Eurotunnel new booking system (1 Viewer)

[GWAYGWAY]

We were in a compartment last time on the way back and there was just us and a sprinter van in the compartment. The guard pulled me right up to the van, and we were just a few inches behind the sprinters rear doors. The sprinter driver got out and tried to open his rear door but couldn't so I reversed back a couple of feet as there was plenty of room. The guard walked past and earached me for moving back as a safety hazard,. Apparrantly they park close to prevent anyone walking in between, if the train stopped suddenly anyone caught berween vehicles would be seriously injured.
Lesson learned.

That would be one hell of an emergency stop. Brakes on, locked in park AND chocks on the front wheels.

 

[ShaKen]

big rigs will be more for sure

Devils advocate here, but perhaps that should be the case.

If some passengers came on a plane and took up 4 seats rather than my 2 seats, then I’d expect them to be charged more.

They can obviously only get on so many meters of vehicles on a crossing. They’ll get on more paying vehicles/ passengers the smaller the vehicles loaded. And larger vehicles will (generally) be heavier and thus more fuel needed to move them. Thus (perhaps) why they are gathering more info on bookings; so they can start to do more granular pricing going forward.

 

[Monty don]

I agree

I go over on the motorbike about 6 times a year and have been for about 25 years now and right now I pay about £90 return for a mototbike
So for the space thats high compared to a MH
Once they have their system collecting data they will tweek accordigly

Thankfully I no longer have a 9 metre mh

GB

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[SpeedyDux]

We were in a compartment last time on the way back and there was just us and a sprinter van in the compartment. The guard pulled me right up to the van, and we were just a few inches behind the sprinters rear doors. The sprinter driver got out and tried to open his rear door but couldn't so I reversed back a couple of feet as there was plenty of room. The guard walked past and earached me for moving back as a safety hazard,. Apparrantly they park close to prevent anyone walking in between, if the train stopped suddenly anyone caught berween vehicles would be seriously injured.
Lesson learned.

Thanks, I did wonder why they insisted I should be millimetres from the back bumper of the van in front even though there was a big empty space behind ours.

 

[Momac]

I've just booked ready for our Winter sojourn - price was exactly same as last time, given I always book at least 4 weeks in advance, more if I can confirm our plans.

Incidentally I booked using Tesco vouchers and you have to call them - but the questions were identical to the website booking form, including van length (which has to include bike racks etc.)

Has anybody experimented with sizes to see if there are different prices for different lengths?

I have just checked the cost for a crossing in March 2020...going back and forth changing the length every time I see that all the prices were exactly the same for every length of campervan/motorhome! So, nothing to do with the money...just more efficient use of space.

 

[BreweryDave]

Just had a look, did a ’pretend’ booking, prices are the same as I looked at last week, just that there are now brackets of length within the campervan category, the main one being 5.5 to 8 m which will cover the majority of MHs. Clearly states on the website it’s to aid loading.

however, it didn’t recognise my UK reg, had to enter make and model manually, and.............
if you are a resident in any listed country other than uk, it was a lot dearer, god knows what exchange rate they use!
my test crossing was either £132 if a uk resident, or €186 as an eu resident ???

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[Chris S-S]

Came over with my 11.5mtr RV in October and as I booked earlier this time it was actually cheaper than last year plus saves traveller's info for future crossings so easier next time you book.

 

[TerryL]

Although currently it's one price for a campervan/motorhome/RV/gin palace the cynic in me says they are gathering data to check if it's going to be worthwhile introducing a "cost by length" fare system.

It still won't stop me using Eurotunnel though.

 

[Keith E]

"Campervans" are all around 5m in length.
Even a 17 seater LWB minibus is only 6.7m long

Whereas "Motorhomes" start at 5.5m in length.
7m is typical and up to 10m is not unusual, which is the length of two 'Campervans'

All that is before you add stuff on the back!

Given that EuroStar (and the ferries) main limitation is length, it's not surprising that they charge a premium for every meter (or part thereof) over 5.99m

Actually, with ferries, the main limitation is the number of passengers.
Vehicle length is taken into consideration though.

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[Keith E]

Although currently it's one price for a campervan/motorhome/RV/gin palace the cynic in me says they are gathering data to check if it's going to be worthwhile introducing a "cost by length" fare system.

It still won't stop me using Eurotunnel though.

Whereas, I'd never volunteer to use it.

 

[Chris S-S]

35 minute crossing in the comfort of your own environment and cheaper than a ferry sat with your own pets, I'll do it every time!

 

[Keith E]

35 minute crossing in the comfort of your own environment and cheaper than a ferry sat with your own pets, I'll do it every time!

But it's only 35 minutes if there are no snags in the tunnel.
90 minutes on a ferry where you're able to walk around, get refreshments and find reasonably clean toilets, and often the possibility of catching an earlier one.

