Eurostar ticket booking

Roland Perry <roland@perry.co.uk> wrote:

> Will they mail you the E* portion? Last time I travelled I had to pick
> up the two halves (national rail from a FastTicket, and E* from St
> Pancras) separately. So much for integrated ticketing :((

Not only do you have to pick up the E* ticket at StP, but the system
seems quite unreliable. The machines at StP error'ed and wouldn't
dispense either my ticket or my colleague's. Colleague reports this
to be a frequent problem for him.

Although there are staff manning the area with the machines, if you
have any sort of problem they just send you to the ticket office -
which has long queues.

It's - unfortunately - a VERY bad system.

On Aug 5, 8:39 pm, Roland Perry <rol...@perry.co.uk> wrote:
> In message
> <69d88c86-cede-4a2b-9b53-7eb332107...@k30g2000hse..com>, at
> 11:02:34 on Tue, 5 Aug 2008, EE507 <ee....uk> remarked:
>
> > is valid for two months and via the Underground.  I wonder if SN gets
> >any revenue?
>
> If it's not accompanied by a compulsory reservation on a specific train,
> it should be valid on all normal ToCs and routes I'd have thought.

Not the same thing - it may be valid but supposedly this through fare
is an FCC/E* product and marketed as such. ORCATS may therefore be
programmed to apportion revenue entirely to FCC. Thinking about it,
this may be a reason for using a new station code and the name London
Estar (CIV); a ticket I bought from a ticket office last month was to
London Intl. I shall find out and report back...

In message
<69bd173f-4ea2-4a4d-8c75-286f2bee1678@f36g2000hsa..com>, at
12:58:40 on Tue, 5 Aug 2008, EE507 <ee507.uk> remarked:
>> > is valid for two months and via the Underground.  I wonder if SN gets
>> >any revenue?
>>
>> If it's not accompanied by a compulsory reservation on a specific train,
>> it should be valid on all normal ToCs and routes I'd have thought.
>
>Not the same thing - it may be valid but supposedly this through fare
>is an FCC/E* product and marketed as such. ORCATS may therefore be
>programmed to apportion revenue entirely to FCC.

I thought that CIV tickets were "more powerful" than normal ones, which
would tend to indicate they can be used on any ToC (as long as they
aren't the 'compulsory reservation' kind).

>Thinking about it, this may be a reason for using a new station code
>and the name London Estar (CIV); a ticket I bought from a ticket office
>last month was to London Intl. I shall find out and report back...

The London Estar destination seems to be a new one, maybe that ticket
office sold you an old model?

Another possibility is that the London Estar tickets are supposed to be
for 'compulsory reservation' aka 'one train only' journeys, whereas
London Intl might the flexible version.

--
Roland Perry

On 6 Aug, 08:50, Roland Perry <rol...@perry.co.uk> wrote:
> I thought that CIV tickets were "more powerful" than normal ones, which
> would tend to indicate they can be used on any ToC (as long as they
> aren't the 'compulsory reservation' kind).
>
> >Thinking about it, this may be a reason for using a new station code
> >and the name London Estar (CIV); a ticket I bought from a ticket office
> >last month was to London Intl.  I shall find out and report back...
>
> The London Estar destination seems to be a new one, maybe that ticket
> office sold you an old model?
>
> Another possibility is that the London Estar tickets are supposed to be
> for 'compulsory reservation' aka 'one train only' journeys, whereas
> London Intl might the flexible version.

Roland's guessing.....

In message
<d60b3276-f386-4eff-b5bf-6d6abd77e32e@27g2000hsf..com>, at
05:42:02 on Wed, 6 Aug 2008, Chris <chrisjbates@>
remarked:
>> Another possibility is that the London Estar tickets are supposed to be
>> for 'compulsory reservation' aka 'one train only' journeys, whereas
>> London Intl might the flexible version.
>
>Roland's guessing.....

Not so much guessing as trying to find a theory that fits observations.
Do you have an alternate theory?
--
Roland Perry

In message <33c97cb4f%Rail@greywall.>, at 09:36:54 on Thu, 7
Aug 2008, Graeme Wall <Rail@greywall.> remarked:
>> However, people buying a London International CIV ticket are also very
>> unlikely to be in possession of their E* ticket yet, for the same
>> reason. So I understand that a booking confirmation is just as good.
>
>Not for South West Trains.

Even after the move to St Pancras? Do they really expect you to pick up
your E* ticket first.
--
Roland Perry

In message <ciRWNLlU3qmIFAbP@perry.co.uk>, Roland Perry
<roland@perry.co.uk> writes
>However, people buying a London International CIV ticket are also very
>unlikely to be in possession of their E* ticket yet, for the same
>reason. So I understand that a booking confirmation is just as good.

The ticket offices at Luton and Luton Airport Parkway both seem to be
satisfied with a printout showing a Eurostar purchase. Since one can
only collect the tickets at St.Pancras it obviously isn't possible to
show the actual ticket when buying the local connection.

--
Clive Page

Clive Page <junk@main.machine> writes:

> The ticket offices at Luton and Luton Airport Parkway both seem to be
> satisfied with a printout showing a Eurostar purchase. Since one can
> only collect the tickets at St.Pancras it obviously isn't possible to
> show the actual ticket when buying the local connection.

So have Eurostar stopped sending tickets by post? Every time I have
travelled by Eurostar, both with work and for leisure, the tickets have
been sent by post.

In message <slrngbkuob.s7q.rvdborgt@xs1.xs4all.be>, at 11:06:24 on Sun,
31 Aug 2008, Rian van der Borgt <rvdborgt@evonet.be> remarked:
>> I thought that CIV tickets were "more powerful" than normal ones, which
>> would tend to indicate they can be used on any ToC (as long as they
>> aren't the 'compulsory reservation' kind).
>
>CIV just means it's an international ticket. CIV tickets can also be
>train-specific etc.

In UK they are mainly not (train-specific) and have fewer restrictions,
and more benefits than, domestic tickets.
--
Roland Perry

In message <slrngbkut3.s7q.rvdborgt@xs1.xs4all.be>, at 11:08:57 on Sun,
31 Aug 2008, Rian van der Borgt <rvdborgt@evonet.be> remarked:
>> And confers more rights than a purely UK-ticket would (eg the 2 month
>> validity).
>
>CIV tickets can also have limited validity. 2 months is just the default
>for undiscounted CIV tickets.

But if those are the ones which are in the vast majority in the UK, then
it's safe to say the validity is more than we expect with domestic
tickets.
--
Roland Perry