Eurostar Trip Report & Value Analysis
My review & analysis of Eurostar’s Business Premier service from London to Paris and back
The events
It was the easter holidays and to celebrate time for a trip report on Airline Revenue Economics.
Last week a very special plane ticket was sold at the Eiffel Tower in Paris – the world’s first Non Fungible Ticket for air travel (see article). Not just a ticket it is a work of art, featuring a whirling jamboree of colourful stars, snowflakes and crystals by trendy artist Carlos Betancourt. Check it out in this video. It sold for $1,002,000 (£768,000).
The organisers TravelX were kind enough to invite your favourite airline revenue economist to the shindig, where I met interesting people from the world of blockchain and art, including NFT platform suppliers Algorand. Needless to say it was a great bash. More on that later.
The plan
A trip to Paris was a great excuse to experience Eurostar and enjoy a trip through the Channel Tunnel, which must surely count as one of the modern wonders of the world. I have only been through the Chunnel twice before and the last time was in 2006, so it has been a while. Since then Eurostar has moved from Waterloo to the great Victorian terminus St Pancras to start their missions to Paris Gare du Nord, Brussels Midi and Amsterdam CS.
I know, I know. Eurostar is not technically an airline because it does not fly anywhere. But it has tickets, boarding passes, security checks, immigration and a passenger experience. So the only difference is that it’s vehicles do not take-off and land…
St Pancras and Gare du Nord both have their own IATA codes as if they were airports – QQS and XPG respectively, although rail operators have their own codes – STP for British Rail.
Due to Easter holidays prices were high. Business Premier (BP) was £490, Standard Premier (SP) £359 and Standard £269. Two interesting points about the fares:
1. BP is not combinable with other fares so you cannot travel say SP outbound and BP inbound unless you buy more expensive one-way tickets
2. Eurostar revenue manages SP and Standard but not BP, so the BP fare is the same no matter how far ahead you book.
The seats in Business Premier and Standard Premier are identical – 1+2-abreast vs. 2+2 in Standard. The highest class offers some extra frills though:
1. Ticket flexibility – free changes and refunds
2. Priority security & passport control
3. Lounge access
4. 45-60 minutes “suggested” arrival time vs. 90-120 minutes for the other two cabins
5. A meal from a menu designed by leading chef Raymond Blanc.
I did not anticipate needing flexibility. But I had a chat with a chap on the train who was from the Cayman Islands and he said that he and his wife were delighted to show up early and just take the first train out. So clearly it is a valuable benefit for some.
To be honest I would normally have booked Standard Premier – I have used lounges and eaten meals before. But this being the holiday season I was wary of queues…
Here are some stats about my journey:
The verdict
It turned out that BP was well worth the extra over SP for the following reasons:
1. 90 minute waits in the regular lines at St Pancras at the time I was there, according to Twitter on the day – I went through the BP line at 11:25 and was in the lounge at 11:40, avoiding roughly an hour and a quarter in the queue. There were no queues at Paris on the way back
2. The lounges were good (photos coming up) and a much better place to wait than outside, especially at Paris where the seats are hassocks – easily worth £10 return for a few drinks, with the extra comfort tangible but impossible to put a number on
3. The meal was excellent – restaurant quality in taste if not presentation with generous soft drinks, wine and champagne – easily worth £50 return and a definite saving since I did not need to eat dinner on the night.
I paid £131 extra for BP over SP. Take away £60 for the food, drink and lounges, that is £71 not to stand in line for 75 minutes. Roughly a Pound a minute – I think that is expensive but fair.
For similar mid-day and mid-week trains in September the price difference with SP is quite a bit higher at £271 (£219 for SP and £99 for Standard). At that price point I think I would stick with SP and risk, but not expect, queues.
In addition I was impressed with Eurostar’s IT. Quite often with a travel company you can almost feel the cogs turning as their Internet Booking Engine struggles to price an itinerary. With Eurostar you enter the origin, destination and dates, press go and badda-bing, badda-boom everything is right there in front of you.
There is room for improvement though. I booked on my laptop and I needed to e-mail the tickets before I could add them to my Apple wallet. My regular UK rail operator LNER let you add tickets to the wallet straight from Safari.
The journeys
My place in London is only a few stops on the tube (for readers outside the UK, that’s what we call our metro in London) from King’s Cross-St Pancras. So on a muggy morning I grabbed my bag, set rock band Muse pumping through my Bowers & Wilkins PX7 noise-cancelling headphones and set off for the station.
I am not keen on taxis – you just never quite know where you will find one or when you might get stuck in traffic, but with a metro you are normally sure of a reliable ride. Navigating public transport is a good life skill and I am keen to keep those particular muscles working.
After climbing out of the tube and passing the splendid clock tower, the Eurostar entrance looks rather exciting – St Pancras INTERNATIONAL.
It turned out that fast track security was a great perk to have. Here are the 90 minute queues:
And here is the empty BP track:
Including both regular and BP tracks there were only five out of 11 security channels open and three Schengen passport control checkpoints, one of each for BP. The four EU e-gates in the BP side were closed.
