Eurotunnel Day Trip tickets back

[croyde]

Funnily enough I was looking at getting off this island to see my mum in Holland.

Looked for the cheapest midweek return.

Harwich Hook of Holland £300, not incl petrol.

London to Rotterdam by train £300.

Chunnel £300 not incl petrol.

City Airport to Rotterdam £200.

So flying wins but are the other lot in cahoots?

[Deesee]

mikef said:

For me, it’s a break-even calculation on wine buying in France. We’re currently in the Bergerac region picking up very good reds and whites from the producer at under EUR 8 a bottle, a saving of at least £10 over a quality wine in the UK. If two people can bring back 48 bottles, that sort of sets a limit on how much it’s worth paying for the tunnel (taking petrol and tolls into account)

Don’t forget you have tax free shopping now, you can claim all the Vat back.

[Deesee]

croyde said:

Funnily enough I was looking at getting off this island to see my mum in Holland.

Looked for the cheapest midweek return.

Harwich Hook of Holland £300, not incl petrol.

London to Rotterdam by train £300.

Chunnel £300 not incl petrol.

City Airport to Rotterdam £200.

So flying wins but are the other lot in cahoots?

Eurail pass is about 80£ return (+supplement if you want Eurostar, foot passenger on p&o inc).

https://www.eurail.com/en

[croyde]

Deesee said:

Eurail pass is about 80£ return (+supplement if you want Eurostar, foot passenger on p&o inc).

https://www.eurail.com/en

Cheers, I'll look into that

ETA

Thought I was computer savvy but finding that website very unintuitive.

Just put in my 4 days away and destination Rotterdam and it keeps coming up with 4 travel days in a month and 280 dollars.

Can't see an option to make it 2 travel days.

Or I have become dim

Edited by croyde on Tuesday 19th September 09:46

[Jester86]

gtidriver said:

Just checked P&O and its now £34.50 going out and £14.50 coming back in the evening. Daytrip on Wednesday on the Le-sttole is £538 only available ticket is flexi plus, P&O £49. The tunnel surely cant sustain those prices thats just nuts. Can anyone get a higher cost for a day trip??

I mean, Flexi Plus is basically the VIP rock up and get on any train you want with the option of popping into the lounge, on the way out and on the way in. So £270 for complete convenience each way. If that is also the only ticket you can book, then the service is likely to be fully booked for the normal tickets. A company will pay that when they realise they need someone to drive from the UK to somewhere in the EU at the last minute.

I've not worked for Eurotunnel for about a year now (on the engineering side). But the higher pricing was an interesting point of discussion, money is made on freight, tourist traffic is just nice for the average joe. It was the freight traffic that kept ET afloat during COVID, just barely as even that dropped to roughly 50% with tourist traffic at effectively 0.

Even if you double the ticket price and lose half the customers you are no worse off. With the added benefit of taking stress off the service, which at times is sorely needed.

[Deesee]

croyde said:

Deesee said:

Eurail pass is about 80£ return (+supplement if you want Eurostar, foot passenger on p&o inc).

https://www.eurail.com/en

Cheers, I'll look into that

ETA

Thought I was computer savvy but finding that website very unintuitive.

Just put in my 4 days away and destination Rotterdam and it keeps coming up with 4 travel days in a month and 280 dollars.

Can't see an option to make it 2 travel days.

Or I have become dim

Edited by croyde on Tuesday 19th September 09:46

I’ll assume you live in or around London

https://www.eurail.com/en/plan-your-trip/eurail-ti...

I’ve used a random date and time..

[TheLurker]

Interestingly I've just been looking to book the tunnel for a ski trip (driving down). It seems a lot kore expensive than last year, and they only seem to have trains running every hour now rather than 30mins. It also looks like they've changed the pricing model so you have to pay even more to get the same as you used to get with the standard ticket (arrival withing 2hrs of booked time).

There used to be £20-40 between the ferry and tunnel, but its a lot more now. Interesting to hear the views as to why above.

[croyde]

Deesee said:

I’ll assume you live in or around London

https://www.eurail.com/en/plan-your-trip/eurail-ti...

I’ve used a random date and time..

Thanks, for some reason I couldn't get it to just do me a ticket. It kept suggesting passes.

So I just plan an outbound then a separate inbound?

Cheers.

[981Boxess]

TheLurker said:

Interesting to hear the views as to why above.

Convenience costs and no competition, you cannot compare a crossing by ferry to Eurotunnel

[Deesee]

croyde said:

Deesee said:

I’ll assume you live in or around London

https://www.eurail.com/en/plan-your-trip/eurail-ti...

I’ve used a random date and time..

Thanks, for some reason I couldn't get it to just do me a ticket. It kept suggesting passes.

So I just plan an outbound then a separate inbound?

Cheers.

Or a two day pass..

[croyde]

I've never taken the Eurotunnel with a car, the cost has always put me off whenever I've looked.

I prefer the ferry anyway. Yes it's slower but seems more of an occasion, seeing the white cliffs slowly recede

My brother lived near the UK end and did use the cheap pop over in the afternoon option when it existed. Do a shop, fill up with booze and a nice meal nearby or in Calais.

Think it was only £25.

[gtidriver]

981Boxess said:

TheLurker said:

Interesting to hear the views as to why above.

Convenience costs and no competition, you cannot compare a crossing by ferry to Eurotunnel

In all the years I've traveled by boat I've never had one cancel and I've only been late in twice due to bad weather, the tunnel is a different story, being stuck in the middle numerous times is fun, plus there are the canceled trains where your sat at the lanes after border control so cant leave if you want too, bumping me 4hrs as i was late due to staff closing half the check-in booth was fun, oh if you pay flexi plus you can go right now, we waited. Turn up early by a few hours in the late evening, that'll be extra sir, I argued and didn't pay. I was one of 8 cars on the train.

