Keep this in mind if you are crossing the Channel!

[calibrax]

alephnull said:

Why can't you just buy a single on the ferry and a single back on the tunnel?

I'm missing something here. Why book a return?

Because a single costs considerably more than a day return.

[Du1point8]

Goodgear said:

Dont you find that an incredible bother? I know travelling is expensive and all that, but who has the motivation for that hooh-ha?

Well according to the OP its £199 against £44 so if he did it say 4 times in one year he is saving:

796 - 176 = £620 savings by doing this trick...

I thought that loop hole had be closed though.

[Targarama]

Goodgear said:

Dont you find that an incredible bother? I know travelling is expensive and all that, but who has the motivation for that hooh-ha?

You sit in front of the computer and spend 10 minutes choosing and booking your ferry/chunnel ticket. If you spend another 5 minutes and good a second one you can save £100 a trip. So it depends on whether you think 5 minutes is worth £100. Where's the bother?

[Dog Star]

I used to do a similar trick when I worked in Munich and went out every week Monday morning and came back Friday afternoon. If the trip involved staying over a weekend the cost was about 30% of the Monday-Friday return trip.

So what I used to do was buy a ticket going out Monday and returning a week on Friday. I would then buy a ticket the other way round coming back to Manchester on the Friday and going back to Munich on the Monday, basically "nesting" the Munich to Manchester return trip insider the Manchester to Munich return trip.

I believe this is not allowed (why I don't know) but I did it no problem. The main thing was getting all the tickets in order as I used to book them all months in advance

[Goodgear]

well it takes me ages to book everything, i double check everything ever since i booked a connecting train for the 31st sept instead of 31st august after i had booked the one of the 1st.
but also I just have too much of a guilt complex to do that, i would think about the people who needed to go on the trip and couldnt book a ticket for the one they needed.

[Lambochick]

I have never understood the rationale that the cross channel companies use to justify being able to charge significantly higher amounts for return tickets that have several days between the out and return journies rather than a couple of hours. Ultimately it's one crossing in each direction, why should the amount of time between the two crossings make any difference to the price charged? Rip off artists the lot of them.

[ewenm]

Lambochick said:

I have never understood the rationale that the cross channel companies use to justify being able to charge significantly higher amounts for return tickets that have several days between the out and return journies rather than a couple of hours. Ultimately it's one crossing in each direction, why should the amount of time between the two crossings make any difference to the price charged? Rip off artists the lot of them.

Maybe they make almost no profit on the cheap day-trip bookings, but the ticekts are cheap enough to encourage people who wouldn't normally bother at all into a booze-cruise. The longer-term returns might be at the normal profit margin.

As businesses it's their job to maximise their profits, not to operate on a cost-only basis.

[BarnatosGhost]

Chris944_S2 said:

BarnatosGhost said:

Does anyone know why the industry (tunnel, trains, ferries) make these strange prices?

Why should 2 journeys on a ferry (or train or tunnel) be priced radically differently depending on the time between the journeys?

The day returns are subsidised by the cheaper booze shops in France.

That sounds a reasonable conceit, but very difficult to administer. How does it work?

[Engineer1]

Cheap day returns may also be arranged such that the ferry crossings on offer are the ones that would be nearly empty, so sell discount tickets as the ferry has to cross to be able to come back full.

[Bill]

I have bought day returns when I had no plans to use the return leg, but always assumed/understood the ferry companies checked if you were only using the return leg. Perhaps the system relies on this belief and the actual checks required cost more than the losses.

ETA What the ferry checkin people thought a heavily laden and prepped Landy was doing on a day trip, I have no idea.

Edited by Bill on Wednesday 1st June 07:04

[madbadger]

Bill said:

I have bought day returns when I had no plans to use the return leg, but always assumed/understood the ferry companies checked if you were only using the return leg. Perhaps the system relies on this belief and the actual checks required cost more than the losses.

ETA What the ferry checkin people thought a heavily laden and prepped Landy was doing on a day trip, I have no idea.

Edited by Bill on Wednesday 1st June 07:04

When I was much younger we went on a day trip for £1 offer with tokens from the Sun.

The bloke at check in commented that we were the third car that day on a Calais day trip with Skis on the roof.

[Dog Star]

madbadger said:

When I was much younger we went on a day trip for £1 offer with tokens from the Sun.

The bloke at check in commented that we were the third car that day on a Calais day trip with Skis on the roof.

Top effort!

[Bill]