Eurostar cancellation fees

waffer486

Evening all,

Hopefully this is posted in the correct section of the forum.

I recently purchased 2x tickets for my parents for a trip to Paris on the eurostar in January, costing around £120. I purchased their additional cancellation insurance for £9.

Once I received the confirmation email, I noticed I had booked it for the wrong week. Thinking my cancellation insurance will do just as I imagined it would, I updated the travel dates and it came to a new figure of £159, which I thought was fair, thinking I'll pay that and receive a refund for the original amount.

But no refund was given, I was charged £150 instead. When I queried this, I was told that I was charged £30 for the additional price of the ticket, BUT also charged £30 per person, per leg of the journal for administrative fees!!!!! I have rang them up and they have basically told me there is nothing I can do

I am absolutely gutted as £120 is a huge amount of money for me, and tarnished all the fun of treating my parents to a trip abroad. Is there anything you guys think I can do, or just an expensive lesson for my naive self

Many thanks for reading

Sam

Voyager2002

You could try changing the date again, and see if the same thing happens!

Seriously, what does your insurance say.

leylandsunaddict

The insurance they sell is like most policies, it doesn't cover you to cancel because you've made a booking mistake. It was to cover your parents in case they had to cancel due to medical reasons, redundancy, jury service etc.

FBaby

They'be applied their cancellation as per their terms. It looks great when it says that you can cancel a journey, until you indeed find out that it will cost £60 per person to do so because of admin fee....not so free to cancel indeed!

However, I would have thought that the whole point of paying the £9 cancellation insurance was exactly for that, to avoid paying the admin fee, otherwise, I can't see the point of it if it provides nothing more than what you get without it. You need to read the T&C but I expect it does excludes certain circumstances like changing your mind.

Bogalot

FBaby wrote: »

They'be applied their cancellation as per their terms. It looks great when it says that you can cancel a journey, until you indeed find out that it will cost £60 per person to do so because of admin fee....not so free to cancel indeed!

However, I would have thought that the whole point of paying the £9 cancellation insurance was exactly for that, to avoid paying the admin fee, otherwise, I can't see the point of it if it provides nothing more than what you get without it. You need to read the T&C but I expect it does excludes certain circumstances like changing your mind.

Where does it say it is free to cancel? (It doesn't ...)

This is nothing to do with insurance, which as mentioned covers illness, redundancy etc.

When buying Eurostar tickets it states they are changeable for a fee plus any difference in fare.

Expensive lesson I'm afraid OP, always double check dates and actually read the insurance policy you're buying.

leylandsunaddict

FBaby wrote: »

They'be applied their cancellation as per their terms. It looks great when it says that you can cancel a journey, until you indeed find out that it will cost £60 per person to do so because of admin fee....not so free to cancel indeed!

However, I would have thought that the whole point of paying the £9 cancellation insurance was exactly for that, to avoid paying the admin fee, otherwise, I can't see the point of it if it provides nothing more than what you get without it. You need to read the T&C but I expect it does excludes certain circumstances like changing your mind.

Have you looked at the policy? Of course it provides more than you get without it. The cheaper policy is a standard insurance policy covering cancellation and baggage. It's not a one off payment made to Eurostar to avoid paying any admin fees they may levy. Like all insurance policies, disinclination to travel is not covered.