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Alvin, www.eurotunnel.com currently advertising £24 day return for shopping in France. Pick up your cheap French or other foreign car parts at the same time. Did it last summer for £15 return. Must have gone up.
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Thanks Richard, We usually drive down to Portugal once per year and I always look for these cheapos and not use the return part of the ticket.
Got one from a newspaper offer last year for about £20.00 but they would be better if you could just turn up on the day. Will have a look at their site.
regards
Alvin
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I have heard Eurotunnel charge you if you don't use the return - any truth in this?
Andrew
>
> Thanks Richard, We usually drive down to Portugal once per
> year and I always look for these cheapos and not use the
> return part of the ticket.
> Got one from a newspaper offer last year for about £20.00 but
> they would be better if you could just turn up on the day.
> Will have a look at their site.
> regards
> Alvin
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Isn't the £24 fare only for departures after 6.00 P.M. and only if you pay £10 extra to join their points club. To depart after 12.00 P.M. seems to cost £37. Better to get the ferry - www.posl.com - @ £17.50 for departures after 12.00 P.M. with a free bottle of wine.
Please let us know if you really can travel for £24 at a reasonable time of day.
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I can't see how any of them can do this Andrew. I don't imagine they are interested if you come back or not. They would have to take a deposit from you first on the outward journey!!!
On return we usually head for St Malo and come back on Brittany ferries which is really the best way to go both ways if you're heading south. But they are expensive for a return ticket. This shortens the road journey and the outward one arrives at St Malo at about 8am after an overnight journey.
This gives you a good start in the morning and gets you about to Bordeaux before you need to start looking for somewhere to stay overnight.
Alvin
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The ferry companies have wised upto 1 way travel on a cheapy. terms and conditions for POSL are very clear!
Of the record I was told by an employee that they do sometimes 'confiscate a bag for safe keeping' then they will return it to you on your return. If the car is full up for a 3 month holiday they have good reasons to be suspicious. I was also told that they track regn numbers. If they have your credit card number for the original booking I guess they can take the balance due and let you argue afterwards. A la hotel billing scams.
So pack the sacrificial suitcase full of newspaper, claim to have house in the Pas de Calais ( but resident in England) to explain the transport of large qty of goods and take your chance. You may get sympathy if the car gets written off not to return, but dont count on it.
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Well you learn something every day.....but when I have used cheapo day ferry trips and not come back it hasn't happened.
And as Alex says many do this by air travel. I know many Cypriots studying in England who when they return home for the summer vacation book a last minute package as cheap as possible and simply use the ticket.
They tell the rep quite openly when they get there to forget about them as they don't want the accomodation and to flog the return to someone who is travelling back. There are many in Cyprus looking for a return to the UK and this is a godsend for them. Only a couple of months ago in Cyprus a bloke from Manchester who goes there on long stay, was telling me that he has a contact in a travel office who gives him a call when he has decided to go home when they have an empty seat.
alvin
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I heard they charge your credit card.
Andrew
>
> I can't see how any of them can do this Andrew. I don't
> imagine they are interested if you come back or not. They
> would have to take a deposit from you first on the outward
> journey!!!
> On return we usually head for St Malo and come back on
> Brittany ferries which is really the best way to go both ways
> if you're heading south. But they are expensive for a return
> ticket. This shortens the road journey and the outward one
> arrives at St Malo at about 8am after an overnight journey.
> This gives you a good start in the morning and gets you about
> to Bordeaux before you need to start looking for somewhere to
> stay overnight.
> Alvin
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From www.eurotunnel.com:
"Failure to complete both your outward and return journeys invalidates both outward and return tickets. If you fail to complete one of the journeys, you will be liable to pay for the journey you do complete the difference between the price paid for your ticket and the standard single fare for your vehicle applicable at the time of travel. "
Andrew
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Andrew
But would Eurotunnel's ruling stand up in a court of law ? After all, many thousands of air and rail passengers buy cheap excursion fares and throw away the return half in order to get a good deal on a one-way fare.
For example, a one-way standard class London-Paris ticket on Eurostar costs £170 whereas an excursion return costs £120. Or how about London-New York at over £400 for a one-way compared to around £200 for an excursion return.
The airlines and rail firms don't like passengers doing this because they argue it's against "the spirit of the excursion fare." But, to the best of my knowledge, no action has been taken.
Yes, I suppose Eurotunnel could debit your credit card at a later date. But what if you pay by cash ? Or maybe Eurotunnel nsists you book these cheapies with a credit card ...
