 Poster: A snowHead
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Seems pretty dumb to me, as that's their whole raison d'etre. Maybe something wrong with my web browser. Has anyone booked the ski train for 2024 through them yet? Their site says the '2024 season is on': Travelski Express , but there are no packages appearing for me.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Maybe too early for next year train prices ?
Their website would let me book an accommodation/ski pack holiday though....
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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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Yeah maybe. You'd think it would make good business sense to say that somewhere - and somewhere prominent - if that was the case though. I'm pretty sure I booked this year's holidays through them about this time last year. Maybe it was in July.
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Suspect they are awaiting confirmation from Eurostar that they can (a) lease a train, and (b) timing, in particular whether it is outbound day / return overnight or vice versa, because this impacts on transfer timing and arrangements with accommodation providers. The former also requires most people outside London to book overnight accommodation there in order to guarantee being at St Pancras for say 06:30-07:00. Last year they were forced to switch between the two part way through the season, which caused some confusion and led to compensation payments for un-needed hotels etc, so I am sure they will want to tie it down asap.
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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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Yes that all makes good sense. I hope they get it together, as - despite the hideous night journey and a couple of logistical and customer service faux pas- I enjoyed using them and would like to again.
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| greengriff wrote: |
| Seems pretty dumb to me, as that's their whole raison d'etre. Maybe something wrong with my web browser. Has anyone booked the ski train for 2024 through them yet? Their site says the '2024 season is on': Travelski Express , but there are no packages appearing for me. |
they opened up sales with train package on 11th June last year. Wont be long...
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Thanks. I'll keep my eye on the site then.
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Thread bump as a placeholder for any news. Still no sign of Eurostar details for 23/24.
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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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Still no sign of being able to book these.
Tried to send them a message via 'contact us' on their website but I just keep getting an error.
They are so awful.... I just want my Eurostar ski train back......
Does anyone else know anymore?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Zero chance of a scheduled Eurostar service to Bourg St Maurice for the (far) foreseeable future, and there doesn’t seem much positive news about the CdA chartered service for this coming winter. People can point to Covid as a major reason for this, but airline travel and other cross-Channel services seem to have bounced back very firmly over the last year or so (although the space requirements for passport checks at Dover has caused some chaos there). It’s Brexit that has done for Eurostar, as the Eurostar CEO has said very clearly.
Last edited by snowHeads are a friendly bunch. on Tue 27-06-23 22:37; edited 1 time in total
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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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I cannot see how Eurostar can survive. On a whim I thought of going to Paris next weekend. Eurostar £244, Vuling £41 from Birmingham one way. The flight to Paris is cheeper than the train to London. That's daft. OK the train gets me to the centre of Paris and the flight only to Orly but public transport isn't too bad in France.
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@j b, I read that article, it's just so depressing, I loved the idea of direct train services from the Scotland to the Med, but instead we get limited services and jacked up prices as Eurostar tries to compensate for its reduced capacity to process people at St Pancras. I did Eurostar, transfer in Paris and then onward train to Modane last year and it wasn't great, faffy with luggage and two of my party (including me) were pickpocketed. Just nothing like the seamlessness of boarding in St Pancras and arriving in BSM. I'm quite anti-flying but am now at a loss as to how to get to the Alps this winter
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You know it makes sense.
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@rambotion, where did you get pickpocketed? The same as with other busy places I keep my wallet tucked well away and my phone usually in my hand.
I did 3 trips to the Alps by train this season, with skis. I didn't find the transfer across Paris an issue really, other than the little paper tickets sometimes not working. Without skis it would be a doddle.
Security and passport control at Gare du Nord is the worst bit for me.
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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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I took Eurostar a couple of weeks ago for a midweek work trip. Both trains 100% full, and on the return journey every other afternoon train that day was also showing fully booked. Whatever the impact of Brexit, it seems fine for the London-Paris route.
The cynic in me says that it's just not efficient to run what are effectively one-off services. Everything from track access, through ticketing, to cleaning, staffing and maintenance will be different to the normal processes. Imagine having a staff rostering system designed around 2h30 London-Paris shuttle trips, then trying to build in a 10hr journey a couple of times a week. If you can get £500 out of a business traveller for a London-Paris trip, why bother with sending trains halfway across Europe for less money?
