I will be in England, use the rail 3 days and then go to Paris via the Chunnel. I am planning to use the BritRail England Flexipass 3-day pass and buy the Eurostar Passholder discounted pass.
If I use my 3 days in England, will the Flexipass still be considered "valid" for combined use with the Eurostar - or do I need to have an unused day remaining on the Flexipass? (In which case I will have to buy the 4-day Flexipass).
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19093 posts
I suggest you contact the place where you bought your pass, but I'm inclined to believe that it is not the usable days remaining but for the validity time of the pass (30 days). So, it the pass is valid for 3 days in a month, and you validated it 2 weeks ago, you can still get the passholder fare.
Posted by
Oak Park, Illinois
4535 posts
While I agree with Lee to check with someone, I disagree about it probably being valid. If you used all three travel days, it is no longer a valid pass. To get the Eurostar discount, I would think it needs to be a valid travel day as it becomes part of your ticket. Having said that, the discount for having a railpass is tiny compared to other available discounts. I'd bet you'd be better off gettting a booked in advance discount than buying a 4-day pass and smaller discount on the Eurostar.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19093 posts
The Eurostar website wasn't of much help. They list the passes for which the pass holder fare is available. There is a "Britrail (BritFrance)" pass listed, but I don't see a BritFrance version shown on any websites (Britrail, RailEurope, or here). They also say, "As long as you are in possession of your pass on the day of travel, it is not necessary to validate it first." It just says "in possession of your pass on the day of travel". It doesn't say there have to be days left on the pass, but then OTOH, it doesn't say they can all be used, either. It looks like an adult 4 day pass is $285 vs $229 for a 3 day pass. So, unless the passholder discount is more than $56 (£35), there is no point in getting another day. I found the pass holder fare, £57. So if you need to add a day at £35 to get that fare, you'd be paying £92. There are a lot of non-flexible tickets for less than that.
Posted by
Virginia, USA
5525 posts
I'm with Lee on this one. The passholder fare is no great bargain. The only benefit I see in the passholder fare is that you can exchange it once before the trip if you need to change your date. However, it costs more than the cheapest non-flexible fare. If you buy four months out, you can get a non-flexible single fare for $62 (In U.S. dollars if you buy from the U.S. eurostar.com website). If you know your date of travel, then you may be better off with just a standard non-flexible fare. While the prices start at $62 four months out, they only go up in price as you approach the date of travel so you need to buy early.