Jump to content

Eurotunnel - you are having a laugh


PaulT
 Share

Recommended Posts

Just had another look at the different fares.

Now, in my immediately previous post the P&O cost of £240 is for a specific crossing whereas Eurotunnel allow a 2 hr margin for arriving and getting a shuttle.

So recalculating so as via P&O you are not tied to a specific time crossing the cost increases to £280.

Do the calcs for a car with roofbox, dog but no trailer and the costs are:

P&O - specific crossing £145 or with flexibility £185

Eurotunnel - 2 hr flexibility £183.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="idun"]I'm really not bothered about Eurotunnel at all. After a long drive, we rather like the crossing, a bit of bracing sea air before we set off again.

[/quote]

Me too idun, but they have priced me off the ferries (with the van) so as always it's down to circumstances and yours are certainly different journeywise to mine and others but as PaulT posted and my self there are comparable if not cheaper deals on the tunnel if you haven't got the trailer.  I also find the food on board the ferries to be nasty these days so a quicker crossing and a short stop somewhere for something better to eat in the rolling hills of Kent is so much better than lukewarm nuked whatever on board. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="idun"] I've just done a search for Sept, so after the schools have gone back and it is still coming up as £300 on Eurotunnel and P&O at £200. I'm sure that I would shop around even more IF I was travelling, but £100 in my pocket will always interest me as it would go towards the cost of the autoroute. 

And the P&O times interested me far more than the Euro tunnel times when it was cheapest.

[/quote]

What?????? I said £300 on Eurotunnel return, and you have found dearer Paul T, so even more reason for me not to consider them. And yes, next time I would be taking the trailer as we have some of our son's stuff that has to go to him..... helas, no more toutou, I just counted our doggy as we always travelled with her and in fairness she was always included in any fares we had. 

Also if I add on the motorways, and diesel and we still have no change from £600 at all. And hotels, forgot them[:D]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="idun"][quote user="idun"] I've just done a search for Sept, so after the schools have gone back and it is still coming up as £300 on Eurotunnel and P&O at £200. I'm sure that I would shop around even more IF I was travelling, but £100 in my pocket will always interest me as it would go towards the cost of the autoroute. 

And the P&O times interested me far more than the Euro tunnel times when it was cheapest.
[/quote]

What?????? I said £300 on Eurotunnel return, and you have found dearer Paul T, so even more reason for me not to consider them. And yes, next time I would be taking the trailer as we have some of our son's stuff that has to go to him..... helas, no more toutou, I just counted our doggy as we always travelled with her and in fairness she was always included in any fares we had. 

Also if I add on the motorways, and diesel and we still have no change from £600 at all. And hotels, forgot them[:D]
[/quote]

An P&O was dearer than you said for comparable.

And you are now saying you are including diesel etc in your £600 - you did not originally state that. It would be basically the same whether you go via the tunnel or ferry, dependent upon which side of Calais you wanted to be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Eurotunnel still manages to attract customers, and it's probably the convenience and speed. I haven't used it for a while but I always do a comparison just in case. Our family used it this year and I believe Tesco vouchers can be exchanged for the fare.

Several years ago my motorcycle forum published an preferential employee code which purchased a crossing for £12.50 single, and many of us used it that year (me, several times!) before they rumbled that the "employee" was making an unfeasibly high number of trips!

I, too, travelled from northern England, and found that with the tunnel I could make some progress into France before having to stop for a break, but with the boat I was already rested and could go further, but of course I'd be over an hour behind. We used the Hoverspeed service too when that was operational for much the same reasons.

I still find people who won't use the tunnel because it goes under the sea, but I'm old enough to remember the Herald of Free Enterprise capsizing, so there's no absolutely safe crossing. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PaulT, as the prices are variable each day, I simply chose the fares that I would have chosen if I was travelling on those dates so giving them down to the last penny seemed futile.

Also, someone from the south of England, with somewhere in France within a couple hundred kms of the coast has a relatively cheap costs, no matter which way they cross. We don't and never have. I think that you are suggesting that our whole costs would have simply been Dover to Calais............. would that they would have. In consequence, I will get the cheapest crossing I can as it all helps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Every single time I travel over, I check ferries and tunnel prices and have always found the ferry to be cheaper.