There were five interactions with staff:
1. Boarding pass check at the BP entrance
2. Security scan – painless as you do not need to take out laptops or liquids
3. Covid jab check – my electronic NHS pass worked fine
4. UK departure passport check
5. EU entry passport check.
On your right after you go through passport control is the welcoming sight of the lounge.
The design was rather snazzy, with a fancy spiral staircase tempting me up to the first floor. Perhaps imagining I was on a Boeing 747, an aircraft famous for it’s appealing upstairs cabin (see article), I climbed up.
The usual magazines and soft drinks that you see in these places were on display, as were some spirits and wines. I enjoyed a Luscombe Passionate ginger beer, a brand I had not tried before. The ice cubes were solid and cold. Lemon slices were available.
I really liked the glassware. It was nice and heavy with an attractive inlaid design. When I was chatting with some of the friendly staff around they mentioned it, unprompted by me, as something they particularly liked about the lounge too.
Both UK and EU plugs were available. Most people were not wearing masks.
Twenty minutes before departure we were called to board. I joined the crowds heading up the travellator and before long we were on platform 9.
The space really is breath taking. It is hard to see from the photo but there is so much light and air filling the station. I looked up with a sense of wonder. There were also some British Rail class 395 ‘javelins’ on the adjacent platform, which go down to Kent. When these trains were introduced their first task was to shuttle spectators to and from the 2012 Olympics Games.
I was surprised how much taller the Eurostar sets were than British trains. Today’s train was the newer e320 set with 16 carriages and a top speed of 200 mph (320 kmph). On the way back I was on the older e300, which is the same length but has 18 shorter coaches and an engine car at each end.
The seat was extremely comfy. I was at a table for two in the middle of the carriage, facing backwards to direction of travel (my preference).
The seat had a nifty reading light and laptop tray. I was a bit nervous leaving my computer down the side at first but it was remarkably stable, even when the train was rocking. Legroom was excellent. The table has an interesting surface material – it has a nice look and feel, but when you put something on it is quite sticky. You only feel the stickiness with an object though, not your hands.
However a word of caution. Most BP seats are not tables for two like this – instead they have a seat back immediately in front of them and a tray table that is pulled down from the seat. I think that the risk of having a seat opponent is worth it for the extra space and more robust table. A chap joined me on the trip to Paris, but on the way back despite a 90%+ seat factor the seat over the table was empty.
There was a still-or-sparkling water service plus a towel in a packet on departure and a drinks service soon after. The glasses are Eurostar-branded and the drinks come with a little packet of unsalted nuts and raisins. The drinks are served on a large BP-branded paper coaster.
The Raymond Blanc catering was excellent. Here is the outbound menu – I had the pate and some red wine:
And here is the inbound menu – I had the pulled pork:
Both journeys were great and there were no delays. The train to Paris arrived ten minutes early. Wi-fi was fast and seats were comfy. The newer seats on the outbound service had a recline and a pan extension which were missing from the slightly older seats inbound. I would not actively choose a newer train over an older one – they are both just as good.
The seat on the older train has a darker fabric. This time I was still facing backwards to the direction of travel, but was right at the end of the carriage rather than the middle. Since there was no galley at that end – the door led through to the Standard bar – there was no through-traffic.
On the way back I got chatting to a lady who was also involved with non fungible tokens. Rather than tickets for travel, she was using NFT to help drinks companies guarantee that their bottles of wine, whisky, brandy and so on were all genuine. Amazing what you learn.
Here is the Eurostar train that took me to Paris…
And here is the one that carried me safely home.
Paris Gare du Nord
There were no station queues at Paris, but the lounge was excellent. Here is the entrance.
There is a pleasant sitting area…
… a good selection of French magazines…
… cozy seats and booths…
… and a fine view of the concourse.
Both the London and Paris lounges have an attractive cocktail bar – in the picture below the London one is on the left. Notice how the Paris one on the right is sunk into the ground in the serving space so the chairs are lower. Sadly neither was open when I was there.
Concluding remarks
I was impressed with Eurostar BP.
Compared to UK domestic rail trips of a similar length the food, service and lounges were all better by a long way. The seat was comfy and with the addition of a reading light and laptop holder slightly better too.
Compared to European business class the food and lounges were better. The seat was a big improvement and the service was equal to any airline on a good day. The big additional advantage of Eurostar is going city centre to city centre.
Recommended.
The party
It was a true once-in-a-lifetime event. We boogied at the Eiffel Tower until the small hours. To get us going there were professional dancers dressed as dapper chappies and sassy flappers. And you have not seen a DJ grooving at his decks until you have seen him doing so in top hat, white tie and tails. We did not swing on the chandeliers, but that was only because there were no chandeliers to swing on.
I met M Gustave Eiffel himself. Or at least that was who he said he was and I have no reason to doubt him…
Here I am with the TravelX crew.
When I got back to my hotel room I could see the Eiffel Tower sparkling like champagne.
Glorious!
oliver AT ransonpricing DOT com