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Frequent traveler on Eurotunnel.


Archiesgrandad

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In anticipation of our plans to visit the UK a number of times in the next 12 months , my dear CG decided that we could save a significant amount of money by using this facility, so she tried to sign up, from our home in France. All went well until she tried to pay from her UK bank account in sterling. The cost was £440 for 10 journeys, but as soon as she put in her UK bank details the price was converted to 660 euros. tried all sorts of wriggles to get it to accept her UK bank card for payment in sterling but it simply would not allow it.

eventually she phoned the help line and the very helpful young lady sorted it all out for her, and she did manage to make the payment in sterling, but the young lady had no explanation for why it costs more in euros.

 

Just thought it might be helpful to tell.

AGD

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There is a Eurotunnel English-language “Frequent Traveller” registration webpage and a French-language version.

 

Comparing the two webpages reveals not only differences in ‘per car’ each way’ ticket prices, but also in the percentage economies claimed to be obtainable. Essentially, there are two different ‘schemes’ with differing terms and conditions and pricing.

 

Selecting “United Kingdom” as the “Country of residence” causes GBP prices to be specified: selecting an alternative Country of residence causes Euro prices to show.

 

There will be occasions when an applicant for a Frequent Traveller account may wish to pay in an alternative currency (eg. a resident of Switzerland might want to pay in Swiss Francs) but in most instances applicants will be happy to pay in GBP when they live in the UK or Euros if they live in a Eurozone country.

 

For those applicants who want to pay in a currency that differs from their ‘resident country’s” currency, on-line registration (as AGD found) apparently won’t handle that requirement. It would be necessary to know the logic behind the Eurotunnel software to identify its limitations and foibles, but it’s certainly worth knowing that the problem can be side-stepped by phoning the Eurotunnel help-line.

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peejay - 2017-12-05 12:10 PM

 

Surely you mean Getlink. :-S B-)

 

Pete

 

GetLink is the new name for the holding company, the tunnel will continue to be branded as EuroTunnel (so they claim). Apparently GetLink are involved in an increasingly diverse range of activities including an additional electrical power cable link between the UK and France.

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It took me a while to get my head round this scheme so it might be worth me asking others to confirm I've got it right!  The features are:

 

  • By buying crossings in dollops of ten (paying in advance) you get a cheap base price of £440, so £44 per crossing, for non-peak dates and times.
  • You then pay a supplement of £11 per crossing when  you book each crossing if you are crossing in a motorhome
  • likewise you pay extra for a trailer when you book.

  • You also pay for your pet if you take one, £15 per crossing.
  • If you want to cross at a peak time you can, for a surcharge of £20 or £30, depending on how peak it is.
  • You cannot just turn up to make a crossing but you can book as late as the day before.  You must check in no earlier than two hours before booked departure.  You will be put on the next train when you check in if it suits them but no guarantee.  If you arrive late you forfeit the booking. 

  • If you fail to use all ten crossings within a year you waste the unused remainder of your advance payment.
  • If you need more than ten crossings in a year no problem, you just start a new dollop of ten and pay £440 up front again.
  • You can effectively share with someone by "nominating" another person to use your Account.

  • There is a FlexPlus scheme which is more flexible but costs more.
  • You can only share with one other person.

The discounted non-peak fare per crossing therefore works out  at £55 for MH inc passengers (extra for a pet) providing you settle for the standard off peak availability.

 

Sharing with someone you would presumably split the advance payment and the pay your own supplements as you book crossings.  If you do two return crossings each per year and waste the other one it will work out at £264 each plus your supplements of 4X£11, so £308, so £154 per return crossing very roughly the same as a ferry)  rather than the standard Tunnel fare of around £220 per return crossing.

 

Did I get it right?

 

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Sounds about right to me Stuart, but it's a hell of a lot more complicated than using Tesco points and, depending on how much one uses Tesco (and/or how one might otherwise use the Tesco points), quite a bit more expensive and restrictive as well! :-) After all, how many of us make 5 return crossings a year?
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The Dover to Calais P&O ferry for frequent car ticket, 6-8 singles, is £36, there is is anaddition for M/H but you have to phone for that, goes down to £34 over 8.

 

The current standard price for a M/H and 2 people for May/June is £60 per journey.

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Agaric - 2017-12-05 6:05 PM

 

The Dover to Calais P&O ferry for frequent car ticket, 6-8 singles, is £36, there is is anaddition for M/H but you have to phone for that, goes down to £34 over 8.

 

The current standard price for a M/H and 2 people for May/June is £60 per journey.

 

According to the P&O website the frequent traveller rate for Dover to Calais is only available for cars.

 

We used to travel P&O using the frequent traveller for MH's (3 returns per year) but they excluded motorcaravans from the scheme about 2 years ago. I wrote to P&O about this and they confirmed it was now only available for cars.

 

Perhaps if you phone up, as Agaric suggests, it is still available?

