# Tunnel Ticket Tips And Tricks.......



## hampsterracing (Jun 2, 2011)

Any tips (apart from tesco vouchers) to get the best price on the tunnel ?

looking at two weeks in june and its around £150 !! last time i looked earlier in the year it was sub £100 :? 

Thanks

Roger


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## hogan (Oct 31, 2006)

book early and travel in the middle of the night.


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## divil (Jul 3, 2011)

hogan said:


> book early and travel in the middle of the night.


I paid £153 in Feb for a crossing in June (night/early hours crossing)....only used to pay about £120 when we just went camping with the car so seems ok to me.

Paul


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## adonisito (Nov 6, 2009)

Depends how often you go. We use the frequent traveller scheme, 10 single trips for £390. There is a small supplement for the van, and we also take the dog. Not practical if you don't go very often though. Seeing some of the prices quoted on here, I reckon you save money even if you didn't use all the crossings in the 12 month period! Some limitations on times though, leave UK after 4pm, and cross back before midday, perfect for us actually.


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## ThursdaysChild (Aug 2, 2008)

It cannot be denied that we have many members of rank and opulence, but I suspect that the majority of us have to keep a watchful eye on the cost of our motorhoming.
There will be those who have a problem with seasickness, and those in a desperate hurry to get somewhere, but paying Eurotunnel £150-odd to cross over to France when DFDS will do the job for £44 does seem a little profligate.


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## hampsterracing (Jun 2, 2011)

ThursdaysChild said:


> It cannot be denied that we have many members of rank and opulence, but I suspect that the majority of us have to keep a watchful eye on the cost of our motorhoming.
> There will be those who have a problem with seasickness, and those in a desperate hurry to get somewhere, but paying Eurotunnel £150-odd to cross over to France when DFDS will do the job for £44 does seem a little profligate.


£98 return is the best ferry price on the dates we are tied to (at stupid o'clock as well)

we will use the tesco vouchers for some of the tunnel cost but we don't collect many tesco points anymore as SWMBO works at sainsburys

Working for a living ties you up too much


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## hampsterracing (Jun 2, 2011)

adonisito said:


> Depends how often you go. We use the frequent traveller scheme, 10 single trips for £390. There is a small supplement for the van, and we also take the dog. Not practical if you don't go very often though. Seeing some of the prices quoted on here, I reckon you save money even if you didn't use all the crossings in the 12 month period! Some limitations on times though, leave UK after 4pm, and cross back before midday, perfect for us actually.


i looked at this but living in devon and working full time there is never enough time ..............


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## mikebeaches (Oct 18, 2008)

As others have said, the lowest prices through the tunnel will be for travelling late in the evening, during the night, or early in the morning. However, it's worth noting that if you book say, an evening crossing, the likelyhood is you will be allowed to travel on a train up to two hours earlier than scheduled, at no additional cost. Just turn up early and you'll be asked if you'd like to go on an earlier train.

I have heard of occasions when folk have turned up even earlier - say late evening for an early morning crossing - and have travelled immediately on the next train. Not tried it myself.

You should be aware they won't allow you to park/wait at the terminal for more than two hours prior to your scheduled departure. If they don't offer you an earlier crossing, I understand you will be turned away from the terminal.

Also, you can travel up to 24 hours AFTER your scheduled time if need be (suggest that point is double checked in the T&Cs, but I'm sure that's right). Additionally, it's dead easy to change bookings to different times or dates - the only charge is if the new date/time is more expensive than the original and the extra needs to be paid. But no admin charges or anything like that - just a simple phone call. Have changed our bookings a few times.

It is possible to get lower cost fares on the ferries, but the tunnel works well for us.


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## Imbiber (May 11, 2007)

I posted this reply on another thread, which may be of use?

_"Having used the Frequent Traveller service offered by Eurotunnel for several years one tip I can pass on to everyone is to always book your outbound and return journey's as one way bookings. Thus making them both individual bookings.

This is particularly prevelant for all outbound journey's (especially peak travel times), as one xmas, having booked an outbound and return ticket on the same booking, I had to cancel my initial travel date due to unforeseen circumstances.

The resulting conversation with customer services ended in me re-arranging a suitable outbound journey but not being able to return on my already booked return date. In the end I had to return a day earlier than originally booked and lost two days going out

The reason given was that the initial booking had to be cancelled (both outbound and return dates & times) and a new booking made based upon the availability of dates and times. Had I just booked the outbound as a one way booking and the same for the return, I would have still maintained my original return date and time as this was not effected by my outbound cancellation.

Hope this makes sense!"

_


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## mikebeaches (Oct 18, 2008)

Imbiber said:


> I posted this reply on another thread, which may be of use?
> 
> _"Having used the Frequent Traveller service offered by Eurotunnel for several years one tip I can pass on to everyone is to always book your outbound and return journey's as one way bookings. Thus making them both individual bookings.
> 
> ...


Understand exactly what you're saying and a very good point - but is that experience fairly recent? It's only a couple of months ago that I changed the outward date of travel for next month, on a return booking originally made summer 2011. And it was the sceond time the outward date had to be changed! No mention of it affecting the inbound crossing.

But as I said, I can kind of just about see their (bureaucratic) logic. However, I wonder if they've changed the policy on that. The company/reservation system does strike me as fairly customer focused and friendly these days.


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## Imbiber (May 11, 2007)

Hi Mike,

To be fair it was a couple of Xmas's ago and I have just used the advice offered since then.

