be able to get through as usual. The French, who complete immigration controls before you board at St Pancras, are very nervous about all travellers, we saw just how bad it was at Dover this weekend, I would advise anyone to be aiming for a 1 hour check in at the moment, leave it any later and you risk losing the full value of the ticket

agrinnall

Alan_Bowen wrote: »

The early morning is the busiest time for Eurostar departures and the queues are much longer than normal. It would be madness in my view to think you could turn up as normal after all the events in France, and expect to be able to get through as usual. The French, who complete immigration controls before you board at St Pancras, are very nervous about all travellers, we saw just how bad it was at Dover this weekend, I would advise anyone to be aiming for a 1 hour check in at the moment, leave it any later and you risk losing the full value of the ticket

All this may be true, but don't you then think it is incumbent on Eurostar to advise their customers that they should allow extra time, and give them some guidance on how much more time? If their website says 30 minutes and they haven't bothered to update it to a more realistic time then I can't see how they can charge anyone who turns up then any extra.

leylandsunaddict

Not a sting operation. You missed your train due to your late arrival and were being charged accordingly. You should never just assume anything. You should have read the info on their website.

leylandsunaddict

agrinnall wrote: »

All this may be true, but don't you then think it is incumbent on Eurostar to advise their customers that they should allow extra time, and give them some guidance on how much more time? If their website says 30 minutes and they haven't bothered to update it to a more realistic time then I can't see how they can charge anyone who turns up then any extra.

Their website says 'Check in at least 30 mins before departure, 45 mins at busy times'. The OP only arrived at the station 30 mins prior and was in a queue. Had the OP actually done as the website currently advises he may not have missed his train.

Perhaps they should put a 'warning' on their website, but then how many people would both reading it?

someanonbloke

No, I disagree entirely. Eurostar's wholly inept and inefficient handling of passengers at a busy time caused the mess which the ticket agents sought to exploit by trying to sting ticketholders with extra fees. Disgusting behaviour but then hardly surprising in modern Britain.

Furthermore, there were plenty of spare seats on the next train, which I was put on. In fact it was less than half full but they still charged passengers an extra fee for the privelege of being put on it.

Just as well I've developed an intolerance for this sort of behaviour and make it clear to people who think it's ok to screw me that I won't tolerate them!

SW17

Westin wrote: »

Were you cutting it too fine on time? They recommend a minimum 30 minutes for checkin and clearance formalities, 45 minutes at busy times.

http://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-info/your-trip/check-in

If just a minute or two outside of that then I guess they can potentially refuse passage on your booked service especially if queues ahead of the first scanning point are busy.

Tighter French passport control checks and heightened security recently have lengthen queuing and wait times at Ports and Eurostar stations. These have been quite well publicised recently.

Sorry that you missed your booked service. Turning up a little earlier and relaxing with a pre departure Costa might be preferable next time.

Of course people have a responsibility to arrive on time, but I took Eurostar from St Pancras a couple of weeks ago, and it wasn't coping that well. The queues were not mega-long, but were moving very slowly to the gates where you scan your ticket, to the point where they were pulling people out whose trains were getting near and putting them through the Business Premier line. The staff at the gates were doing their best.

Perhaps when the OP arrived they were not exercising this discretion, but they could be a bit clearer if they want people to come earlier. They continue to promote the 30 min check-in and I only booked my ticket a couple of days before travelling.

French border control was not an issue, it was all down to how slow security was - they weren't asking passengers to do anything different to before, it just seemed to take a long time and the staff at security weren't that helpful. It's partly the design of the station - Where airports have conformance you can scan your boarding pass and there is then usually plenty of space to queue at security, at St Pancras the security scanners are right behind the ticket gates, so most of the queue is "landside" - easy for people to be caught out by this and be unable to scan their ticket in time.

If I arrived close to the 30 min deadline and the queues looked like I wouldn't get though, I would just go to the Business Premier gates, which have a 10 minute check-in, and ask to use those. I've had to do this once before and it worked. Nothing to lose by asking, anyway.

The organisation wasn't a lot better onboard, in my carriage there seemed to be multiple cases of more than one person being assigned the same seat, at which point the crew went into hiding and they sorted it out amongst themselves. At least the train was on time...