European Rail Travel - Eurostar: Sameday change on non-exchangeable ticket

I made the mistake of booking an early train from Paris - London on Sunday July 24. Turns out that that's the last day of the Tour de France, so my wife and I are hoping to leave Paris that night instead of that morning.

We have a non-exchangeable ticket, but I know that some carriers will allow you to make departure-day changes to a trip at the airport even if you have a highly restricted ticket. Any idea if Eurostar would do the same?

If I show up at Gare de Nord in the morning and beg in my best schoolboy French, do you think they'll let me rebook on a later train and pay some penalty or fare difference?

Airlines do it sometimes, but trains are tougher. I can't talk about Eurostar, but SNCF and Thalys will not do it. So, I wouldn't have too many hopes about Eurostar.

Basically, no - it would damage their business revenue. FWIW, few European airlines do this, too.

However, there are French sites where you can resell (and also buy) Eurostar tickets, although there is some risk in doing so, so caveat emptor.

http://www.trocdestrains.com/
http://www.kelbillet.com/

and possibly

http://translate.google.com/ :)

I made the mistake of booking an early train from Paris - London on Sunday July 24. Turns out that that's the last day of the Tour de France, so my wife and I are hoping to leave Paris that night instead of that morning.

We have a non-exchangeable ticket, but I know that some carriers will allow you to make departure-day changes to a trip at the airport even if you have a highly restricted ticket. Any idea if Eurostar would do the same?

If I show up at Gare de Nord in the morning and beg in my best schoolboy French, do you think they'll let me rebook on a later train and pay some penalty or fare difference?

+1 to above. No chance at all. You'll need to buy a new ticket.

(Same is true for most discounted air fares within Europe - I understand in the US airlines take a different approach.)

(Same is true for most discounted air fares within Europe - I understand in the US airlines take a different approach.)

And easyJet. But only on the return leg, only same-day, only earlier[1] and only at the airport. It's a bit like standby but because easyJet don't do overbooking you just do a formal change if there is an available seat rather than showing up at the gate.

E* runs basically like SNCF TGV, so no chance, IMX.

[1] The same service sort-of exists if you miss your flight, again return-only, by a specified margin, 2 hours I think, but there is a fairly large and ever-increasing fee for the service in that case.

Neil

[easyJet]

[1] The same service sort-of exists if you miss your flight, again return-only, by a specified margin, 2 hours I think, but there is a fairly large and ever-increasing fee for the service in that case.


€60 (or £50) "Rescue Fee" - as you say, the time window is 2 hours.

€60 (or £50) "Rescue Fee" - as you say, the time window is 2 hours.

That's gone up again. The change fee has as well (GBP35 rather than GBP25) which is probably to promote the "flexible fares" they are offering.

Neil

in terms of Eurostar no chance of a change......been there myself.