When Eurostar fails us

I am sure you've all tried heard of being upgraded from economy class to business class or 1st class in airlines where overbooking occurs when you check-in. Same applies to hotels (It happens to me twice this year).  Well...last week-end I have experienced for the first time the opposite with Eurostar. On my way back to London on Sunday evening - after a beautiful week-end in Paris - I was told I was downgraded...

Let me take a step back on this extraordinary story.

Sunday 1830, Paris Gare Du Nord:

After the incident occurs in the channel tunnel, Eurostar still hasn't resumed all their trains between Paris and London. However, the service is nearly back to normal (apparently...). We were told in London that we would need to present ourselves at Gare du Nord 2 hours before departure and that staff will exchange and allocate seats on the next available train. We go upstairs and discover the longest queue I have ever come across at this station. There 2 queues with signage pointing out at Standard and Leisure Select and another at Business. We take the left queue. We wait and walk up slowly to the entrance door of the Eurostar terminal.

1930, Paris Gare du Nord

We arrive at the desk where staff allocate seats. They say you are on the wrong queue, you should have taken the other queue for first class tickets. Indeed, I remember a guy walking up and down the queue saying "any 1st class ticket holders, follow me". We check our tickets, it says "Leisure Select", so I thought Leisure Select wasn't 1st class, so we can't benefit of skipping the queue. Eurostar staff doesn't use the terminology used on the tickets and their website !!! There is no 1st class on Eurostar.

So we follow our guy who allocate 2 seats on 1st class Leisure Select.

2020, Gare du Nord - waiting room

We finally get called to embark on the Eurostar and walk up to the coach 09 to find out that we have been allocated 2 seats in a 4 seats table and not in "Duo" as mentioned on our ticket originally. Because the train is fully booked, we think this is ok, we could live 2h20 min like this. So we enjoy our big and comfy seat waiting patiently for our first drink. On Leisure Select, you get "Onboard indulgence" meaning free drinks and full meal during the trip.

2115, on board of Eurostar on our way to London

The train is full and so our carriage. After 30 mins, still not a sign of a trolley service and not staff coming to us taking drink orders. I see the train manager and ask him "what's going on?" He looks at me not sure what I mean. I explain to him when we could expect to have a drink. Other travelers in the carriage also get interested in my question...The train manager says "But this carriage has been downgraded to 2nd class, didn't they tell you in Paris?". Well, not really. Nobody told us in Paris Gare du Nord, neither the welcoming staff outside the train when they check your tickets before you board the carriage. The manager is a bit annoyed...especially when our neighbours travellers also have the same problem. Nobody told anybody and we " the consumer" feel cheated and angry on a Sunday evening. The train manager even tells us they can't provide food on this carriage as they haven't got enough ready meals for everybody. So the only way to get a meal is to go the bar and that we will have to pay for it.  He doesn't even suggest that we will get maybe a drink free of charge.

21.30

After a little while, another train manager passed by our carriage and I explain to her the situation. She's also annoyed and don't understand how this could have happened (neither I and other customers). After some conversation, she says that we need to make a claim via the website and we will be compensated with a £25 voucher from Marks & Spencer per person.

22.00

A trolley service comes our carriage and offers us - free of charge - drinks. At last, some recognition here.

22.30

Our train arrives in London St Pancras and we are heading to the Taxi station.

Conclusion:

Communication has again failed us...somewhere in the middle something has broken. Eurostar has to deal with a major crisis since the fire incident. Consumers are more or less accepting this and follow instructions from Eurostar. But for some reasons, you don't get what you paid for...As of the compensation, I would have liked to get a full refund of both tickets or a free return ticket for the future. M&S vouchers..Give me a break...

UPDATE: in the end it wasn't Marks and Spencer vouchers, but Eurostar vouchers. So I have collected £50 vouchers (for 2 persons) valid when I want to book my next Eurostar trip. But they are only available if I am physically going to the reservation desk at Kings Cross. Not valid on their website, neither with their call centre. Oh Dear!

Comments

[Eric Pratum]

It's been three years since I moved to the States from Germany, but even back then, it seemed like there were plenty of complaints in every country (except maybe in Scandinavia) about the train system. And, with what I've read in the last year or so about strikes and whatnot, it doesn't surprise me that worsening economic conditions and increased ridership have contributed to both a lower quality workforce and a generally high sense of stress and tension when traveling. Sorry to hear about your experience. Best of luck with the next journey

[Canadian Traveler]

Instances happen more than we think. I am surprised at their idea to a resolution. Something similar happened to me flying from Vancouver to Calgary. My flight was cancelled, and was downgraded to a non direct flight 2 hrs later, then pushed aside by a airline worker, saying if I wanted to get on a direct flight I would need to pay more!!! I complained and recieved a full refund (as credit).

It really sucked spending an extra 2 hours at the airport and being put on a non direct flight. (and yes I checked into my flight the night before with no notice that the flight would be cancelled). At least they realized that compensation is important.

Social networking sites will help with these issues, the more we write about it - the faster they will learn the consequences!

[BarryR]

I travel with Eurostar to go home to Paris every weekend. I saw on their website that everything was back to normal - all the people on canceled trains had been rebooked onto new trains, and this was the case when I left London on Friday evening.

Paris on Monday morning was a different story - a huge queue going down the stairs from the Eurostar deck and there was the same manual process for getting a boarding card for the train - first come first served. Luckily I had come an hour and half early so I got on the train I had booked.

Seems to be a disconnect between Eurostars pronouncements on their website and their operations on the ground (in Paris at least).

[Brains]

You have to remember THERE WAS A MAJOR INCIDENT. What did you expect, everyone was in the same boat and it was just bad luck that you were travelling during the period when it happened. Any other time you would have had glowing reviews of Eurostar but I bet you wouldn't have written about it but then do you ever write about a good trip?!!

[Guillaume Thevenot]

Hey Brains,

Do you think I have some memory problem or something? It wasn't back luck! It was all about COMMUNICATION TO THE CUSTOMER. That's all. About your comment that I don't comment on positive things, that's a lot of poo. Just read my hotel and restaurant reviews and you will see that I am more positive than negative.

So chill out Brains! It's ok to rant when it is justified.

Guillaume

[Eurostar Tickets]

Hmm...very unusual to be downgraded !
While I am a frequent traveller to Paris, I usually travel standard- non flexi.
Vouchers are not too attractive, since you have to go all the way to st Pancras.
In my case these annoyances are a regular occurrence, always happens to ruin a nice holiday :), for example on my most recent visit, I was attacked by a street hawker on Champs Elysees.