Nearly Retired (I am now) Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 It has been said on this forum for a good while that Sea France is soon to be no more - but it's still there. I have gambled £66 on a return crossing in May, but haven't yet got the confidence to book for say July, August which is still available at the same price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anton Redman II Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 Buy at least two and pay by UK credit card so you are over the £ 100 limit if they do go under.Last news was that French Government could not sell the company so we seeking EU permission to refinance it.http://www.lloydslist.com/ll/sector/ports-and-logistics/article357241.ece Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulT Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 They are still sending me emails referring to me as a valued customer - I have used them once! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearly Retired (I am now) Posted March 8, 2011 Author Share Posted March 8, 2011 "Buy at least two and pay by UK credit card so you are over the £ 100 limit if they do go under."Unfortunately no-can-do. Each transaction is separate and is for less than £100. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anton Redman II Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 How much are they cheaper than P & O ?We have just bought on P & O becasue we fancy a look at the new ships. I cannot believe the French Government would allow a state owned company to go into liquidation. A large estate of cards in a number of locations would follow very quickly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Théière Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 £170 P&O, £162 SF so £8 in my case (Van) but knock me down with a feather Eurotunnel were considerably cheaper, still more than LD £120 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 I have just booked with them for car and trailer, a lot cheaper than P&O, ten Euros or so cheaper than the midnight Norfolkline boat but for an early afternoon departure.I tried my usual dodge with all the operators searching for cheap 24 hour return offers with the intention of using just the outward leg but they all jacked the price up massively for the trailer so Seafrance wins this time round.It seems to me that trailers are really expensive with all the operators (often twice the price on top of that for the towing vehicle) since Speedferries went under, with them I could add the trailer to a prebooked £19 superticket for only another tenner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceni Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 Perhaps Speedferries would still be a going concern if it had charged more for trailers.John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Théière Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 Crikey Chancer your not wrong, LD £110 without £190 with trailer. Van works out better for load and price Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearly Retired (I am now) Posted March 8, 2011 Author Share Posted March 8, 2011 Anton R II,Booking through ferrycheap.com you can take a car Dover-Calais for any duration up to about November 2011, including peak season, for £66 return. The best P & O figure for August is, at present, around £87.I wouldn't bother with looking at the new Spirit of Britain. Once on board, if you hadn't told me, I'd have hardly known any different. It's a bit further to walk from one end to the other though!One new feature: The car deck(s) have fixed ramps at each end to speed-up (?) exit down to the next level but they are not quite at the ends of the boat so we had to do a bit of 3-point turning. That part reminded me of Speedferries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 I wouldn't worry too much about Sea France.It's part of SNCF, and thus at least nominally state-owned. So the government would be very unlikely to just allow it to fail; the impact on jobs would be too severe (it claims to be the biggest employer in Calais, for example) and the seamen's unions still have considerable clout in France. There have been several restructuring plans, involving job cuts, which the unions have blocked.Sea France could still be privatised, and I am sure the government would jump at the chance. In fact it nearly happened a couple of years ago when LDA (LD Lines' parent) expressed an interest. Brittany Ferries also wanted to buy a majority stake at one point. Both deals fell though though.Unfortunately Speedferries was never a sustainable business. The only way it could succeed would have been if it gained so much business from the other operators that they were forced to pull out, then Speedferries could have set its own pricing at an economic level. But as it couldn't carry freight, which is the bread and butter for the operators of conventional ferries, it stood no real chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 I am sure you are right Will.What saddened me is that just before the seizure of the boat by the Boulogne sur mer port authorities (which I felt stank at the time) I felt that Speedferries were really making a go of their business, if indeed they ever could have by your reasoned reckoning.I had just travelled with them, I think it was November and the boat was full to the brim with vehicles, I have never seen anything but empty boats and trains with all the other operators before and since then, once I scored a €15 return ticket with eurotunnel during the winter period, even at that price there were only 5 or 6 vehicles on the whole train.Judging from the above I would say that Speedferries did indeed take a lot of business from the other operators and generated a whole lot more with their pricing and multi-ticket structure, they are for me sadly missed.Mind you having just weighed out £250 on tickets a few days before their demise perhaps I would not feel so nostalgic about them were it not for Nationwide clawing back my money for me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anton Redman II Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 I think Speed Ferries got it wrong by not living up to their name. The day they launched they should have been target 'high net worth' individuals amongst their passengers to invest so they could lease the second craft. Nobody driving from London to Dover during the working day could or can predict their ETA at Dover well enough to not need a 40 minute cushion using SF. The result a service which could have been faster road to road than the tunnel was not Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre ZFP Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 Getting slightly back on thread, I would not take Seafrance again unless I was really desperate. I've only used them a few times but always been late, staff both rude and unhelpful. The last straw for me was when I turned up early for a crossing and asked very politely if I could take the earlier boat, there was plenty of space. Yes was the reply, that will be €29 for changing your booking. But P&O and Norfolk Line do it for free! Their response? Well I suggest you take them next time - so I have!I hope you lot have had better experiences than me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekJ Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 We nearly always use SeaFrance. We get a discount though the CSMA for starters. We always book the cheapest non-flexible fare. For the outbound leg (from the UK) we always turn up for our booked crossing. However, for the return leg we tend to turn up whenever we happen to arrive. This might be a day early. We have only ever been charged £10 for making this change. I understand P&O may charge considerably more than this if you there is a greater than 2 hour difference between the booked crossing. Perhaps we have been lucky.I agree the onboard service isn't great but other than the toilets and the seating areas we don't use anything... no meals, snacks etc. I can't say we have any particular problems with lateness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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