 Poster: A snowHead
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I am interested in signing up to Eurotunnel's Frequent Traveller program and keen to hear other  experiences with this program and whether it represents real savings / benefits (vs paying $444 up front) given most trips will be done around kids holidays when peak supplements apply.
I don't think I will be using 5 return journey's a year, most probably do 3 return trips, but understand I can add someone to my account and therefore keen to know if anyone here could be interested in going halves with me and each of us taking 5 one way tickets (2.5 return trips pre-paid).
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Done it, shared with friend, for many years. Works well and you save even paying extra £20 from time to time to travel peak hours.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Ozboy, only started December 2017. Done just 2 trips so far: there and back the week before Christmas. Worked just fine. Turn up and go. Excellent if you don't want to waste any time, but not sure when you will get to Eurotunnel due to vagaries of M25 and unpredictable work finish time.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Its a good deal BUT one word of warning keep an eye on the expiry date. They will not honour or credit or carry forward a balance after the expiry date has passed.
Use it or lose it as they say!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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We’ve used it for the last four or five years, often jointly with my brother. It has a good few advantages and a few drawbacks.
During a peak week it is much cheaper than booking a typical return (even if you pay the supplement). If you can manage to avoid supplements (travel GB>F in the evening, F>GB before 1400) it is so much cheaper that it is worth buying 5 returns and only using 3 of them.
You can go into your booking on line and amend it to match your likely arrival time at check in.
There is a limited allocation of frequent traveller tickets on each crossing. I have tried to book a particular crossing on my frequent traveller account and found no availability within a few hours either side but when I try to buy a standard ticket there is plenty of availability. If you think you will cross at a peak time it is worth putting an early speculative booking at about the time you think you will need. You can then fine tune it (subject to availability) or if you decide not to travel park it at some random date well into the future and then reallocate it later.
You have to lay out £440 (or more if you go for more than 10 crossings) in one lump.
Overall we’ve found it worthwhile.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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We've shared an account with my brother-in-law and it's worked out well as they go fairly often but needed our 3-4 trips/year to collectively make it worthwhile. Just booked out/return early next month and was £20 each way (on top, obviously, of the base price /10) but still much cheaper than the standard prices. We've had no issues when we've had to change the dates.
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One thing to remember- one of the named account holders must be traveling in the vehicle.
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and you need to be travelling with the bank card used to make the purchase (or if you are the nominated 2nd accout holder, the card number you provided to the person making the booking), particularly on your first trip out. I know this, put the right card in the machine and still had problems last week, but not sure why.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@DJL, @LaForet, sounds good - might bite the bullet and see how it works out. Do you know if the ‘shared account’ holder can be reallocated to others?
In regards to changing the booking - does that only apply to FlexPlus or the standard £444 program?
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| Ozboy wrote: |
| @DJL, @LaForet, sounds good - might bite the bullet and see how it works out. Do you know if the ‘shared account’ holder can be reallocated to others |
No it can't be. Once you have specified them that is it. Only the two of you can book using that account.
| Ozboy wrote: |
| In regards to changing the booking - does that only apply to FlexPlus or the standard £444 program? |
Believe he means the frequent traveller. With flexiplus you don't need to change, you can just turn up and they put you on the next crossing.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@Hells Bells, I've always had problems with my card being recognised 
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@Claude B, it was fine last time round, and even after I was sent a new bank card, I took the old one and it still recognised it. It didn't take long to sort, but almost meant we missed the train, and there was a gap following due to a cancellation which would have delayed us by an hour or so. If the guy at the booth hadn't told us just to go straight to the train we would have done.
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@Ozboy, had it a couple of times without a problem. It lasts a year, the year starts when you sign up not the first time you use it. The times/dates when a premium applies are also the times when the regular fare is higher.
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You know it makes sense.
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Thanks all - sound pretty good and probably close to break even using three return trips with added flexibility of being able to change the booking close to the trips online without a fee. No brainer - just need to get the timing of the signup correct - probably Late Feb so I can get booking early for this summer while squeezing in the 2019 half term holidays into the 12 months.
Incidently the Eurotunnel agent advised today that the fares are going up to £46 per trip from 8 Feb.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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The post re non-recognition of the credit card reminded me that yes, with our Frequent Traveller bookings, the machine not once recognised our card, either in the UK or France. So we now always go to a gate with an operator.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@LaForet interesting as it was fine on the first lot of tickets we had.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@LaForet, I’ve had that when my card had been changed, but no fuss at the desk.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I've been using these for a few years now. And I agree, the overall benefits tally up such that 5 or 6 crossings used out of the 10 bought is still (IMHO) value for money.
One small niggle: they present it as a kind of membership thing where you create an account and buy up these multiple trips to be used over time - and can add more later but it doesn't work like that at all.
Simply, you are buying a single product, that being the 10 trips to be used within 12 months, that you need to register your details to use.
Once they run out, whether because you've used them all or because the 12months is up, you can't even buy your next lot under the same account. You just start afresh, exactly as you did the first time out, new account, new details, min purchase 10 etc.
I've been sharing mine with Harrison the Rabbit but mostly he goes to bashes and so I'm going too. More often than not we end up in the same vehicle 
My current lot runs out in March with probably 4 or 5 wasted so I'd be interested in sharing the next lot with someone who is less likely to be driving the BU5 4 DUB so would actually use some crossings up.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@admin, I would normally be interested in sharing but with Easyjet flights out of Southampton for £25.00 I'm flying more this season! Maybe next season as I cant see EZ staying that low....
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Yeah, also @boredsurfin, you're about to start coming to all the bashes too so maybe you'll end up rocking out in the back of the BU5 4 DUB on the same ticket as the Rabbit and me 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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What, have you been looking up Dubstep on Wikipedia?