I only use the tunnel when my employer tells me to.
Never yet have I caught an earlier train.
I've frequently arrived at folkestone in very good time but been allocated a train which was later than that I was booked onto, and then found the allocated train to be "rescheduled".
Strangely enough, they're never rescheduled to be earlier.

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[gus-lopez]

Whereas, I'd never volunteer to use it.

Or me.

35 minute crossing in the comfort of your own environment and cheaper than a ferry sat with your own pets, I'll do it every time!

Never managed to get it cheaper than a ferry any time I have ever tried it. & no we aren't talking about the frequent traveller scheme, just a straight forward one off booking. .

 

[Chris S-S]

But it's only 35 minutes if there are no snags in the tunnel.
90 minutes on a ferry where you're able to walk around, get refreshments and find reasonably clean toilets, and often the possibility of catching an earlier one.

I only use the tunnel when my employer tells me to.
Never yet have I caught an earlier train.
I've frequently arrived at folkestone in very good time but been allocated a train which was later than that I was booked onto, and then found the allocated train to be "rescheduled".
Strangely enough, they're never rescheduled to be earlier.

I've always arrived early and been offered an earlier train and never had any delays, have the use of my own toilet and drinks hot or cold, plus my dog is with me not locked up on his own, but each to their own!

 

[peterc10]

But it's only 35 minutes if there are no snags in the tunnel.
90 minutes on a ferry where you're able to walk around, get refreshments and find reasonably clean toilets, and often the possibility of catching an earlier one.

I only use the tunnel when my employer tells me to.
Never yet have I caught an earlier train.
I've frequently arrived at folkestone in very good time but been allocated a train which was later than that I was booked onto, and then found the allocated train to be "rescheduled".
Strangely enough, they're never rescheduled to be earlier.

Well we are often offered an earlier train for free if we arrive early. Last time we used it we arrived back a couple of hours earlier than the booking we had. It must just be us! Yes there may be an occasional hold up, but not for very long in my experience, but then the weather in the channel effects the running of ferries but not the trains.

We have a very clean environment when we travel on the tunnel and we can sit or lie down in comfort and read a book or the papers or just have a snooze. I have never managed that on a ferry. That environment includes a spotless toilet with lots of hot water and no smell of sick, and a fridge full of refreshments that have not been bought at an exorbitant price.

So Tunnel for us every time. But then we are all different.

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[DDJC]

Totally agree with peterc10 above. Always use the tunnel. Only ferry is ever to Ireland.

We are 7.15m and tow a 5m trailer with a little car on it. It costs a fortune, but the ferry also costs a slightly smaller fortune, and more relevant to us, two hours and a bad humour.

Yep, having your own khazi, breakfast, coffee (hot water in flask, obv), no sick, etc is where it is at.

My only beef is that despite having an account and all that, their daft booking system, insists that, according to my reg plate, the moho is actually a little red van.

 

[Brimal]

I see at last Euro Tunnel have now changed their booking system
Now want more detail on length of MH and trailer
So It looks like even more expensive for big MH and trailers

As my booking is the same but thats for a small motorbike trailer and up to 8 mt mh

GB

Last Thursday (14th Nov) I had reason to change my previously booked crossing for 20 Nov (today) for a crossing on Sat 16th.

As you mentioned, noticed the difference in the booking system, so kept to this but it also raised a few 'alarm' bells in the old brain system. Something happening here.

Alas on arriving Eurotunnel on Saturday and having a while to kill to our 16;50 frequent traveller departure time had a word with the nice young lady on the customer service desk who enlightened me to the change.

It is alas as I suspected, Eurotunnel are now changing their booking system in line with the ferry companies and instead of having a one off fee for all 'Camper Vans' as ii as present, they are now going to change to a different tariff based on length of vehicle.

Apparently the new system will not come into effect until about June time and no costs etc have yet been finalised. Again the frequent traveller costs will be the same but the additional costs will be on type (ie Camper Van length or Camper with trailer etc), and length of vehicle.

As we do 6 to 8 return crossing per 12 months in a 7.5m motorhome not best pleased but can understand the business aspect of this scheme.

Incidentally not initially offered the 16:20 crossing we got on that shuttle anyway.

Brian

 

[anniej]

We can't use our toilet on the way home on the shuttle as that is turned into our wine cellar. Lol

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[The Welsh Wizard]

"I am going to risk my neck here!

Surely the price to take a vehicle of any description onto a ferry must be gauged by the vehicles size and weight If there is any other sensible and fair system, I really can not think of it

Therefore anyone with a large vehicle can regret the new booking system, but they should not grumble too much about it?"

I'm with dickydo on this one. It's all very well complaining but come on guys, if you live in a 6 bedroom house you rightly pay more Local Authority rates. Equally you probably pay more for your heating, lighting, decorating etc. If you drive around Europe in an 8- 10 m Motorhome and you are happy to pay more for your fuel mpg then don't have a go at the Channel operators. I personally think Eurotunnel is great value for money and I have absolutely no complaints about them

 

[TerryL]

With literally hundreds of channel crossings, both ferry and tunnel, I've very rarely been held up, but it does happen - to both!