Also, the advantage of the ferry is that coming from /going to Aberdeen requires pretty much 12 hours driving from Dover, so the few hours lost waiting for the ferry is a welcome break before the 10 hours or so through France.

I used to use Rosyth to Zeebrugge as it cut out the hassle of driving the length of UK, saved a hotel stay and worked out about evens price-wise but they have stopped the passenger service. (although I did manage to wrangle a place on the freight service last time - scariest crossing ever!)

Going from Hull still requires a vast amount of UK driving, plus the high ferry cost make it unviable.

Bring back Speedferries :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Speedferries, happy memories.

I had already made the break to move to France and had accepted the ferry prices/pricing as it was then, Speedferries came into being whilst I was travelling before moving to France and was most welcomed by me even if it did lull me into a false sense of security/values.

10 tickets for £190 and then only another £10 or £15 to take my trailer, all up length was supposed to be 7m which I just crept under but I saw some spectacular pi55taking in the early days, hightop LWB vans exceeding it with their own length and with an equally long trailer behind.

The only good thing that came of those halycon (is that the right word?) days was that the others started to adopt simple fair pricing structures and hidden amongst all the scam 3 day & 5 day returns one can still find a reasonable priced single crossing with a bit of patience and flexibility.

Its rare that I pay more than £25 for a single Calais/Dunkerque to Dover crossing, never more than £30 but I have to be very flexible and sometimes creative, if I want to use a van or tow a trailer/caravan then thats another story, I am doing very well if I can get it for double the price, most of the time I just cant bring one.

RIP speedferries, you are sorely missed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Irrespective of any price differences etc, found  benefits by using the Tunnel, having used various ferries and Tunnel quite a lot. Firstly the time saving and maybe more importantly on the train you don't have petulant, grumpy kids throwing the door open and putting dents and scrapes in your bodywork then mummy/daddy getting aggressive because you take them to task, plus no rucksacks, bags etc getting scraped along the length of the car.

And what about coming off the ferry to the the exasperation of 30-40 motor cycles driving round everyone to selfishly clog up the passport controls.  Seems the majority are just totally averse to queuing like the rest of us[:@]. No doubt that will upset motor cycling forum members.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="idun"]S&H, really, we have never encountered such behaviour on the ferries, or sea cat's or hovercraft.

[/quote]

You must sleep all the way then Idun. What S & H describe is pretty par for the course.

Don't forget if you collect Tesco clubcard points then Eurotunnel give treble value on your coupons. Use a Tesco credit card (but not outside the UK) as well and you soon start racking up the clubcard points.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have never yet managed to make the tesco system work for me. And I'm not a fan of Tesco either, so never have many points or money from them.

We have travelled by all the three 'sailings' I have mentioned, and I really have not noticed such bad behaviour and I would have especially as  Mr Idun always notices such things and will make his annoyance known by everyone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="idun"]I have never yet managed to make the tesco system work for me. And I'm not a fan of Tesco either, so never have many points or money from them.

[/quote]

We don't shop at Tesco either. When you're two seniors you don't spend a lot on food anyway. The secret of accumulating points is to get a Tesco credit card.

I tell a lie. I visited the Tesco filling station today. £78 equals 78 points. Easy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We only have one credit card from our bank which we very rarely use. I'd never think of getting a credit card or using one from any where else.

And diesel is cheaper at our local Asda, so we rarely fill up at Tescos either. I did go to Tesco at 5 this morning though and spent £7.19....... it was the only place open, and I did remember to use my points card[Www]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have a John Lewis credit card, which we use for everything we possibly can and pay off in total every month, in return John Lewis send us between £50 - £ 100 in vouchers, three or four times a year which I can spend at JL or Waitrose....

Works for us, and I knows Tesco card has quite a lot of advantages too.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ditto for our Waitrose card, Russethouse, including our 10-journey Tunnel purchase each year. I just thought on reading the last couple of posts, our son and DIL shop at Tesco but he has a Waitrose credit card - interesting. I remember they used Tesco points to part fund their honeymoon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...