Anyway, as good as some dubStep is, 'Dub' doesn't mean 'Dub Step', silly. That would be like thinking The Blues and R n B were the same.
Skrillex is to Dub what Status Quo are to the Blues - a simplistic, mainstream product loosely based on a derivative of a genre originally defined by music of depth, emotion, sensitivity and power.
Frankly, even in dubStep terms Skrillex was yesterday from the day he began! (IMHO)
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@admin, indeed it does 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Just booked for our "Easter" ski trip. As DJL mentioned above availability for frequent traveller was somewhat restrictive. My understanding of general T&C's is that if you arrive (late) within 2 hours of your scheduled crossing they will reallocate you onto the next available for free. So if I was on the 15:20... for example.... if arrived at 17:10 they would reallocate me no probs. Any experiences?
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Lock o the draw.
A few times I have been bumped onto the next train, 20-30 mins later.
I have also had to park up for 6 hours.
It's my impression, in a purely anecdotal assessment, that they are not running as smoothly as they were a couple of years back. Nevertheless, I'd say even when it's all a bit chaotic and they're suffering delays, it still equates pretty well with hte hassle involved in a normal ferry crossing.
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| admin wrote: |
Lock o the draw.
A few times I have been bumped onto the next train, 20-30 mins later.
I have also had to park up for 6 hours. |
OK. We've been early a few times - with mixed results. Sounds like being late is along the same lines.
| admin wrote: |
| It's my impression, in a purely anecdotal assessment, that they are not running as smoothly as they were a couple of years back. Nevertheless, I'd say even when it's all a bit chaotic and they're suffering delays, it still equates pretty well with hte hassle involved in a normal ferry crossing. |
That squares with my experience also. When we went out at Christmas we were early, put on an hour earlier crossing but still ended up leaving the original time because of slow throughput.
It's a shame and a bit frustrating they restrict the frequent traveler tickets when they charge a supplement for busy times anyway. It would be good to have the option to pay more than not have the option at all.
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You know it makes sense.
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One thing i have noticed is the extra queue times due to security going in both directions, this has led to me missing my crossing when rocking up a bit late as i don't live far from the uk terminal.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@admin, I'd be interested in sharing a frequent traveller account with ya. Although it would mean that I'd definitely have to go on both the PSB and the EOSB next season! 
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Poster: A snowHead
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Just booked my Easter trip (finally) using my BiL's frequent traveller account. Saved around £33.00 over the 'normal' fares.
I'm sure previous years the saving was greater but hey ho...
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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AS I had used the last of my share of Frequent Traveller to book our trip home at the end of March, I cashed in some Tesco vouchers to use for the EoSB. In total the fare came to £180 before I paid for my dogs. With the frequent traveller tickets, even with 2x£20 supplements, it would have been £128.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Anyone interested in sharing some of these? We don't need any until September though. However, even if you're travelling in June, July r August I'm sure we could still with two other ski trips away time the purchase so they are all used up before they expire.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@Hells Bells, I think we would be in for a half share.
We will be going
August
December
February
March
April
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@rungsp, ok, will be doing Sept, Dec and March, but with 5 trips planned you could buy your own set of 10, as it is 10 single trips not returns.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Hells Bells, let's do some PM-ing, I am away until Monday though.
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@rungsp, ok.no rush.
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@Hells Bells, I can probably take 4 trips for the winter if you are still looking for someone to share with.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I signed up to Frequent Traveller on the back of reading about it on . Not yet used any of them trips but like how it allows me to change existing bookings with minimal fuss and no cost unless I move to a peak time.
Anyone know how close to a booking I can make a change? For example can I change on day of booking if I am significantly held up on the road driving to the terminal, or decide to stop overnight if tired.
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@Ozboy, it is going to depend on whether it's one of the popular days (eg Christmas and New Year time) as well as whether you drive a big van like the Bus 4 Dub.
I got a lift once with @admin and due to roadworks, we arrived right on the departure time of the booked train. You're supposed to arrive at least 30 mins early for check-in. They wouldn't let us on even though the train's departure was delayed by about 30 mins. We then had to wait for about 6-8 hours for the next one. But I think that was a lot to do with the space the Bus 4 Dub needs. Anyway, we just parked in the car park and snoozed in the van.
In December last year, when I first drove out myself, I was late and missed the check in deadline. I didn't bother to re-book, simply rocked up and waited for the tech to recognise my car. The computer system spat out a boarding pass for a train leaving less than an hour later.
You could always just not bother booking until you know for sure when you want to get a train. But don't do that on a really popular departure date/time or you might be stuck!
Last December (around the 16th I think), I came back early from skiing as I was unwell. I didn't book until I actually got to Calais itself and then had to wait about three hours for a train around 1am. That wasn't too bad at all.
Coming back from the EoSB this year in my car (SUV type but less than 6' and no roof box), my friend and I didn't bother booking in advance as we didn't know if we'd stop for the night or feel up to driving all the way to Calais. In the end, we drove straight through. I booked about five hours before the 4.46am train we decided to aim for. We arrived nice and early at 3am and thought we'd have a nap - but this was not to be! Instead, as soon as we arrived, they got us loaded up onto a train that looked pretty empty. We sat there wondering, why have they made us board so damn early? Then at 3.16am, the train started to move. I should add that this train was not on the Eurotunnel schedule! I like to think it was the magical mystery train put on for sleepy .
Last edited by Ski the Net with snowHeads  on Tue 5-06-18 11:08; edited 2 times in total
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FAQ
Skrillex, Nero and Boregore are so yesterday 