One ferry crossing - spent 8 hours going round in circles off Dover trying to dock in high winds.
One tunnel crossing took almost 4 hours when a Eurostar broke down in the tunnel and our train had to be towed out backwards to Calais - apparently they cannot reverse themselves! (That was a particularly bad day for me - I'd already broken down on the autoroute, delay 3 hours until fixed, then arrived at Folkestone to 12" of snow, the M20 closed and I was WELL out of my driving hours!)

But usually if arriving early we've been put on an earlier train, unless it's in a higher-priced time bracket when we've been asked if we want to pay extra. Happened a couple of times on ferries too.

 

[peterc10]

One ferry crossing - spent 8 hours going round in circles off Dover trying to dock in high winds.

Many years ago we had one like that on the way back from a day trip. After a few hours of circling the toilets were running in sick. Then the Captain came on the tannoy to apologise for the delay and said he was going to take a run up and have one last shot at getting in. At that point everybody went silent and starting looking very worried. Lucky for us all he made it, but I did have a vision of him going in off the breakwater at one point!.

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[DDJC]

Many years ago we had one like that on the way back from a day trip. After a few hours of circling the toilets were running in sick. Then the Captain came on the tannoy to apologise for the delay and said he was going to take a run up and have one last shot at getting in. At that point everybody went silent and starting looking very worried. Lucky for us all he made it, but I did have a vision of him going in off the breakwater at one point!.

Aaaaaannnd there, in one, why I will never do the ferry. Although to be fair, sometimes, in the tunnel, the train does rock a bit and makes your coffee swish around inside the cup.

 

[Northernraider]

I just literally changed my booking from the 28th to the 27th and while I was doing that I noticed it had automatically put me in the +8 metres category ...my Van's only 7 metres but either way I wasnt charged anything for changing the date

I dont think its anything to do with extra charges just more space saving , both times I've been on it so far it's been empty behind me and I got on earlier trains both times too

I dont think they ever run at full capacity

 

[TerryL]

I dont think they ever run at full capacity

Maybe that's why they're now using vehicle lengths, to improve the carrying capacity thus making it more efficient i.e. profitable?

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[Lot lover]

As with most things in life you pays your money and takes your choice.

And as with politics and that b****y B word, most people have entrenched views and will never admit to changing their mind even if presented with incontrovertible facts.

But we are amongst the lucky ones with probably never having to worry about Eurotunnel systems old or new or puke in ferry toilets.

 

[Northernraider]

Maybe that's why they're now using vehicle lengths, to improve the carrying capacity thus making it more efficient i.e. profitable?

It's quite possible

Might be a post wrexit plan too ....

 

[Northernraider]

My only gripe I must say is the dog charge coming from uk to france when no one checks anything or even knows the dogs there

On the return trip while i think the price is steep i can see why they charge it as dogs have to be checked


But between worming and actual tunnel cost
2 dogs is £120 to cross return via tunnel

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[Southdowners]

"I am going to risk my neck here!

Surely the price to take a vehicle of any description onto a ferry must be gauged by the vehicles size and weight If there is any other sensible and fair system, I really can not think of it

Therefore anyone with a large vehicle can regret the new booking system, but they should not grumble too much about it?"

I'm with dickydo on this one. It's all very well complaining but come on guys, if you live in a 6 bedroom house you rightly pay more Local Authority rates. Equally you probably pay more for your heating, lighting, decorating etc. If you drive around Europe in an 8- 10 m Motorhome and you are happy to pay more for your fuel mpg then don't have a go at the Channel operators. I personally think Eurotunnel is great value for money and I have absolutely no complaints about them

I don't think anyone is complaining are they?

I've just booked our return and there is no change in the price as yet. If they do increase the fares to take account of the size of vehicle that's fair and is fine by me.

 

[BILL 875]

Do they arrest the dog if its not paid is share, just wondering, the ferries are always more expensive when you add on 2 meals and the odd bottle of whiskey

 

[stevewagner]

"I am going to risk my neck here!

Surely the price to take a vehicle of any description onto a ferry must be gauged by the vehicles size and weight If there is any other sensible and fair system, I really can not think of it

Therefore anyone with a large vehicle can regret the new booking system, but they should not grumble too much about it?"

I'm with dickydo on this one. It's all very well complaining but come on guys, if you live in a 6 bedroom house you rightly pay more Local Authority rates. Equally you probably pay more for your heating, lighting, decorating etc. If you drive around Europe in an 8- 10 m Motorhome and you are happy to pay more for your fuel mpg then don't have a go at the Channel operators. I personally think Eurotunnel is great value for money and I have absolutely no complaints about them

Actually council tax is based on the value of a property and not the size

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