It was probably due to the return date being so close to New Year and their peak travel dates that I was unable to make a new booking incorporating our preferred return date. Apparently due to demand as soon as the booking was cancelled my original slot had been sold to someone else :?:

Anyway, after thinking about the OP's request, in order to get the best price for the tunnel I think you would have to book a return journey anyway.......so therefore my advice is a bit non-relevant really


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## Suenliam (Mar 22, 2006)

Booked our crossing way back before Christmas. £82 for 6.8m MH on the 8.20am crossing on 16 May. Thought this was quite a good price at a fairly reasonable time of day. Gives us plenty of time to get south without exhausting ourselves.

Sue


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## jonpspencer (Feb 23, 2012)

*Frequent Traveller With Eurotunnel*

Hi, I have been a frequent traveller for the past 5 or 6 years travelling with a Motorcycle, car and now a MobileHome. As I understood it as a frequent traveller you can change a booking up to 24hrs before departure. Having said that, I have turned up early and late by anything upto 24hrs and they have always got me on to the next available crossing(normally within an hour!) If the new time slot is outside your original booking(more expensive) you can be charged a nominal fee, these vary from £2 to about £25
I have to say that from experience that if you make 3 or more return crossings then its worth paying the £390 as each crossing costs you £39 or £78 return no matter how long or short in advance you make the booking.(This has been my experience) This way the price is always the same.
Strange thing is I expected to pay more for travelling with a Motorhome but having telephoned I was informed the charge of £390 is the same for a Motorcycle, car or Motorhome! However, if you are towing something then that is extra.
Personally, we find this works for us but its not for everyone. We hate boats as the wife suffers from sea sickness. The possible down side is that any stikes, fires etc result in an instant stoppage but then again, I suppose that applies to the ferries as well. You pay your monies and takes your choice....... 8O


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## GEMMY (Jun 19, 2006)

Trouble is with frequent travellor, you can't use Tesco vouchers. :wink: 

tony


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## Easyriders (May 16, 2011)

ThursdaysChild said:


> It cannot be denied that we have many members of rank and opulence, but I suspect that the majority of us have to keep a watchful eye on the cost of our motorhoming.
> There will be those who have a problem with seasickness, and those in a desperate hurry to get somewhere, but paying Eurotunnel £150-odd to cross over to France when DFDS will do the job for £44 does seem a little profligate.


We are careful with money, but we'd still go with the tunnel. Partly because I get sick even crossing the Mersey, but also:

1. Time. It takes us 6 hours for us to get to the tunnel or ferry, ferry crossing at least 1.5 hrs longer than tunnel, then France + 1 hr GB time. It's tiring whatever you do, but much less stressful (and quicker) on the tunnel.

2, Ambience. Before we retired, we were pretty well confined to flying if we wanted to get somewhere with decent weather, and not spend too long on the journey, given we had max 2 weeks. We didn't mind the flights, what we hated were the airports!

Screaming kids, uncomfy seats, noisy fruit machines, drunks...

Every ferry we've ever tried has been just like the airports! No thanks! We drive onto the train, have lunch at out MH table, 35 minutes later we are in France, drive right off!

If it's any comfort, we've been monitoring the price on Eurotunnel for months/ No point booking while weather is so dreadful. Price hasn't altered much for months, though cheapest, on the whole, midweek between 12 and 4PM. Good luck!


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## GEMMY (Jun 19, 2006)

We always catch an early evening train on a Sunday, 6/7 ish. Park on the yacht basin and walk to our favourite local restaurant for a meal. Start the holiday the next day.

tony


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## veevee (Nov 6, 2011)

*Re: Frequent Traveller With Eurotunnel*



jonpspencer said:


> Hi, I have been a frequent traveller for the past 5 or 6 years travelling with a Motorcycle, car and now a MobileHome. As I understood it as a frequent traveller you can change a booking up to 24hrs before departure. Having said that, I have turned up early and late by anything upto 24hrs and they have always got me on to the next available crossing(normally within an hour!) If the new time slot is outside your original booking(more expensive) you can be charged a nominal fee, these vary from £2 to about £25
> 
> We are also Tunnel frequent travellers, 3 out of 4 of our journeys up to Calais start from the same spot.
> All our journeys to Folkestone start at the same spot.
> ...


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## mikebeaches (Oct 18, 2008)

[quote="Easyriders]...We didn't mind the flights, what we hated were the airports!

Screaming kids, uncomfy seats, noisy fruit machines, drunks...

Every ferry we've ever tried has been just like the airports! No thanks! We drive onto the train, have lunch at out MH table, 35 minutes later we are in France, drive right off!

[/quote]

Ref airports - tell me about it - in addition to the above mentioned - there are constant in-audible announcements screeching over the tannoy, hassle at security, an unruly scrum at the departure gate, then the question - 'will my hand luggage fit the size gauge' - not to mention waiting for hold luggage to come off the plane, and then facing huge queues for immigration.

As you say, the flying isn't too bad - it's what goes on at the airports that's painful. Ferry terminals aren't as bad, but for all the reasons others have highlighted, we find the tunnel relaxed, quick and generally lacking in hassle - so it works for us.


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## xgx (Oct 14, 2005)

*Re: Frequent Traveller With Eurotunnel*



jonpspencer said:


> ...
> Strange thing is I expected to pay more for travelling with a Motorhome but having telephoned I was informed the charge of £390 is the same for a Motorcycle, car or Motorhome! However, if you are towing something then that is extra.


Quote from Eurotunnel:
_In addition supplements will be payable for minibus, campervan, caravans and trailers _

Last time I used Frequent traveller it was £9 for a motorhome/campervan per crossing... £48 single, £96 return...


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