Chunnel Tickets in London
Tuesday, February 19th, 2002When Bob went to the train station in London to buy a train ticket through the chunnel to France, they did not bother to tell him that if he had a Eurostar ticket for travel through Europe his chunnel ticket would be 60 dollars less per ticket. (Special saver packages are not available to Europeans which may have something to do with it).
When we went back to the Waterloo station to take the chunnel; Bob tried to get a refund and they rudely refused to give it to him. So he felt gouged. On the other hand, he felt fortunate that he had the foresight to step into a travel agency on the way to Waterloo (you can’t buy train tickets in travel agencies in Europe) to ask a few questions. The very helpful agent on duty told him that when he bought the chunnel ticket, to buy a round trip ticket which was less than half the price of a one way ticket-that he wouldn’t be informed at the point of sale about the difference in price. Apparently it’s a way of making back some of the money lost when a tourist does not return to the country.
In the same way, the Eurail tickets for unlimited travel stops around Europe are very expensive and are not available to Europeans. If however; an American buys one in the states before leaving, there is a substantial savings. The same is true of the Eurostar Saver packages that allow, for example, two people who are traveling together to travel at a reduced rate. The only way we have found to deal with this is to temporarily become a Zen Buddhist.
Zoe