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Brian Kirby - 2017-12-06 8:52 AM.....it's a hell of a lot more complicated than using Tesco points and, depending on how much one uses Tesco (and/or how one might otherwise use the Tesco points), quite a bit more expensive and restrictive as well! :-) After all, how many of us make 5 return crossings a year?

 

We've got used tobooking out outbound journey only, then booking the return oin line from abroad when we've decided to head for home - so that limits using Tesco vouchers for the outbound journey only.  This year we suffered a breakdown delay and then a gale leading us to abandon the ferry booking and even then the last minute Eurotunnel crossing homeward only cost £238, so not really a financial catastrophe in the overall costs of a seven week holiday.

 

As retired folk we are willing to take the time and trouble to make best use of best deals but unless you do at least two return crossings per year and have a MH buddy with whom you can share easily, you cant save that much so this Eurotunnel Frequent Traveller scheme does seem to be more trouble than it's worth.

 

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I've previously gone down the Tesco route for a return crossing on Eurotunnel. After receiving the Tesco voucher reference, you need to phone Eurotunnel to make a booking at least 14 days in advance of your crossing date.

 

What I don't know is, if you were delayed on your return journey - could you amend the return date online or do you have to phone Eurotunnel (using the telephone number given by Tesco)? Maybe, it's not possible to make any amendments although I did make an amendment to an outbound crossing once which cost a nominal additional amount (probably due to the variation in pricing closer to departure date).

 

The Eurotunnel frequent traveller option has a few restrictions. You need to travel outbound between 4pm and 6am and inbound between midnight and 2pm. Travelling outside these times will incur a supplement of £20 (standard peak). HIgh Peak (bank holidays etc) carry a £30 supplement. The basic cost of a single crossing for MH's is £55. As far as I know, you can make on-line amendments to your travel time up to 24hrs prior to the originally booked time without incurring additional cost. Furthermore, I suspect you could book just an outbound journey and arrange your inbound journey on-line when nearing Calais. Overall, the frequent traveller scheme does seem to allow more flexibility despite a few restrictions.

 

Sharing the minimum of 10 crossings under the frequent traveller scheme, say 6 and 4, involves paying the full amount yourself by credit card and nominating the name of the sharer plus their credit card details at the time of setting up the account. It's best to receive payment for the balance from your nominated person prior to setting up the account. This is because, the name of the nominated person cannot be changed after the account is finalised. If the nominated person reneged on the deal, you'd be left with 10 tickets you couldn't share with anyone else.

 

 

 

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Re Tesco Booking: You can change the date and/or time of your return journey by ringing the number on the electronic ticket. You finish up paying the difference between your original crossing and the price of your new crossing on the web site.You can't amend the booking online or couldn't the last time I did it. I don't think a refund is possible if the new crossing is cheaper.

 

We've changed both the outbound and inbound times and dates on several occasions. Obviously with the way the pricing system works the further in advance you change your crossing, the cheaper it is likely to be,

 

alan

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  • 3 weeks later...
StuartO - 2017-12-05 4:12 PMIt took me a while to get my head round this scheme so it might be worth me asking others to confirm I've got it right!  The features are:

 

  • By buying crossings in dollops of ten (paying in advance) you get a cheap base price of £440, so £44 per crossing, for non-peak dates and times.
  • You then pay a supplement of £11 per crossing when  you book each crossing if you are crossing in a motorhome
  • likewise you pay extra for a trailer when you book.

  • You also pay for your pet if you take one, £15 per crossing.
  • If you want to cross at a peak time you can, for a surcharge of £20 or £30, depending on how peak it is.
  • You cannot just turn up to make a crossing but you can book as late as the day before.  You must check in no earlier than two hours before booked departure.  You will be put on the next train when you check in if it suits them but no guarantee.  If you arrive late you forfeit the booking. 

  • If you fail to use all ten crossings within a year you waste the unused remainder of your advance payment.
  • If you need more than ten crossings in a year no problem, you just start a new dollop of ten and pay £440 up front again.
  • You can effectively share with someone by "nominating" another person to use your Account.

  • There is a FlexPlus scheme which is more flexible but costs more.
  • You can only share with one other person.

The discounted non-peak fare per crossing therefore works out  at £55 for MH inc passengers (extra for a pet) providing you settle for the standard off peak availability.

 

Sharing with someone you would presumably split the advance payment and the pay your own supplements as you book crossings.  If you do two return crossings each per year and waste the other one it will work out at £264 each plus your supplements of 4X£11, so £308, so £154 per return crossing very roughly the same as a ferry)  rather than the standard Tunnel fare of around £220 per return crossing.

 

Did I get it right?

We find the frequent traveller is a great scheme - superb value and excellent flexibility. Yes, there are a few time restrictions, but - subject to availability - you can travel at the basic £55 (£44 + £11 for MH) 365 days a year. We crossed both ways on August weekends this year, without any extra supplements.We share the account with a friend.
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