Eurostar newbie trying to book two tickets for Paris to London train for 10 Nov (preferably late afternoon), but prices have increased dramatically in the past few days.

Has anyone had any experiences buying a second hand ticket via www.kelbillet.com or similar services?

I understand that Eurostar doesn't generally check the name on the ticket (or care), but they might.

Anyone have experiences in this regard?

Here's an inquiry regarding Eurostar. Off-topic, but hopeful my Delta FF Family can help me out.

Spouse and I are flying to LHR on Nov 7, and then connecting to Paris on BA. We were planning to Chunnel it to London on Nov 10.

I'm a Eurostar newbie. Trying to book two tickets on the Paris to London train for 10 Nov (preferably late afternoon), but prices have increased dramatically in the past few days.

Has anyone had any experiences buying/ using a secondhand ticket via www.kelbillet.com or similar service? I understand that Eurostar doesn't generally check the name on the ticket (or care), but they might.

Also, AF has a LHR - CDG RT for $418 for tickets. Our BA one-way tickets were $205 with a $20 cancellation. Conceivably, I could cancel the BA flights and purchase the AF flights, but the train has some appeal: 1) both train stations are close to my respective hotels, 2) I could max out some more time in Paris, and 3) we've always wanted to take the Chunnel.

Thoughts?

Thanks!!!

It's been a while since I was on the Eurostar, but, I remember there being security similar to airports. I'm not really sure if they check the ticket or not, but, don't you also have to go thru immigration from the UK to Europe and back? I certainly wouldn't want to risk a ticket with someone else's name on it.

This thread will probably be moved to another forum, but I can answer some of it.

You are correct. Eurostar may not check the name on the ticket. However, the French border control (which you will encounter at St Pancras) probably will. I remember handing over both my boarding pass and passport to the agent (who, after a few seconds to check the docs, stamped my PP without a question).

I cannot answer about 3rd party Eurostar tickets, but keep checking the Eurostar page. I found prices tended to fluctuate on a daily basis. But since you are within 12 days of departure, there's probably a low chance they would go down. Good luck.

On the RailEurope website I'm seeing fares ranging from $115 (early morning) to $257 (late afternoon times) for Eurostar on 11/10. If you factor in transportation to and from airports, the $257 is not really much more than the flight. The train is faster and gives you a much more enjoyable experience. The 6:45 AM train for $115 is a bargain, but you'd have to give up time in Paris if you left that early.

Got my two cents in before this gets moved!

If you want to do the Eurostar in one direction, think about the implications for LHR departure tax. If you train to London and then fly TATL, you will be hit with a lot of tax versus starting from most other places and just connecting in London.

There's an excellent thread that carefully explains all of the issues.

True, but it just ain't as romantic.

My time on EuroStar biz class let me feel refreshed and ready as I got into Gare du Nord.

I really enjoyed the Eurostar biz class journey ...!
It's worth the experience.

My partner used to travel very frequently between London and Paris and would regularly use the petites annonces section of ici-londres. He never encountered a problem. That said, that was a few years ago and we have not had any recent experiences.

I used to sell and buy tickets on ici-londres.com too. That was also a few years ago too.

More recently I have used gumtree but I would be very wary of this site. The person who sold me a return ticket to Paris in Standard for �50 I suspected worked for Eurostar. I picked up the tickets and paid him but there was no price on them. They also had the word "duty" printed on them and I questioned him on that as I was worried they may not work through the automatic barriers (staff duty?). He was evasive and told me they were compensation tickets. But the tickets were fully flexible and I know compensation tickets aren't. The seller actually booked the tickets for my dates of travel and texted me the PNR. He collected the tickets for me.

I didn't have any trouble travelling but I was afraid I might have been asked for ID at check-in. So be wary of staff DUTY tickets.

In my personal experience (travelled on the Eurostar several times when I lived in London), the chances of the name on the ticket being checked are minimal. I must note that I am a European citizen and immigration is a breeze in that case. Not sure whether or not immigration will cross-check your ticket name seeing that you're not a European citizen.

If you are caught your ticket will be voided.

You might want to consider flying ORY - LCY with CityJet. I found their service to be far more comfortable than the Eurostar train (despite the latter's romantic associations - honestly, Eurostar is only comfortable in Premier or Business). Small aircraft, impeccable service and LCY is only a heartbeat away from Central London. Tickets for November 10th are currently priced at around €172 one-way.

+1

I also remember being a "premium" class in addition to the business. The food/drinks are good, and it's very relaxing...

Not familiar with the service you mention, but I purchased an on-platform ticket after CDG was shut down 2 years ago for a dusting of snow. Rather than sleep in CDG, we hoofed it over to the TGV platform to Lille overnight and grabbed the Eurostar to St. Pancreas in the morning. Prices were high for same-day travel (�300), but well worth it.

And yes, they do check tickets. I had already cleared passport control in CDG when they shut down, but because I didn't 'arrive' again I didn't re-enter France through passport control again. It took a few minutes of explaining that in Lille but not a problem before boarding the train.

Oh yes, they do check tickets. Maybe not eurostar, but passport/immigration control.

Actually, the tax for flying LHR-CDG is miniscule: �12 in Y and �24 in J. Same applies for any flight departing the UK for which the distance between London and that country's capital (not the flight distance!) is 2,000 miles or less. (I guess that makes flying from the UK to far east Russia a heck of a deal in terms of taxes.)