When to book for the Cheapest Eurostar fares

[Trainbike46]

Eurostar recently started selling tickets for the christmas period. However, the cheapest tickets (£39 each way as part of a return) are only available until mid-October.

Presumably this means the cheapest tickets only get released a while after booking has opened, so is there sometimes value in waiting with booking until closer to the date of travel?

 

[Tazi Hupefi]

It's not a case of tickets being released or getting cheaper etc in advance - everything is fully demand priced using algorithms and factors which are highly confidential.

Ultimately it's a case of book a fare that you think is affordable, as there is no guarantee of anything cheaper becoming available.

Eurostar is as close to airline pricing as you can get in the UK rail market.

They do have sales and offers, but they are sporadic with black out dates, or they make it difficult to get an affordable train on the return leg. They certainly are not going to have "cheaper" fares for the holiday and Christmas periods.

Incidentally, for a £39 fare - Eurostar is only getting about £8-9 of that revenue, most of it is going to the tunnel, security, border force etc.

 

[Starmill]

Eurostar is as close to airline pricing as you can get in the UK rail market.

Depends on how you look at it. It's very, very common for airlines to consistently drop prices over time for unpopular flights if they've overestimated demand. In general Eurostar don't do that, they release what they release. It may happen sometimes of course.

 

[signed]

Sales are going to be your best bet to bet

A few sales ago I got a one-way in Plus for 50€

 

[30907]

One extra detail: sometimes ES add a train to their schedules at relatively short notice, and these start at lower prices than service that have been on sale for months.

And it is not unknown for there to be late discounting - I spotted a sudden release of Passholder fares a few weeks ago (though of course those could have been triggered by people rebooking rather than management action - no way to know).