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Eurostar Paris 2024 Cancellation - Compensation issues
adt1001
Posts: 2 Newbie
This is my first post here so hopefully this is the right place to post this.
Basically I booked a short trip to Paris on Thursday 25th July for the Olympics and was caught up in the railway line attack which caused the cancellation of a number of Eurostar trains.
We travelled to London from Leeds with LNER on the morning of Thursday 25th July, catching the Eurostar from St Pancras in the afternoon. We had 2 nights booked in a hotel and were due to return on Saturday 27th July. However, during the opening ceremony I received a text telling me our return Eurostar had been cancelled. Obviously a hugely stressful experience, especially given the expense of everything in Paris during the Games. I had no choice but to book an extra night in the hotel which was around €250. (It was a perfectly standard 3 star hotel, but hotel prices had multiplied many times during this period so there really wasn't much alternative). I also managed to get the last 2 seats on the next available Eurostar on the Sunday morning. Obviously missing our return LNER train from London meant booking a new one, but again, booking a new train ticket on a weekend, the day before, meant the ticket cos much more than the original fare.
As soon as we returned home I contacted Amex (who I had believed would cover the extra costs via AXA insurance as that is one of the benefits of the card, so long as all purchases are made on the Amex, which they were). However, after submitting the application I was called back a week later informing me that the costs incurred could only be paid for air travel cancellations, and did not apply to rai travel. Obviously small print I maybe should have been aware of, but wasn't.
The next contact I Ade was to Eurostar, who after much back and forth informed me that all they could compensate me for was unto £150 for the hotel stay. This is of course better than nothing, but as there was literally no alternative (it was the opening weekend of the Olympics, Paris hotels were packed and ridiculously expensive), it's not like I could have found anything at all within that £150 limit.
Final contact was LNER, who again after much jumping through hoops and seemingly needlessly complicated procedures and ill-working app/website, have said I can get the original ticket price for the return leg of my journey refunded, for a £5 fee. As mentioned though, that does not cover the cost of the ticket I had to purchase to replace the original which was many times more expensive. (at least Eurostar enabled a like-for-like replacement with no additional cost).
Is there ANY advice or ANYTHING I can do, besides just chalking this up to a huge amount of bad luck and make do with what I've been offered? To be clear, I ended up about £450 out of pocket in total, and so far look like I will only be able to claim about £190 of that back.
Basically I booked a short trip to Paris on Thursday 25th July for the Olympics and was caught up in the railway line attack which caused the cancellation of a number of Eurostar trains.
We travelled to London from Leeds with LNER on the morning of Thursday 25th July, catching the Eurostar from St Pancras in the afternoon. We had 2 nights booked in a hotel and were due to return on Saturday 27th July. However, during the opening ceremony I received a text telling me our return Eurostar had been cancelled. Obviously a hugely stressful experience, especially given the expense of everything in Paris during the Games. I had no choice but to book an extra night in the hotel which was around €250. (It was a perfectly standard 3 star hotel, but hotel prices had multiplied many times during this period so there really wasn't much alternative). I also managed to get the last 2 seats on the next available Eurostar on the Sunday morning. Obviously missing our return LNER train from London meant booking a new one, but again, booking a new train ticket on a weekend, the day before, meant the ticket cos much more than the original fare.
As soon as we returned home I contacted Amex (who I had believed would cover the extra costs via AXA insurance as that is one of the benefits of the card, so long as all purchases are made on the Amex, which they were). However, after submitting the application I was called back a week later informing me that the costs incurred could only be paid for air travel cancellations, and did not apply to rai travel. Obviously small print I maybe should have been aware of, but wasn't.
The next contact I Ade was to Eurostar, who after much back and forth informed me that all they could compensate me for was unto £150 for the hotel stay. This is of course better than nothing, but as there was literally no alternative (it was the opening weekend of the Olympics, Paris hotels were packed and ridiculously expensive), it's not like I could have found anything at all within that £150 limit.
Final contact was LNER, who again after much jumping through hoops and seemingly needlessly complicated procedures and ill-working app/website, have said I can get the original ticket price for the return leg of my journey refunded, for a £5 fee. As mentioned though, that does not cover the cost of the ticket I had to purchase to replace the original which was many times more expensive. (at least Eurostar enabled a like-for-like replacement with no additional cost).
Is there ANY advice or ANYTHING I can do, besides just chalking this up to a huge amount of bad luck and make do with what I've been offered? To be clear, I ended up about £450 out of pocket in total, and so far look like I will only be able to claim about £190 of that back.
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Comments
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The terrorist attacks on the network in France are really what will come under the extraordinary circumstances, so the travel providers seem to have been fair in the amount they have reimbursed you to date.
The route for this type of cover would be the travel insurance, though you have found that does not cover rail issues. Have you read the small print to check that the exclusion you were advised is truly an exclusion in the policy? I have heard of policies in the past that only cover pre-booked train but not turn-up-and-go trains. You had pre-booked trains. I think the turn-up-and-go is to cover failure of transport to the airport / central train station etc.0 -
I’m not sure the OP had travel insurance but was relying on the cover Amex give for paying with an Amex card.0
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Yes, that is what I understood. It still seems worth reading the small print to verify that the response given (air travel only, not trains) is full and correct.sheramber said:I’m not sure the OP had travel insurance but was relying on the cover Amex give for paying with an Amex card.0 -
Yes, and yes. It is I guess my own foolishness for not looking more carefully into arranging 'proper' travel insurance and trying to save a little money in the first place which has come back to bite me. Just wondered if there were any ideas of anything else I could do or any further recourse if anyone had a similar experience, but I guess not. Thanks anyway.Grumpy_chap said:
Yes, that is what I understood. It still seems worth reading the small print to verify that the response given (air travel only, not trains) is full and correct.sheramber said:I’m not sure the OP had travel insurance but was relying on the cover Amex give for paying with an Amex card.0 -
You can claim compensation from Eurostar for late trainsAs far as I know it is akin to UK rail delay compensation and it depends entirely on the length of the delay - there is no need to show extraordinary circumstances as with air travel. You need to claim within three months. If you choose to accept vouchers the refund is more generous than cash, but you have the choice.
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But OPs train wasn't delayed, it was cancelled. Under the regulations applying to rail travel, the two are treated differently.martindow said:You can claim compensation from Eurostar for late trainsAs far as I know it is akin to UK rail delay compensation and it depends entirely on the length of the delay - there is no need to show extraordinary circumstances as with air travel. You need to claim within three months. If you choose to accept vouchers the refund is more generous than cash, but you have the choice.
OP was moved to the next available train, and the overnight accommodation was reimbursed up to the cap, so Eurostar have complied with their obligations0
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