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Poster: A snowHead
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The Eurostar trains may be full, but they are running fewer of them. St Pancras station can only process 1500 passengers per hour, which is down from 2000 per hour before Brexit. And this situation could get even worse when EES biometric checks come in.
St Pancras is a listed building and they can't just knock it down to build a bigger terminal. They probably should have built the Eurostar terminal out of town, like they are doing with Old Oak Common and HS2.
It's a massive shame because Eurotunnel -- one of the greatest feats of engineering of the 20th century -- only runs 350 trains per day when it could run up to 1000.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| snowdave wrote: |
| The cynic in me says that it's just not efficient to run what are effectively one-off services. |
They did it quite happily for many years prior to Brexit, to Bourg St Maurice and to Disneyland Paris. I only did the BSM route in off-peak times in January and March and I'd guess the trains were running at 90-95% fully booked, no doubt in peak season it would run full. Now they are forced to reduce the overall capacity of their entire operation because of Brexit they will obviously focus on what is the most profitable, so the BSM and DLP routes have been scrapped regardless of how popular those services were.
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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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@snowdave, airlines don't seem to have any problems running "one-off services", i.e. weekly flights to holiday destinations only in season. As @HilbertSpace says, what is just not efficient is running services below capacity, but that has been forced on them by the Conservative Party's Brexit arrangements. @rob@rar may describe trains as fully booked or near to but that still leaves around one third of the seats empty.
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| j b wrote: |
| @rob@rar may describe trains as fully booked or near to but that still leaves around one third of the seats empty. |
Empty seats on trains, or fewer trains being scheduled compared to their capacity for operating xx trains per day? I’ve not used Eurostar since early 2020.
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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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@rob@rar, apologies, I had assumed your experience related to trains since January 2021 when Brexit border changes took effect.
From what I understand it is empty seats on trains that run, they can only manage the border controls for around two thirds of the capacity of each train (there are technical reasons why they can't change the size of trains). They probably run fewer trains too, but that might be to do with attracting customers at the necessarily higher prices, one assumes that like airlines they would otherwise try to maximise capacity in both occupancy and number of services.
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| j b wrote: |
| @rob@rar, apologies, I had assumed your experience related to trains since January 2021 when Brexit border changes took effect. |
No, last Eurostar I took was a couple of days before Covid closed French ski resorts in March 2020. Since then Covid meant no skitrains in 2020-21 season, and then Brexit restrictions on UK-EU travel when they came in to force killed the direct London-BSM scheduled service. So I’ve flown or driven to the Alps instead of taken the train.
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| j b wrote: |
| From what I understand it is empty seats on trains that run. |
Not in my recent experience. Every seat, every train was full on a Weds afternoon/evening in June. The staff told me that was an increasingly common situation.
Only 4 people from the standby list made it onto the train I was on - all with full priced any seat/any train tickets.
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Travelski, owned by C.D.A., wants to be able to offer Eurostar direct service but the problem lies with Eurostar in agreeing to it. Since the new Eurostar CEO, Gwendoline Cazenave, took over they have had a focus shift to more standard routes. Travelski are pushing hard but it may end up being Eurostar to Lille then TGV down to the Alps. The overall journey time, if it is this route, won't be too different as the previous Eurostar direct service didn't run at full speed for operational reasons (no point dropping clients off in the alps at 5am on a transfer day). Watch this space, we should know the route in the next couple of weeks.
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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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@Snowfinders top intel thanks. One leg likely to be overnight again?
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Travelski's website now says it will still be Friday night out, and 7 days, which would mean Saturday day return. And says it will be a seamless change in Lille n the way out, although the timetable is still under discussion!
Changing at Lille on the return journey seems likely to be rather less seamless as unless they can arrange a 'secure' transfer between TGV and Eurostar everyone will have to go through passport control and security scanning at that point. Which with everyone arriving simultaneously may take a few hours!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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The Travelski website states:
"Our exclusive arrangement with Eurostar includes the direct Ski Train from London St Pancras and arrives in to Moutiers and Bourg-Saint-Maurice.
