Im seeking advice from regular tunnel users.
Im planing a long distance European holiday this summer and was doing a bit of investigating on the Chunnel web site, and I was wondering the following :-
If I book an out ward and homeward passage for my car on the chunnel at fixed times, rather than the flexi ticket which ism over twice the price, what happens if I miss a crossing ? ie do I have to pay for another full ticket price at the next available crossing or what ?
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Taken from the Eurotunnel website;
Flexible travelling
We do recognise that it is not always possible to plan your arrival time at Check-In accurately. So, if you arrive late at Check-In within 2 hours of your booked departure time, we will, at no extra charge, transfer you to a space on the next available shuttle. However, please note that this could take a while if we are very busy.
If you arrive between 2 and 24 hours after your booked departure time, we will only charge you the difference between the price paid originally and the price applicable to your new departure. If you arrive more than 24 hours after your booked departure time, you will need to buy a new ticket.
How I take that then, means that if you arrive within 2 hours, then no extra charge, between 2-24 hours, you'll have to pay the difference of the going rate for a single. (could be £49 - could be more!)
That any help?
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When someone from work went recently, the place was deserted, they caught one earlier, and nobody checked their papers or anything, they just followed the people who had got their earlier for an earlier crossing. The tunnel is grossly underused, making huge losses, leaking like a sieve, and the train has to drive through a waterlogged section full of rotting drowned foxes etc... yuk!
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I can't comment on EuroTunnel as to cross the channel with the car I'll either go from Portsmouth, or go the SpeedFerries route.
However, I do use EuroStar regularly to go to Dijon to see family there (change at Lille) and usually the trains are near capacity, reliable, efficient and most importantly - easy!
Not sure on the drowned foxes, but I can say I've never noticed it leaking! (I would also seriously doubt that it is leaking - just allowing water to seep through to help with something an engineer would understand about - not me!)
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I can talk from experience of a day trip.
I arrived on site at the correct time for departure and then followed all the signs in the departure lounge when announced, but I was still bounced off my booked train. Whether this was due to late arrivals or people trying to catch an earlier train, there was nothing I could do.
The return journey was also bounced due to a hold up by HM Customs being very thorough.
Personally, if you arrive close to when you are booked then there should not be any problem.
Do not worry about the leaks in the tunnels - all tunnels leak. Built into the design will be measures to remove the water.
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Roger
I read frequently, but only post when I have something useful to say.
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Have used the chunnel quite a bit. (20 times?)French side is pretty relaxed about which time you use to return. We have rarely used our booked time (though we did when we had the caravan on the back) We have generally turned up and got on the next crossing with no extra charge.I suspect that we could have done the same with caravan since we had a carriage to ourselves and there were very few coaches which use the same high "single decker" carriages.
Probably best to avoid bank holidays/peak times though to make sure - but as someone else said above - thereis usually plenty of space.
We have been "bounced" once - this Christmas when there was that snow in Kent and some earlier "crossings" had been delayed. We had to wait an extra half hour.
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Phil
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Thanks for all of your replies..
It is interesting to note that car traffic through the tunnel has declined in the last 4 years on a linear basis. Why should this be, when I would have thought that the chunnel is a far better bet than faffing around with ferries, and is definately much cheaper in the 'desirable' parts of the year. I actually live 45 minutes from Portsmouth, but my experiences with the ferries, both the cost and the time they waste is not good.
P&O kept us waiting nearly 3 hours last summer, when we were at the dock 50 minutes before departure time.
Admittedly, this was at the time when I presume P&O staff knew the plug was being pulled on them and therefore couldn't care less.
I'm not worried about the Chunnel leaking as I have some knowledge about tunnels in my job, and as someone said earlier, tunnels always leak, and in the case of some tunnels have massive diesel pumps to keep the levels down.
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"It is interesting to note that car traffic through the tunnel has declined in the last 4 years on a linear basis. Why should this be, when I would have thought that the chunnel is a far better bet than faffing around with ferries, and is definately much cheaper in the 'desirable' parts of the year."
Well, cheap air flights are one reason. The other is that some of the ferry operators do absurdly good deals, Speedferries for example, from £25 one way. Also sometimes it's nice to have a longer crossing, gives you a chance to have a break and a meal depending on the length of your journey.
Likewise we used to use P&O from Portsmouth and to be honest we always found them good but compared to the Dover routes very expensive. At Easter we're using Sea France, £100 return.
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Not surprising that car use of the tunnel is falling. It may be cheaper than Western Channel sailings, but ferry prices ex Dover have gone off a cliff in tha last two years. In 2003, if we had not booked Sea France at around £130 return in early Jan our summer holiday sailings would have been £300+. Same on P&O Dover.
Booked last week fro £70 return, out mid afternoon on Sunday 23 July, return similar time on Friday 11 Aug. If I'd booked in October fare was £60. Nothing much less than double quoted by Eurotunnel.
Not worth it for a minimal potential time saving.
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We looked at using the tunnel last summer, and used speedferries for £60-70 return (or something like that I forget the exact amount) It was excellent service, took about 30 mins to cross the water, and it was quite an impressive craft in terms of the exhilarating sensations of standing on the deck near the stern looking back at the jets of water being expelled hundreds of feet back above the surface of the sea and your cheeks flapping in the sea wind, and watching P&O ferries turn to lumbering specks in our wake.
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