Dont arrive too early at the tunnel

[Bill8503]

I booked a tunnel crossing for the 14th April for 01.12 in the morning, not knowing how long it would take me to drive across France. (The journey from my home has taken anything from 9 - 15 hours). So leaving plenty of time for the trip I left just befor 10 in the morning - only to arrive at the tunnel at 7.30 in the evening. I decided to check on how much extra it would cost to go on the earliest available shuttle, and was shocked to learn that it would cost an extra £ 156. Do you think this is excessive? Needless to say I spent a few hours walking around Cite Europe, then booked in a t 11.15 and was booked on the 11.49 train at no extra charge. Comments please -

[cooperlola]

That does seem steep.  However, they do state, (from memory) that you should not arrive more than 2 hours before departure time.

[Baz]

Whilst Eurotunnel is a convenient way of travelling their fare structure for single or return flexible ticket is currently £199 each way which  IMO is ludicrously expensive. So as you were outside their 2 hour window they probably were charging you the difference between the single fare you paid and £199.

I have found that the ferries especially P&O are far more understanding for early and late arrivals and often will not make a charge and their fares are far cheaper than the train.

Baz

[Brian]

Last October arriving 24 hours early (due to illness) proved no problem as we arrived during 'off peak' as originally booked albeit one day early.

Perhaps if you are a frequent traveller you could have paid the extra £20/30 euro allowing travel during the peak period (1359-2359) should you have arrived earlier than intended.  Arriving late and travelling later (viz off peak) I am sure would have been no problem pricewise.

Surely you should be happy that in the end you travelled a couple of hours earlier than you had booked anyway.

Brian

[Kevinmc]

7:30 in the evening of the penultimate day of  the two week Easter holiday !!

Try it next Saturday  and see how easy it will be to get on board.

Basic rules - it will be expensive on:

1. All  school  holidays and half terms

2. All Friday to Sunday crossings, because Saturday  is rental change day

All carriers will maximise their revenue on these days.

[P]

Think it is a case of seeing from another angle. If you had paid £199 for a flexible fare so that you could travel when you wanted and the person in the next car said 'I paid £40 to travel at a fixed time, turned up earleir and got an earlier train that suited me and they charged me £30 extra (total £70) would you feel miffed.

Whilst I agree that £199 is very high, if people leant that you could have a flexible fare by making a fixed booking and then turning up when you want and pay just a little extra to turn it in to a flexible fare people would not book flexible fares.

In addition, whilst the fares do seem high, the tunnel sure has some debt.

Paul 

[Ron Avery]

When the tunnel first opened, they were very flexible about travelling times and you could just turn up with a ticket and travel on the next available train to a point, much later or earlier than the booked train.  But then as with these things, when word got around, people started taking the proverbial buying the cheapest ticket and expecting to travel outside of the validity of their tickets at any time of the day or night and to just turn up and go irrespective of the booked train time.

There were also a lot of people with limited period tickets like weekends or 5 day tickets turning up on the Tuesday or 6th and 7th day and expecting to be allowed to travel for no additional fare and night time ticket holders arriving at premium rate times and expecting to travel.  So in summmer 2003 there was a clamp down and people charged the correct fare for the train that they wanted to use if they were late,  or told either to pay the correct fare or wait if they were early. This revised policy by Eurotunnel was also in response to people complaining who had paid premium prices to travel at certain times having to wait for a later train due to the trains being full up with people without valid tickets for that time of day.  Don't be sure that the Ferries will be any more accommodating, SEAFRANCE charge 8€ to catch an earlier ferry even if they are running an hour late[:'(]

[marc62]

I use the tunnel for approx 6 / 7 return trips each year, you are clearly advised not to arrive more than 2 hours early. On times when you arrive within the 2 hours early (or even late) they will tend to get you on the next available train, I think arriving nearly six hours early on a peak date as well as a peak time you could not expect them do have done much more. It would be interesting to know how much you paid for the ticket in the first instance & how much a "turn up & go" ticket would have cost for the exact same time.

I am pleased to see that the tunnel is being used more which makes it more effiecent, I tried to book some dates a few weeks ago (June & September) on to find certain times already fully booked!. I have also noticed that security is now far better both sides of the channel, it still gets me that people moan & create if they are pulled over for a spot check!!- would they rather be a sitting target?

