Eurotunnel

[Department71]

It looks like Eurotunnel have issued the new fares, terms and conditions for the "new property owners" frequent traveller offers they have promised. Look on their website under frequent travellers, looks interesting.

 

Steve

[Alane]

The new scheme will benefit those who can take longer trips and are flexible about the times they can travel - anyone who is retired and has a property in Northern France will be delighted with the scheme I should think. Trips can be had for £80 return at any time of the year.

It won't be so good for the long weekend trip which will potentially cost a lot more for travel out on a Friday morning and back on Sunday evening for example. This will now cost £140 compared with a PoC cost as low as £89.

I suspect the scheme will generate a lot of revenue for the low cost hotels in Calais - it's cheaper to travel out in the evening, stay overnight for onward travel in the morning than it is to travel out in the morning on the shuttle.

As far as I can see the PoC benefit which allowed use of the Club check in lane no longer applies - that was also a good perk for those journeys at busy times. Given the low utilisation of the Club check in I would have thought that this was a good benefit that they could offer at little cost to themselves.

Where I suspect Eurotunnel might gain in terms of generating volume is that for £390 it is possible to book 10 single tickets. In the summer a return ticket can cost £300 so they might generate a lot of trade from customers who decide that for an extra £90 they can get a whole raft of extra tickets.

It's still a far cry from the £50 return on Speedferries but given the added frequency of crossings free from the risk of cancellation due to bad weather it seems a good scheme.

Best Regards

Alan.

[Cacknanty]

Have just looked thru the T & C's of this latest Frequent Traveller scheme, they say a supplement will be due for using a vehicle over 1.83M high, but don't mention what the supplement is. Also the account holder must travel on each leg of the trip, what happens if ones partner travels seperately?

I have asked ET for answers to these 2 queries and will post their response when I receive it.

 

[Eskenazi]

The new scheme is very poor by comparison with the old:

it's an insult to fob us off with this. Not only is it

much more expensive for people like us - our weekends

will now cost £183 as opposed to £99 - but it's very

complicated in terms of on/off / blackout dates; the

'High peak' list covers just about any date on which

a working person might be able to get over to France!

I shall be contacting them about this but no doubt will

get the same old nonsense in reply.

[Anton Redman]

If find it amazing that both Eurotunnel and P & O have made their frequent traveller schemes more complicated and less attractive for 2005.

For next year I have one early bookers return on P & O paid for with accumulated points which I will keep for emergencies. In December this year London to Paris total time was shorter on Speed Ferries than the Tunnel. In May this year I was surcharged more on so called early bookers fully flexible fare than it has been costing me on Speedferries or Sea France on a turn up and go basis.

[Boydneal]

Well, Eurotunnel's new 'Frequent Traveller' Scheme is not quite what I expected !

In the Terms & Conditions, this is interesting:

'Once a Privilege Account is opened, credit cannot be added. However, customers may open more than one Privilege Account'

So, if I have understood this, if you are not sure how many trips you will be making, you could open up more than one Privilege Account to ensure that you do not lose some of your credits !  Now that seems pointless (excuse the pun).

 

 

 

 

[Alane]

Eskenazi

I may have missed something but I couldn't see how the fare could be more than £140 even if travelling out and back at peak times in tops season, ie travelling out Friday morning and back Sunday evening. While I agree it isn't as good as the £89-109 fares from the PoC it is comparable. For a longer break travelling at off peak times it is quite a bit cheaper - £80 compared to £130-150 with PoC, even in the height of the season.

The real winners will be the cheap hotels in Calais. It will suddenly make sense to travel late at night, stay in a £20 hotel room and then travel on in the morning.

Best Regards

 

Alan.

[Department71]

Further to my e-mail that started all of this I have also found out that you can't have joint members as on the POc. Therefore I have booked a few crossings under the old POc terms for travel during 2005. (you don't have to book in a block of 5)  Have looked at the Speedferry site and some dates we were looking at are fully booked with them hence playing safe for the and time WE want.

Although they are dearer then Speedy they are flexible and I don't have to worry or get grief from the other half

 

Steve

[Steve Last]

Seems to be an improvement as far as I am concerned.

I get really ****ed off at schemes which are based on charging by the time between out and back legs - there is no impact whatever on costs to them whether I stay away for 5 nights or 7 or 15 so it is purely a scam. So I prefer something which is a bit more related to the market for the actual service.  I wish they had publicised it a bit earlier though as I had to buy a £250 return on Dec 15th for use December 21st/Jan 11th!

Comparing charges, I paid £710 total for 5 round trips plus "membership fee" under the old POC scheme for March 03 to March 04 which was £142 per round trip, so this is better at £390 minimum plus up to £300 supplements for peak dates and hours.  

My main complaint is that the requirement for 10 crossings a year is too high, we can justify 4 road trips a year but 5 is a bit much as we find the cost-effectiveness break point between driving and flying/renting a car is about 2 weeks.  

However even if we have to throw away one round trip because we can't fit it in, the cost per round trip will be between £97.50 and £172.50 so it is better than any of the regular fares. What it does do is force me not to buy until the last moment before the first journey. I suspect it will work out at £147.50 per trip for 4 journeys, as we can avoid the peak DAYS but travelling outside the peak HOURS (departure at 0400 is a bit of a stretch!) it is better than the old rate.   

I would still support Speedferries if possible (did 2 round trips summer 04 with them) but unfortunately the extra time in and out of Dover plus fewer and slightly longer and less reliable crossings than the tunnel, means that our journey time to Vaucluse (84) is stretched just that bit too much 12 to 14 hours door to door is just about tolerable, 14 - 16+ starts to be excessive. 

Steve 

also posted under travel deals

[JohnM]

I messaged them to see what the policy is on early arrivals and I had a phone call this morning to say that with these tickets you can turn up and go, but might have to pay the peak time supplement. Suits me.