We've used the tunnel for the past 20 odd years but I'll never again book a return ticket. This year, we paid £522 return for car and trailer, travelling out on a Sunday in low season, back on a Thursday in high season and choosing lower priced crossings.
We need to return 6 days earlier than planned, same time crossing (morning). To amend the crossing online, 2 weeks before the new return date, I had to pay an additional £146.
If we use LeShuttle again, I'll either book the return leg of the journey from France or else be sure to pay the additional £40 each way to make the ticket refundable. How on earth they can charge such astronomical prices to amend a return date is beyond me but, on a non-refundable ticket, they've got you and can charge whatever they want for any date amendments.
I know the halcyon days of Frequent Traveller fares are gone, but amendments within same time thresholds were free of any additional charges. An additional £146 for same-time threshold (not weekend) crossing is just a rip-off, IMHO.
Post last edited on 03/08/2023 01:50:51
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I had similar with DFDS earlier in the year. I had to come back a few days early and tried to phone to change my booking but can you believe that their booking line is not open at weekends! You also cannot make amendments online and so I had no alternative than to just arrive at Calais on the Sunday afternoon and hope to get on an earlier ferry. The ferry was very quiet but I still had to pay £68 for the privilege, the difference apparently between pre-booking and buying a ticket at the terminal.
Bring back those Eurotunnal Frequent Traveller tickets, although the P&O seson tickets are good value and you can phone and change them anytime.
With BF I go for the middle price option, where you can amend your booking for free up to 14 days before travel, though you do have to pay any difference in price between what you originally paid and the new cost of the crossing (or even get a refund if it works out cheaper!). However, I do now book each leg of the crossing separately (no difference price wise than booking both together) as when we no longer needed to bring the caravan home last year, I was unable to get a refund because we had already used the outward part of the ticket!
Quote: Originally posted by lidds0 on 03/8/2023
We've used the tunnel for the past 20 odd years but I'll never again book a return ticket. This year, we paid �522 return for car and trailer, travelling out on a Sunday in low season, back on a Thursday in high season and choosing lower priced crossings.
We need to return 6 days earlier than planned, same time crossing (morning). To amend the crossing online, 2 weeks before the new return date, I had to pay an additional �146.
If we use LeShuttle again, I'll either book the return leg of the journey from France or else be sure to pay the additional �40 each way to make the ticket refundable. How on earth they can charge such astronomical prices to amend a return date is beyond me but, on a non-refundable ticket, they've got you and can charge whatever they want for any date amendments.
I know the halcyon days of Frequent Traveller fares are gone, but amendments within same time thresholds were free of any additional charges. An additional �146 for same-time threshold (not weekend) crossing is just a rip-off, IMHO.
Post last edited on 03/08/2023 01:50:51
We too have used the tunnel for about the same length of time, and it's always been the case that if you amend a booking, you don't pay anything extra if the cost of the new booking is the same as that originally booked. No admin fees.
However, it's always been the case that, if the cost of the re-booked crossing is higher than that of the original booking, you have to pay the DIFFERENCE IN COST between that of the original booking and that of the new booking. The only difference recently is that if you can do an amendment online, there is no admin cost, but if you ring up and ask LeShuttle to do it, there is an additional cost of �10.
As the cost of crossings goes up the nearer to the date of travel you are, unfortunately the gap between the original cost and that of the new crossing will inevitably be bigger. Not sure it would make any diference therefore, if you booked the return nearer the time, as prices go up anyway. Win, win for LeShuttle in any case.
------------- Ina
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Having just booked our next Tunnel crossing, I noticed that with Tesco vouchers you can only have the cheapest option ticket. And this states 'booked crossing only', whereas the next level ticket says '2 hours window'.
So presumably if you turn up late, you'll be charged according to the cost of the next crossing.
We'll see what happens. This holiday last year they were so quiet when we travelled daytime, that we were waved straight on, not even time to go to the loo. And that was for an earlier than booked crossing too.
I checked the price for amendments and decided to opt for the flexible tickets instead when I went to France in May 2023.
I shall do so again in future as I could foresee last minute changes being required due to still in (part-time) gainful employment.
DK
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Quote: Originally posted by Ina on 03/8/2023
As the cost of crossings goes up the nearer to the date of travel you are, unfortunately the gap between the original cost and that of the new crossing will inevitably be bigger. Not sure it would make any diference therefore, if you booked the return nearer the time, as prices go up anyway. Win, win for LeShuttle in any case.
