Eurostar fares

[Oscar]

Eurostar's fare structure seems to include some surprising oddities. The starting fare for a London - Paris/Brussels/Calais/Lille return is £69 on the UK site yet only 75€ on the French site (only around £62.50 using an official EUR - GBP exchange rate, maybe £64/£65 with a bank exchange rate). The same fare for Paris/Brussels/Calais/Lille - London is £80 on the UK site and 88€ on the French site (also significantly less than £80). Firstly, why are the fares in euros lower and secondly, why are journeys starting in London cheaper? One-way fares starting in Paris are also more expensive than one-way journeys starting in London. These differences also seem to apply to all fare categories as far as I can see, not just the starting fares. Can anyone enlighten me?

 

[WestCoast]

You didn't used to be able to get decent one-way fares on Eurostar, but you certainly used to be able to get them if you booked on the USA website!

Didn't make any sense, but they've changed it...

 

[Oracle]

I can imagine, judging by what a colleague has said about importing from Europe items that have to be paid for in Euros, that this is to take account of fluctuations in the exchange rate. In other words they are hedging that Sterling will fall against the Euros.

Another reason may be that they can get more money out of those travelling from the UK. Not a direct comparison but I gather that those on the Isle of Wight pay less in ferry/hovercraft seasons than those on the mainland who wish to travel to/from the island.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Not a direct comparison but I gather that those on the Isle of Wight pay less in ferry/hovercraft seasons than those on the mainland who wish to travel to/from the island.

I think that's a residents' concession that the operators are obliged to give. ( It probably just means that in practice they charge what they think the fare should be from the Island end and whack extra on the other way then claim they're giving the residents a discount... )

Going back to the Eurostar fares, it could simply be that there is more demand for London based travel, so that attracts a slightly higher fare. They probably also use a set internal exhange rate for each calendar month like most multinational businesses do these days rather than a daily published rate.

 

[jon0844]

Eurostar certainly did check the IP address and detect your location, and give different prices. Now it's just as likely going to be down to using cookies, with some low cost airlines using them to hide certain fares from people (or make previously available fares disappear). There are loads of tricks, and it's easy to clear cookies - but somewhat harder to change your location (but certainly not impossible - there are sites that will spoof your location for ordering things, or watching TV that is normally restricted outside of a territory).

 

[WatcherZero]

Offtopic slightly but Eurotunnel say their raising the line speed through the tunnels of the Shuttles from 90 to 100mph for the Olympics, will it be staying afterwards or just temporary?