Monday, June 2, 2014

London-Paris be careful where you buy it!

So, I was required to quit  stalling and buy the darn london-paris train tickets.

So I got to work., instead of looking at my bookmarks for the correct Eurostar web address, I typed "london-paris" on Bing.com and got a number of sites. one for them was this one:

http://www.parislogue.com/travel-tips/getting-from-london-to-paris.html

Oh, cool, let me read about all the options to get to Paris.

Well, I did read, and it turns out that the train was the best one for us.
Then if you clicked on the link I gave you you probably noticed they offer a link for you to book your tickets.

What do you do? You click on the damn link. and it brings you here:

http://www.raileurope.com/european-trains/eurostar/how-to-book.html?WT.mc_id=CJ.eurostar+tickets.affiliates&AID=10410506&PID=1524307



Isn't this perfect? it even gives you a coupon for $25 (yes, US dolars) off.

Well, just that RailEurope is a retailer, and it sells tickets for way more than than Eurostar http://www.eurostar.com/rw-en

I used the coupon to buy mine and Dean's tickets. Then I tried using the coupon for buying tickets for the rest of the family. Not only did the coupon not work,, but I also learned there was a booking fee of almost $8.

This is absurd.

So I decided to start over and see if they waived the booking fee again. This time I simply typed Eurostar on Bing.

Surprise surprise! I was at a completely different website, and that was the real Eurostar website, which by the way allows you to choose your seats, and by the way, is cheaper!!!!!

Why did the author of Parislogue.com sent me to the more expensive retailer instead of sending me to the source? I don't know.
But that is a lesson. Don't settle for the first seller you find,even if reccomended by another website. Search around first. Especially, go to the source and check whether their prices and fees are lower than the middle men. (they usually are)





No comments:

Post a Comment