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Old Jan 26, 09, 7:06 am   #1
 
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Cheap Eurostar/ICE fares London <-> Germany

These have been mentioned OT elsewhere, but since they are quite interesting I thought it might be useful to start a new thread.

One-way fares in either direction are available on the www.bahn.de website between London and many destinations in Germany. They start at €49 second class and €99 first class, including Leisure Select on Eurostar. You can get as far as Berlin, Munich or even Salzburg on these fares. Bookable on-line and payable by credit card, tickets are sent to you by post. The fares are even refundable subject to a cancellation fee. There seems to be mixed experience about whether or not these fares can be accessed in the UK – stut has had a positive experience. If anyone in the UK is actually successful in buying these tickets, please post.

The fares are available generally on the 07:10 departure from St Pancras (which connects conveniently into an ICE departure in Brussels). Effectively, you could also use these single fares only as far as Brussels.

There seems to be a reasonable amount of availability at the moment, even if booked just a couple of weeks before departure. Quite often, when the cheapest fares dry up in second class, the first class fare is still available – so you might see the same trip for €89 in second class, and €99 in first .
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Old Feb 25, 09, 4:39 pm   #2
 
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I actually booked a ticket before spotting this post. We're travelling from London St Pancras to Berlin on 21 May 2009, returning 27 May 2009. I booked at www.bahn.co.uk and the total cost was 243.50 Euro (tickets 236 Euro, reservations 4 Euro, postage 3.50 Euro) travelling on the 08.34 Eurostar to Brussels, ICE to Cologne and then ICE to Berlin and the same in reverse coming back.
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Old Feb 27, 09, 10:47 am   #3
 
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Originally Posted by GlennTheBaker View Post
I actually booked a ticket before spotting this post. We're travelling from London St Pancras to Berlin on 21 May 2009, returning 27 May 2009. I booked at www.bahn.co.uk and the total cost was 243.50 Euro (tickets 236 Euro, reservations 4 Euro, postage 3.50 Euro) travelling on the 08.34 Eurostar to Brussels, ICE to Cologne and then ICE to Berlin and the same in reverse coming back.
How many tickets did you buy? I guess it was 4 x €59 since the arithmetic works .
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Old Feb 27, 09, 5:00 pm   #4
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by railways View Post
How many tickets did you buy? I guess it was 4 x €59 since the arithmetic works .
The outbound fares were 2 x €49 and the inbound 2 x €69 travelling 2nd class
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Old Feb 28, 09, 3:30 am   #5
 
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Originally Posted by GlennTheBaker View Post
The outbound fares were 2 x €49 and the inbound 2 x €69 travelling 2nd class
Quite right.

In fact, I'm not sure there are fares at €59 - I think the next step up from €49 is €69.
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Old May 30, 09, 12:46 pm   #6
 
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An update: We had absolutely no problems with our trip - very pleased!
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Old Jun 22, 09, 7:47 pm   #7
 
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QKL-QQS (Cologne- St. Pancras Int. ICE/Eurostar EUR 55 ow

This is a great promo. I just booked 3 tickets from Cologne / Koln hbf to London St. Pancras International on ICE / Eurostar service with all fees etc for EUR 165. Total travel time (not incl. connections in Brussels) is 4 hours.

Saw the promo on DB excellent website (bahn.de). For some reason the promos are only on the German language page and disappear when you switch the site to English.

RailEurope wanted $700+ and Eurostar wanted something a little bit less outrageous. bahn.de rocks!
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Old Jun 24, 09, 9:11 am   #8
 
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Originally Posted by rj123456 View Post
RailEurope wanted $700+ and Eurostar wanted something a little bit less outrageous. bahn.de rocks!
Yes it does! When I went London-Brussels-Cologne-Copenhagen last year, I bought Cologne-Copenhagen on bahn.de and then realized it was easier to buy Brussels-Cologne there too - even though it was on Thalys.

Interestingly, however, my Eurostar and DB travel were e-ticketed whereas my Thalys ticket was sent to me by mail, from Germany.
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Old Jun 26, 09, 4:22 pm   #9
 
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Originally Posted by shaggy_mutt View Post
Interestingly, however, my Eurostar and DB travel were e-ticketed whereas my Thalys ticket was sent to me by mail, from Germany.
For some reason, Thalys only allows you to buy e-tickets from their own website and not via the DB website. It is actually rather annoying and I hope they will fix this at some stage.
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Old Jun 27, 09, 4:01 am   #10
 
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Has the Aachen - Liege track been upgraded to high-speed status by now? That should cut the total travel time to St.Pancras quite considerably.
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Old Jun 27, 09, 4:04 pm   #11
 
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Originally Posted by mosburger View Post
Has the Aachen - Liege track been upgraded to high-speed status by now? That should cut the total travel time to St.Pancras quite considerably.
It didn't appear to be. Compared with other parts of the journey, we were going at snail's pace through that section.
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Old Jun 29, 09, 8:41 am   #12
 
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It is upgraded (since 2 weeks ago I think), and cuts travel time on the ICE by 20 minutes. Thalys is still using the old route, and will use the new route from December only.
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Old Jul 2, 09, 10:47 pm   #13
 
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Originally Posted by SmilingBoy View Post
It is upgraded (since 2 weeks ago I think), and cuts travel time on the ICE by 20 minutes. Thalys is still using the old route, and will use the new route from December only.
Thanks, this is good to know.
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