Eurostar, any bargains?

Random

This is a long shot, but thought it was worth a try before I give up, I'm looking for a cheap eurostar ticket to Paris, but there are none left on their site. Leaving evening of the 1st May (arriving before 10), returning morning of the 5th (anytime). I can have Brussels for £29 each way, but not Paris, does anyone know of any other sites that might have cheap tickets?

teeb

You can get singles from London to Lille for £27.50 on that day.

Then you could, potentially, buy a separate Lille to Paris TGV ticket through the SNCF. I just looked, and you can get Lille to Paris for €17 each way - about £11.

Lille has two main stations - Lille Europe and Lille Flandres - which are right next to each other. Some TGVs go to each so make sure you either get one going through Lille Europe, or leave enough time to cross the road.

Random

Thanks, that could be worth looking into ... I'm trying to get to Germany and fancied a sleeper train there, which leaves from Paris, but then I might come back via Brussels, so if I can get a cheap single, that's great.

Random

Oh no, think I might have messed up! Booked a Eurostar leaving Lille at 8.35am on the 5th, without checking the connections properly. My train doesn't get into Paris Est till 6.46am! Have I just made an expensive mistake here, or is there a train that'll make it?

Random

*Edited comment about spam now it's been removed from above *

Thank goodness the German rail site was down, all I've booked so far is the Eurostar.

Random

Panic over, the lovely people at Eurostar switched me to a later train

Voyager2002

Next time, note:

You can generally get cheaper tickets on Eurostar by telling their site that you are not British, but some other nationality. I understand that the very best return fares are offered to people who give Spain as their country. For one-way tickets, it is best to be from the USA. Trial and error, really.

And for most places in Germany, it would actually be better to arrive in Brussels rather than in Paris. Note that Eurostar tickets to Brussels are valid to any station in Belgium, so you would only need to pay for a ticket from the border to your destination in Germany.

Random

Strangely enough, the train I booked appears to be more expensive on the Spanish site (41.25 euros as opposed to £27.50). I will bear that in mind for future trips though. I picked Paris because I wanted to get to Stuttgart, and that's where the sleeper went from. If I wanted a daytime train I'd probably have used Brussels. Very useful to know that about the Brussels tickets, that could've saved me a bit on an alternative route if I'd realised!

As it is, the German rail site is broken and I can't book anything! The offers I want had better still be there later, as I'm working on a very tight budget.

Talking of which ... does anyone know what sort of fee I might be charged for paying for my German (euro priced) tickets on a Natwest credit card? I ought to ring them and find out really.

Random

This should probably go in the vent board, but seeing as I've got a thread already I'll put it here!

When I went to book the Eurostar, I ran through the German tickets first to check them, then paid for Eurostar, and went back to pay for Paris-Stuttgart, and got an error. Since then I've got the same error over and over, and rang them more than once to try and book the tickets. Finally this morning they told me the French system has locked them out, and they've not been able to book these tickets for a month! Doesn't stop them offering them on their website, letting you select them, fill in all your details etc. It only errors at the final payment taking stage.

So at the moment I have no way of knowing if I can buy this ticket at all, the connecting trains that I'm going to use are going up as the offers run out, and I can't book anything because I don't know if I can go or not. Arrgghh! And I can't even just cancel as I've bought the Eurostar already.

Voyager2002

See if you can buy your tickets on the French rail site:
https://www.voyages-sncf.com

I have just had a look (random dates) and it was offering Paris-Stuttgart for about 39 euro each way. I don't know if it would have accepted payment, because I didn't actually try to buy a ticket.

Random

I'm wondering if the system change was that they now only allow booking a certain time in advance? If I look for 1st May, it says there are no trains, but for 1st April I can book. Prices were more expensive than Deutsche Bahn, but that may be the random days I picked if you saw some 39 euro ones, which is what I was trying to book.

Trouble is, I can't book the other tickets till I get this one, in case I have to cancel.