To Europe via Eurostar

Following recent queries, it is timely to say something about through bookings to Europe via Eurostar. I’m grateful to ‘Manin-Seat-61’ Mark Smith for these clarifications.

There are two types of fare available. Fares to ‘London International’ can be bought at stations or from www.loco2.com in conjunction with a Eurostar ticket.

These give guarantees on connections - or (rather) what happens if the connection fails. Returns are always valid two months. It’s possible to be in possession of the Eurostar ticket and add the London International fare afterwards. These fares are provided from most (if not all) stations in the country. They are walk-on, although from many stations there are also advance options.

The other type is to ‘London Eurostar’. These are a lot cheaper than those to ‘London International’ and always have advance fares available as well, but they are only available from around 130 major stations and only as part of a throughbooked journey (to Paris, and so on).

The problem here is that they are only available from www.eurostar.com. Furthermore, because Eurostar does not accept railcards, it isn’t possible to get a reduction on just the domestic leg of the journey. This means the throughout fare might end up more expensive than using a normal ‘London International’ fare with the railcard applied within Britain.

I gather there was an excellent Eurostar domestic travel office at Ashford and the person who staffed it was able to issue domestic legs with railcard reductions. But the office has now closed.