Book Early And Save: Yes
Online bookings open: usually open around 6 months ahead of the travel date.
Eurostar train ticket terms summary
The only ticket type are the Flexible tickets, but it is the class of service you opt to travel by, which impacts on the terms and conditions of travel.
*Exchanges
Book to travel in Standard and Standard Premier class:
The booked date and time can be exchanged to a different departure to the same destination up to one hour* before departure time.
- If the cost of your new ticket is more than the cost of your original ticket, you will be required to pay the difference;
- If the cost of your new ticket is less than the cost of your original ticket, you will not receive a refund of the difference.
Book to travel in Premier class:
The booked date and time can be exchanged to a different departure up until the end of the previous day, without having to pay any price differences on any other charges.
The Eurostar ticket terms summary is here
Refunds
Book to travel in Standard and Standard Premier class:
- Up to seven days or more before the date of departure you will need to pay a fee of £25 per person for a one-way / single ticket and £50 per person for a two-way / return ticket - So you will only receive any sum you paid in excess of these sums.
- Less than seven days before the date of departure, tickets are non-refundable - Also applies if you exchanged a ticket to an alternative departure, under seven days ahead.
Book to travel in Premier class:
Up until the end of the day before departure date, tickets can be refunded at no additional cost
Seat Reservations on the Eurostar
Reservations are mandatory so seats are assigned when booking - But after a booking has been completed, you use the ‘Manage Your Booking’ facility, which can be easily found on the Eurostar website and select specific seats within the travel class you have chosen.
You will need to enter a Booking Reference number - but other booking agents such as Trainline, Rail Europe, SNCF Connect, B-Europe and NS International, will also include this number on the communication sent to you.
The impact of the connections
There is relatively new E.U. legislation which protects travellers against financial loss in the event of missed connections due to train delays, but it only applies to 'through tickets'.
The Eurostar terms and conditions specifically state that when booking journeys which combine Eurostar + Thalys trains 'through tickets' will be issued.
However, 'for all other journeys that combine a Eurostar Service and a service provided by another carrier(s), including when purchased in a single commercial transaction, those tickets will be separate contracts and issues regarding delays, missed connections, cancellations, compensation, and the management of aftersales will be handled accordingly'.
Though both DB, the operator of the ICE train, and Eurostar are members of The Railteam Alliance which offers a Hop on the next available train (HOTNAT) policy.
It 'allows travelers to take the next high-speed service leaving from the same station as originally planned when a delay on or cancellation of a preceding Railteam member’s high-speed service prevents them from making their originally-planned connection. This service is free of charge and is subject to the following conditions:
- HOTNAT only applies at the station at which the passenger originally planned to change trains and in cases of train delays and train cancellations.
- The approval of HOTNAT is subject to the available capacity on board each train. Seats are not guaranteed'.
So 'issues regarding missed connection and cancellations' should be 'handled' by Railteam's HOTNAT policy.
Though HOTNAT can't be applied if the arrival into Bruxelles is after the final Eurostar of the day has departed for London.
Much more info is available on this ticketing guide.
Three options to mitigate against potential complications:
- Avoid the end-to-end journey options, which involve connecting into the final Eurostar of the day on to London:
2: Choose end-to-end journey options which have a combination of
- ICE train to Koln
- Thalys train to Bruxelles
- Eurostar to London.
Because Eurostar does classify Thalys + Eurostar as a 'through ticket'.
3: An option is to book separate tickets for the Hamburg to Bruxelles journey with DB, and then book separate tickets for the Eurostar to London, but with an extended period of time between trains.
Then if the ICE trains on the journey to Bruxelles are cancelled or delayed, DB will issue alternative tickets to enable a later arrival into Bruxelles, as this part of the journey has AJC protection.
Similarly if the booked Eurostar train is cancelled, it will transfer tickets to a later departure.
Though if the journey to Bruxelles is so delayed that you miss the booked connection on to London, you will have to re-book the Eurostar
Seat Reservations:
The tickets will be train specific, but seat reservations are OPTIONAL on both the ICE train between Hamburg and Koln/Cologne AND the ICE train between Koln/Cologne and Bruxelles/Brussel.
The reservation fee is 2nd class = €4.90, 1st class = €5.90; but the reservation charges cover BOTH of the ICE trains on this journey.
When making a booking with DB or Trainline, you will have to add the reservations.
In contrast seat reservations are mandatory on the Thalys trains, so the ticket prices on all of the agents automatically include this reservation fee,
Reservations are also compulsory on the Eurostar and this is included when booking point2point journey tickets; your Eurostar seats will be automatically assigned.
The faster end-to-end journey:
It's also often possible to depart Hamburg 20 mins later and make an additional connection in Hannover, but because these end-to-end journeys are faster they can be the only options offered by the ticket agent.
They will be the options with 3 x transfers between trains.
If you see them SMTJ's is to avoid booking these options, they will be dependent on making a non-guaranteed connections between trains in Hannover.
Though if you make separate bookings for the Hamburg to Koln and Koln to London journeys you will have to re-book the journey on to