Travelski Express gives you the choice of 10 renowned resorts with the direct train service (Tignes, La Plagne, Les Arcs, Val d’isere, Val Thorens, Courchevel, La Rosière, Les Menuires, Meribel and Brides les Bains) with a broad range of accommodation options from self-catered apartments to hotels and chalets. With Travelski, your transfers are ready and waiting for you on arrival (in Moutiers or Bourg St Maurice) to whisk you up to your chosen resort."
But when you click through at the moment it reports:
"Unfortunately, there is no stay available for all of your criteria. We invite you to modify your search.
Otherwise we offer this selection of stays based on your participants and your dates of stay"
This should be sorted shortly...and we will be able to book your holidays soon.
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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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@snowfinders it has been like that for some time.
In my opinion if there is a train swap it renders it all rather pointless. I would look to travel to Paris and book a proper cochette. The only issue here is that SNCF only realease tickets for the cochettes at some point within 3 months of the leave date and they sell out quick. On top of that, when I tried this is 2020 I found out the train didnt run on the dates I wanted due to engineering works. There is no way to find out engineering dates until the tickets are released. Acomoddation and everything was booked. I had to scramble round and book flights and an expensive transfer.
Its all a bit of a poo-poo show. I hate to do it but it may be flights this year.
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Whilst the "Unfortunately, there is no stay available for all of your criteria. We invite you to modify your search.
Otherwise we offer this selection of stays based on your participants and your dates of stay" message has been like that for some months the format of the site has changed today/yesterday and it keep s reverting to a beta version so guess there is progress. I'll chat to my man there and revert.
There are pros and cons of package vs self book. Lots of positives to the package:
1. PTRs mean whole trip financially protected
2. ABTA bonding
3. Compagnie des Alpes own Travelski so heavily discounted lift tickets (included in the price)
4. Genuinely discounted equipment hire
5. Transfers included to resort (sometimes we book private transfers cheaper than shared)
6. Free cancellation up to 45 days prior to travel
7. Access to premium seats often at a small surcharge and occasionally even cheaper than booking standard.
Some negatives too but I'll leave that to you . 
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You know it makes sense.
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| hd wrote: |
| @Snowfinders top intel thanks. One leg likely to be overnight again? |
almost certainly but it would be great to do same day out back and forth
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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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| Snowfinders wrote: |
| hd wrote: |
| @Snowfinders top intel thanks. One leg likely to be overnight again? |
almost certainly but it would be great to do same day out back and forth |
Daytime back back and forth would mean losing one of (to me) the major benefits: 7 days skiing rather than 6. It was even better when 2x overnight gave you 8 days. 
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Poster: A snowHead
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@turboblackbeard, there hasn't been a couchette service on the Paris to Bourg St Maurice route for several years.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@sugarmoma666, we went to Serre Chevalier. There is a cochette from Paris to Briancon.
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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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| turboblackbeard wrote: |
| @sugarmoma666, we went to Serre Chevalier. There is a cochette from Paris to Briancon. |
I guess times are tough if SNCF is reduced to using pigs for transportation... 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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But just little ones.....
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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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My bad  I wonder if there is a reason the spelling is so similar.
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No reason why there should be a reason. There's no reason why the spelling of "pond" and "pound" in English is the same except for a "u". Or "spot" and "spout". 
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I've emailed their customer services asking for a definitive answer. Fingers crossed they give me one.
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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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They responded saying they are still in negotiations with Eurostar and will email me when packages are available.
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Will be interesting to see what Travelski offer for this winter. In relation to Eurostar in general, I've travelled by Eurostar to Paris four times in the last year and all have been very smooth. My most recent check in at LSP took just 7 minutes from arriving at the ticket gate to getting into the 'departures lounge' - try that at any airport. Gare du Nord is not as good, I always leave longer, but it normally takes 20-30 mins to get through. Trains are usually full/busy, but I'm normally going Lon-Par early and Par-Lon late, so guess in the middle of the day might be less busy.
One thing I can confirm is that it can get excessively busy in the departures area at LSP, with a lack of seating. Personally I don't see why Eurostar tell everyone to arrive so early. You get through security and customs so quickly that it's pointless spending extra time in departures and having more people there for longer.
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FAQ