Marc (Would rather be in the Vendee)

[Rascalb]

I think as Mark says that the security checks are inevitable, but I understand the moans as we travel by shuttle at least 6 times a year and have only avoided being pulled over 2-3 times in 5 years on the UK side. It is irritating, but we now know some of the staff and they know us! I find the biggest problems are now cancellations and delays if you travel between 1.30pm and 4pm, even though you pay the premium to do so. Not quite what the flexible's pay, but I fear they cause us to be delayed if we are "bumped" to allow them on board. I think the cancellations are probably down to lack of numbers and the trains being consolidated.

[marc62]

Hi Rascalb

We very rarely travel between the 1.30pm - 4.00pm slot as it would cost extra (we buy the minimum 10 trips for £39.00 a trip). Now I would never dream of doing this myself - "But" - when you make frequent trips keep the printed cards with the letter on. When they are very busy they just look out for the letter, I am informed that all trains are under subscribed by 20 cars to allow for the length of car & the go anytime tickets so it is not as if you are pushing in & if they are running late it is not your fault. Not that I would do this myself of course.

 

Marc

PS - Anyone want to swap a letter D - F & G for P - S - Z (ha ha)

[Cacknanty]

I rather think Eurotunnel have got wise to that scam Marc, the date is now almost as large as the letter. It has been something I considered over the last few years but being a messy soul I could never find the 'hangers' when I wanted them.

We took an earlier train from the Calais end on our return last Saturday, no charge as it was still off peak.

It seems that Seafrance are now charging £10 to go on an earlier ferry, unless this was just an Easter treat for their punters !

Cheers

Nigel

[Pierre ZFP]

If you look closely, the hanger says something about being the property of Eurotunnel so they can demand to have it back.  I had a run in with one ET guy who wanted to search my car as someone had seen me on camera change the hanger letter. I hadn't, it had just blown off and I was replacing it.  I told the bloke to s0d 0ff as he had no right to search and the hanger was for this vehicle at this time.  Reluctantly he gave in but it was unpleasent.  Just goes to show you are on camera all the time so don't scratch your bum....or perhaps ..........maybe .......yes?

[Alane]

Before they started printing the location and date on the hangers we used to have a complete set - kept for sentimental reasons of course. It was put to me that Eurotunnel turned a blind eye as it was a perk for people who travelled often enough to build up the set.

I wouldn't try it now because we are so often stopped either at security or simply by attendants controlling the flow of traffic and I have seen them looking at the hanger. I had one old hanger taken off me which I'd left laying on the dashboard when we had a security search. The guy was polite but said that the hanger did say that it was the property of Eurotunnel and he had instructions to retrieve them. They would probably know that you have pulled the stunt as they record number plate details at check-in and presumably on the train as well.

I wonder what would happen if a member of the Frequent Traveller scheme was caught doing this with 9 of the tickets still outstanding.........

[Mignonette]

Not sure I wholly agree with the practice of individuals changing their hanger and pushing in on busy days - it smacks of  " I'm all right Jack and who cares about how that affects anyone else!"  Got left behind once - I hadn't thought of people changing their hangers and blamed the Shuttle...... now I'm not so sure...... and let's not forget that we're quick to complain when we feel the carriers don't keep their promise, and when they introduce restrictive policies we don't like just so they can keep ahead of the "crooks". Call me old fashioned if you like but you can't always eat your cake as well.

Dunno where that came from but can't we all play nicely?

 

 

[Alane]

Mignonette

You're really lucky if you've only been left behind once. It happens all the time at Calais at busy times due to the policy of only calling passengers to the boarding area 35 minutes before departure when it often takes 30 minutes to clear security and passport controls.

An earlier poster said they were pleased the tunnel is being used more often - if you look at the stats on Eurotunnel's web site you will see that, in fact, volumes are falling consistently. The reason for the delays is that due to financial problems they have cut staff and cannot handle the volume of traffic at relatively busy times.

A couple of years ago in an article in the Sunday Times one of Eurotunnel's directors said that they'd introduced the new hanger system as "The Shuttle is now too busy for queue jumpers" but conveniently forgot to add that if you cross their palm with a few quid they will let you jump the queue in any case (by travelling on what was then Club Class and is now FlexiPlus) and you can then be "all right jack".

Regular travellers on any system will always get to know the tricks to ease the difficulties of travel (there are web sites devoted to this for air travel) and Eurotunnel is no exception.

I won't pull the hanger change stunt for the reasons stated but I can sympathise with those who do.