Id quite happily never ever use that scummy company ever again, but my Mother misses traveling abroad and won't take the ferry.

[vikingaero]

981Boxess said:

They used to do cheap day trip deals for £25 return, in recent times the day trip ticket was £60 return.

I am starting to think I live on Alcatraz.

Eurotunnel used to do a £9 return day trip with a car - go out after 6pm, return before 6am. We lost count of the amount of times we would use it and go for a meal in Calais, Boulogne or Le Touquet and return on a 1am train with only 3 or 4 cars on board. There was a fab restaurant (now sadly closed) in Le Touquet called Le Corsair, where we would indulge in a platter for Fruits de Mer for £30 and fail to finish more than a third of it.

[Jester86]

gtidriver said:

In all the years I've traveled by boat I've never had one cancel and I've only been late in twice due to bad weather, the tunnel is a different story, being stuck in the middle numerous times is fun, plus there are the canceled trains where your sat at the lanes after border control so cant leave if you want too, bumping me 4hrs as i was late due to staff closing half the check-in booth was fun, oh if you pay flexi plus you can go right now, we waited. Turn up early by a few hours in the late evening, that'll be extra sir, I argued and didn't pay. I was one of 8 cars on the train.

Id quite happily never ever use that scummy company ever again, but my Mother misses traveling abroad and won't take the ferry.

I am going to add some balance to all of this. As Eurotunnel always gets lumped with all the blame for certain things.

1. Unfortunately there are times where trains do break down in the tunnel for various reasons or even on the platforms, where even with troubleshooters and techs like myself getting called to fix it, you cannot get there and get it all done within the 25 minute turnaround from when a train arrives to when it departs. But there are also just as many occasions where freight lorries don't secure their tarpaulins correctly which while travelling at speed whip up and tear down the catinery.

2. The staff don't just close half the check in booths if it is busy. If you are late to check in, then you effectively miss your train. It is just like turning up late at the airport. The plane doesn't wait for you and you have to get a seat on the next available. The excuse I used to hear often was "Oh the M20 was gridlocked, it wasn't our fault". Unfortunately it isn't Eurotunnels fault if external factors affect your check in time.

3. Turning up early, there is a defined amount of time you can just check in early. Again just like the aeroplane analogy. You cannot just bowl up to an airport and expect to hop on a different flight. Early evening trains will always be more popular and therefore more expensive. Get a flight at 1am and it'll be cheaper than flying in the social hours.

Think of the tunnel more like an airport.

[981Boxess]

gtidriver said:

Id quite happily never ever use that scummy company ever again, but my Mother misses traveling abroad and won't take the ferry.

I detest Eurotunnel as a company, they have no concept of customer service and take the piff wherever possible.

That said, without getting into a my dad is bigger than your dad scenario in the last 2/3 decades I have used it for dozens of trips and it has always provided me with easy travel.
No worries with a decent car of getting buggies dragged over the bonnet as you get with ferries unless you opt for the lorry deck and wait even longer to load.
When I have arrived early or late it has never been an issue, there is always the next train.

But this latest pricing model is simply a step too far.

[vikingaero]

981Boxess said:

gtidriver said:

Id quite happily never ever use that scummy company ever again, but my Mother misses traveling abroad and won't take the ferry.

I detest Eurotunnel as a company, they have no concept of customer service and take the piff wherever possible.

That said, without getting into a my dad is bigger than your dad scenario in the last 2/3 decades I have used it for dozens of trips and it has always provided me with easy travel.
No worries with a decent car of getting buggies dragged over the bonnet as you get with ferries unless you opt for the lorry deck and wait even longer to load.
When I have arrived early or late it has never been an issue, there is always the next train.

But this latest pricing model is simply a step too far.

Eurotunnel are pricing themselves at a premium over the ferries because of the speed element. I think currently it's around a £90-100 fare for a day return on the boats.

That said I'm another dissatisfied Tunnel customer. There are far too many delays and I would guesstimate that only 2 out of our last 20 trips were on time.

[gtidriver]

vikingaero said:

981Boxess said:

gtidriver said:

Id quite happily never ever use that scummy company ever again, but my Mother misses traveling abroad and won't take the ferry.

I detest Eurotunnel as a company, they have no concept of customer service and take the piff wherever possible.

That said, without getting into a my dad is bigger than your dad scenario in the last 2/3 decades I have used it for dozens of trips and it has always provided me with easy travel.
No worries with a decent car of getting buggies dragged over the bonnet as you get with ferries unless you opt for the lorry deck and wait even longer to load.
When I have arrived early or late it has never been an issue, there is always the next train.

But this latest pricing model is simply a step too far.

Eurotunnel are pricing themselves at a premium over the ferries because of the speed element. I think currently it's around a £90-100 fare for a day return on the boats.

That said I'm another dissatisfied Tunnel customer. There are far too many delays and I would guesstimate that only 2 out of our last 20 trips were on time.

[vikingaero]

OK. I did a quick check of DFDS.

[croyde]

Just tried PO Ferries for the same times next week that Eurotunnel wanted £300 for....

£129

[RayDonovan]

We used ET as you obviously could stay with your pet in the car. P&O now have a pet lounge for around £16 per person and you get tea/coffee/soft drinks in with the price.

This summer, ET wanted around £400 return, P&O was £200.