nectarine Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 I'm being quoted £90 for a Newhaven to Dieppe one way ticket but they have lots of special offers like £40 for a 5-day return (whereas my single is over twice that!). Anyway, if I booked a 5-day return but just didn't use the return portion, what would happen? Are they likely to keep me on file and charge me more money for the next time that I use their crossing or do I get put on some kind of ferry 'blacklist'?And, slightly off subject, how CAN they charge half price when you are using the service twice, in a return? I just don't understand it, can someone enlighten me please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clair Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 I have bought returns and used one-way only.My excuse, had anyone asked for it, would have been that "the car had broken down and we were unable to make the crossing we had booked". (not true, but ready, just in case!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punch Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 Like Claire I have done this too, but not for a while since I've lived in France. Most of the Ferry companies have cottoned onto this loophole and now have a clause in their T & C's that states that they have the right to charge the full standard fare if the return portion of a return crossing is not used. I used to pay cash rather than by credit card so that they couldn't do this.I do not know of anyone who has actually been caught out though.Ferry pricing has no sense in my opinion. 20 years ago when I first came to France and bought my place, Brittany Ferries used to publish their prices in their brochures and it was possible to calculate the price of a crossing to the penny, at any time of the year. Now it seems like they just pluck a figure out of thin air ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 [quote user="nectarine"]I'm being quoted £90 for a Newhaven to Dieppe one way ticket but they have lots of special offers like £40 for a 5-day return (whereas my single is over twice that!). Anyway, if I booked a 5-day return but just didn't use the return portion, what would happen? Are they likely to keep me on file and charge me more money for the next time that I use their crossing or do I get put on some kind of ferry 'blacklist'?And, slightly off subject, how CAN they charge half price when you are using the service twice, in a return? I just don't understand it, can someone enlighten me please?[/quote]This daftness is also maintained by Eurostar - where a single costs about three times a return. Like you I think its daft, but when I discussed this with Eurostar, the customer service assistant (aka ticket seller) says many people book a return and just do not use it. Might explain the empty seats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 Nectarine.All the ferry companies have the same T&C's and it is not a question of charging you next time they will debit the card that you used to make the booking.I have personal experience of P&O and Seafrance enforcing this and anecdotal evidence that Speedferries and Eurotunnel also do it.The good news is that I have done exactly as you are considering with Transmance ferries without penalty, in fact one time when I discussed the inequity with them on a pieton ticket they advised me to book a return. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheldonrobbo Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 hi nectarine i think you will find that your special offer deal is £40 each way...equating to £80 total. Single ticket prices are based on the fact that they give you the flexibility to alter your travel dates to suit youand therefore you pay a premium.Its normal throughout the travel industry for single tickets to cost more than special return deals. Ever bought a rail ticket recently???...the same applies. Its highly unlikely that you will be penalised for not doing the return journey , especially by transmanche as i don't think they really check things out that well, but you never know. bon voyage sheldon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybananasbrother Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 Logically then the ferry company should be able to surcharge you if you dont use the outward half either, for some reason.I wonder if this has ever been tested in court.When I used to do UK to Belgium return overnight and UK to France return over 120 hours, I got ticked off because my car was full of stuff on the outward journey, the idea being that it was supposed to be a shopping trip only and not a quick freight trip. In my case it was both. Though the interdiction was not mentioned anywhere on the ticket or in the terms and conditions at that time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 WoolyI like your logic, you may just have found a usefull loophole!Next time I want to travel one way to England I will buy a day return England to France outbound, France to England return and only use the return leg, that should fool them, one their T&C's wont have thought of it and two I will swear blind that I made the outbound journey "how else could I be here wanting to return?"Sheer genius, only a (multi) split personality like yours could have thought of it [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybananasbrother Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 Devious, devious JR[6]As a general rule of life (and British law), you have an absolute right to do what is not specifically forbidden and a both a duty and a right to explore loopholes in what is forbidden or regulated. This is now sanctioned by the behaviour of parliamentarians.If you are of the Continental persuasion however, you may only do what is permitted which leaves the game in the hand of the State or Superstate.The great pity about British membership of Europe and particularly during the last ten years, is that the UK has gradually been switched to the Continental model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizfjr Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 I nearly always buy a 24 hour return when using eurotunnel rather than a single (I usually come back via Hull). It is much much cheaper and I just drop the return portion and never had any comeback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 That is worth remembering LizWooly.The more "native" I become the more your comments touch a nerve with me. The other day I was waiting patiently (not!) in the post office and every other person there was wearing the look of "ground down acquiescence" that you once so eloquently described, I thought oif you ans smiled.I hope I never become totally European or native as I fear I would end up like Jack Nicholson at the end of the film "One flew over the cuckoos nest"[:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybananasbrother Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 That film/book, JR, has crossed my mind many times. Just look at the strikers at present and there they are trying to burst out of the asylum. France seems to be convulsed every 50 or 60 years by a wave of rejections of the status quo. We are due one soon. Ominously, the Army is reputed to be very unhappy (see todays French press) so watch for fireworks in the next couple of years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybananasbrother Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 The lid is close to coming off?http://www.lepoint.fr/actualites-societe/pres-de-300-voitures-incendiees-la-nuit-derniere/920/0/260270 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gastines Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 BF only let you book the cheapUK-France trips on a credit card and we have been told many times that we will be charged the full single fare if the return is not used. I often used to come over from Poole-Cherbourg 3 times aweek,each time loaded up with household goods on the outward journey for our first house over here and loaded up on the return journey with French furniture and garden stuff bought from Depot Vents. Each outward trip it was the same question"You have only booked a24hr return, full single fare if you don't use the return" on the few occasions when things went pear shaped and I didn't get the right boat,I was never charged. I think that times have now changed with all the various checks they do now. With the fares they now charge ,especially ANY holiday time,I would have expected a few more cheap trips from the French side.Living in hope.Regards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nectarine Posted July 14, 2008 Author Share Posted July 14, 2008 Thanks for all your helpful replies, I may take a chance with this as my planned crossing is with Transmanche's Newhaven to Dieppe service and I don't get a useful reply when I ask them why they just can't give me a single crossing at half of the discounted return price !!! I'm a bit alarmed that, if I don't use the return, then they may debit my credit card but it seems the worst they will do is charge me for a single crossing, which is what I would have had to pay in the first place!!So, wish me luck. I will probably book on line, easier to fib to a faceless computer as I cannot tell a lie with a straight face ........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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