But they are allowed to travel in standard premier? So you're saying that a £195 non-flexible (miss the train and you need to pay another £214, bringing the total fare up to £409 single), 30 minute minimum check in, no lounge access and no meaningful catering ticket is considered to compare favourably with a £245 fully-flexible, 10 minute minimum check in, full lounge access and comprehensive catering ticket? Each to their own, but with the possibility of a meeting over-running, delays with transport to Gard du Nord and other possible exigencies, I would not want to work for a company that considers the former to be the better option.
Sadly in the real world, most companies have a "standard only" policy, not standard-premier. I don't know any company that considers flexible tickets, lounge access and comprehensive catering something they will pay extra for (the most senior staff excepted). The point about missing the train is that most people do not miss the train, so most people do not need the flexibility. Even assuming you miss your train every fourth trip (which would suggest very bad planning), you still pay more overall than in your maximum price standard-premier example. And remember, even most business trips are not booked the day before, so typically the ratio will have to be even higher to make business premier make sense.
UPDATE: all Eurostar tickets are exchangeable before departure for 30 pounds plus the fare difference before departure (so call your travel agent from the taxi), so the ratios swing wildly against business premier. Even in your extreme example, changing the ticket still works out 1 pound cheaper than business premier!
source: http://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/travel-info/travel-planning/eurostar-fares-and-fees
You've chosen a Sunday as the return date, and interestingly, it appears that where a Sunday is selected as the return portion of a journey to Paris, the standard premier fares are around £20 cheaper in both directions - a minimum of £79.50 compared to the usual minimum of £97.50. This is slightly bizarre as the £79.50 fares are not available if both the outward and return portions of a journey are made on a Sunday.
For a more typical journey - out and back on a random Wednesday in March - the fares are mostly £29 standard / £97.50 standard premier, and there are a few trains at £29 standard / £199.50 standard premier.
Depends what you call typical. I would say that coming back on a Sunday is more typical for leisure travellers than on a Wednesday. BTW, I doubt that standard premier is really aimed at business travellers. Most staff will be entitled to either standard class travel (= Eurostar standard), or business class travel (= Eurostar business premier). "Premium Economy" (= Eurostar standard premium) is usually only available in long haul. Now, when I've worked for a relatively humane company, I have been able to persuade my boss to let me use standard premier if the difference is small or negative, and I've used it in similar circumstances when paying myself, but certainly in most companies I know, most people will go standard in most cases.
BTW, Eurostar use demand pricing, and presumably these prices maximise their profits. I don't like demand pricing and have criticised it in other threads. Curiously, I am usually in a very small minority in this opinion. I guess people only like demand pricing when they think it works in their favour.
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