Alex
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See the erlier posts on T & Cs. I suggest that if you book ,you are accepting the terms and conditions. (But are they reasonable?).
Come on lawyers give an opinion.
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Andrew
i have done this with EuroTunnel three times, and they have never charged my credit card for the up-grade amount. Who's to say that they won't start though!
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I never fully understand the logic behind the differential pricing, particularly now duty-free has all but been legislated out of existence, so the ferry companies are not making up for lower ticket prices on day or 3-day tickets by profits in the on-board shop.
Surely a vehicle takes up the same amount of space however long it is going for?
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>I never fully understand the logic behind the differential pricing, particularly now duty-free has all but been legislated out of existence, so the ferry
>companies are not making up for lower ticket prices on day or 3-day tickets by profits in the on-board shop.
>Surely a vehicle takes up the same amount of space however long it is going for?
It is nothing to do with direct, or indirect cost. It is related to opportunity cost and supply/demand as well as market generation.
Assume a cost of $10 for the trip. Assume space of 100 cars.
Firstly, the flexible, holiday, long term ticket is priced as to what the market will stand. If you are going for 1 month, then maybe you would be happy to pay $40, since that's only $1.25 a day. However, if you were going for two days, then you might balk since the ferry fare would represent a larger percentage of your holiday cost.
However, this effect is not infinite and depends on how long the trip is. Whilst people will pay more for 2 week return then they will 1 week return, this doesn't continue to be true the longer the trip gets.
Mind you, longer term trips represent predictable traffic for the ferry companies. Although for the same thing, it becomes a liability. If you have had all the reveneue, but you have still got to bring 200 cars home in the future, then it represents a future cost without revenue which will require a reserve. (as an aside, this is a *huge* problem for prepaid cellular telephone suppliers).
The ferry company will know that the take up of tickets, from their natural and existing market, may be as follows;
$100.......10 people
$90.........15 people
$80.........20 people
$70.........30 people
Judged by the maximum amount people will pay to travel. This coincides surprisingly well with the number of people doing longer, medium and shorter trips and lends itself well to manipulation.
The ferry company will know now that it is likely to get 75 people on its boat from its existing market. But what does it do about the other 25 since it has no market for these tickets at any price ? It creates a new market - the booze run, the car spares trip, whatever, and it gives the tickets away for little money.
This encourages people to travel, and perhaps for more expensive/profitable trips in the future, it doesn't represent a significant interest in cost, and even without duty free, the bars/shops/car parks/ cafes will all increase revenue - essentially increases its market.
However, they have to be sure that they don't damage their expensive ticket market, by allowing those people to use the cheap ones. Hence the rules.
I bashed that out of the keyboard fast, and so it may not make as much sense as I would like, but that's how it works.
I used to do a lot of work on this subject for Delta Airlines, it is exactly the same theory, fascinating work and cynical as hell. You have no idea how much you are manipulated. The average intercontinental 777 will have a minimum of 18 different fares depending on a variety of factors for the same flight up to a maxium of a lot.
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I am about to go to Brussels so have been persistantly checking out what is the best deal. It is very easy to find out from just going to each site and consulting the specail offers page. However be aware of the sailing times and particularly the early going-out times if you want the cheapest ticket (it's 7.00 sailing or earlier with seafrance).
A note about taking the one way option and then getting another ferry back.
i have been doing this for about 4 yrs. They will, if they realise you are not coming back as your ticket intends, make you pay the up grade price (whihc is usually a lot), P and O and Sea Frace and Eurotunnel have all checked the contents of my car when i have taken day trips to check my boot is'nt full of camping equipment etc. Once they refused entry until i paid the up-grade, even though i Bull**** about some pretend house moving business i was in - they would not buy it!
However you can still get these offers by:
- taking a 24hr rtn (about whihc they are less scrupulous)
-Hiding your belongings as best as possible (they tend to glance over your
car intitially to see if it is suspect)
-always using a different shipping company for the rtn journey, even if this is
10 weeks later (they caught me once on a rtn some 12 weeks later, and
made me pay for the difference they lost on my original journey, @!#$)
-look as though you are goin for a day trip or booze cruise, don't have maps
and heaps of stuff in the car, very commonsense stuff.
Sounds difficult, it's not. I have only been caught once and had to pay £120 in four yrs. These companies make a hell of a lot of cash already, so i can't see why they should make even more!
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