I take your point about prices escalating if booked nearer to departure date, that's what I hadn't anticipated, as I wasn't switching to a weekend or a different departure time. I guess there's no such thing as a standard or predictable fare structure on Eurotunnel/ LeShuttle, onLy what they can get away with charging.
After very many years as a FT customer, where crossongs could easily be amended without any additional charge so long as you didn't change the travel time bracket, I didn't anticipate that prices would fluctuate so hugely simply because the departure date was 6 days earlier.
Do ferry operators have a similar pricing policy?
Post last edited on 06/08/2023 06:59:22
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The Tunnel prices vary considerably from day to day, and over the 2 hourly slots too. When we are planning a trip, and not being stuck to the odd day to travel, OH looks at the UK Lodge booking sites and I have the Tunnel site. Then we balance the 2 prices to get the cheapest option for us. We look at about 5 days for each crossing to get the best price.
Quote: Originally posted by Ina on 03/8/2023
As the cost of crossings goes up the nearer to the date of travel you are, unfortunately the gap between the original cost and that of the new crossing will inevitably be bigger. Not sure it would make any diference therefore, if you booked the return nearer the time, as prices go up anyway. Win, win for LeShuttle in any case.
I take your point about prices escalating if booked nearer to departure date, that's what I hadn't anticipated, as I wasn't switching to a weekend or a different departure time. I guess there's no such thing as a standard or predictable fare structure on Eurotunnel/ LeShuttle, onLy what they can get away with charging.
After very many years as a FT customer, where crossongs could easily be amended without any additional charge so long as you didn't change the travel time bracket, I didn't anticipate that prices would fluctuate so hugely simply because the departure date was 6 days earlier.
Do ferry operators have a similar pricing policy?
I guess that's where the confusion arose then; you were used to the T&Cs of the FT scheme. We've always used Tesco vouchers and have never been in the FT scheme, therefore I've always been aware of the fact that prices go up substantially nearer the date of travel.
It makes no difference if you re-book within the same timeframe as your original booking, or if you re-book on the same day of the week. The only thing I've noticed over the years is that Tuesdays and Wednesdays - late afternoons - tend to be slightly cheaper, and occasionally Saturday late afternoons. But again, that's only if booking way in advance.
On the basis of that, booking nearer the time is always going to be more expensive; whether ferries operate in a similar way I wouldn't know, never used a ferry in over 2 decades. Maybe someone else will know.
Amended the original outbound crossing from Sat 2nd Sept to same departure time (11:50) on Sun 27th August... giving us an extra 6 days! Whoohoo!
Oh... where was I... ah yes... additional cost was just £28!
Admittedly, if we'd have gone a full week earlier, departing on the Saturday, I think it was about £90 to pay.
Very pleased with the £28, particularly as it's a BH weekend.
On the pther matter mentioned by franbee above...
It looks like the basic tickets all now show "Booked train only" in the tick box. You can click your way around all the "Further info" buttons, but literally just go around in circles!
The full on FAQ's however, mention nothing of the sort, and still refer to the good old "2 hours before to 2 hours after" window.
I'm pinning my hopes on the old rules still applying... but I shan't hold my breath!
I won't mention the fact that I've never been late yet, as that may put the mockers on it!
EDIT:
Just checked the actual T&C's (March 2023)...
Looks like we're still good on the 2hour either side thing...
STANDARD TICKETS
1.5 Exchanging Standard tickets
• If you arrive within 2 hours of the booked departure time, the booking will be exchanged
without charge.
• If you arrive more than 2 hours but no more than 24 hours after the booked departure
time, the booking will be exchanged if you pay any difference between the price you
paid and the price applicable to the departure for which your booking is exchanged;
• If you arrive more than 24 hours after the booked departure time, your booking will not
be exchanged.
1.6 These tickets are not refundable and cannot give rise to any financial compensation
claim.
1.7 All travel must be completed within 18 months of the date of original purchase.
There's no rhyme nor reason to their pricing structure. I wouldn't have minded a £28 increase
We've literally just arrived back in the UK about an hour ago and, despite it not being horribly busy, this was the worst crossing we've ever experienced. We checked in just under 2 hours before our crossing time and as we were about to go into the terminal building, were informed by 2 workers with clipboards that we could go straight through and take an earlier train. We, along with everyone else they were telling, subsequently made our way to the boarding gates, where we sat, bored and hot, for over an hour and a half, before boarding the train we were scheduled to take! I have no idea why they urged us all to go through immediately when absolutely nothing was moving!
For info, security checked our vehicle and TT today for stowaways. That's a first, for us.
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Topic: Cost of Amending Dates LeShuttle
via mobile 03/8/2023 at 1:45am
