New (ie. worse) Eurotunnel T&C's from 5th March 25

A snowHead

New Eurotunnel T&Cs for bookings from March 5th 2025.

When I say new - it won't surprise you to hear that means worse. Basically much more restrictive on late arrivals.

Link: https://www.leshuttle.com/uk-en/support/articles/what-happens-if-i-arrive-early-or-late-for-my-booked-departure-33060096298641

Day/trip overnight tickets - ticket only valid on booked train full stop. If you fail to arrive and check in one hour before your train your ticket is void and lost. Less likely to affect a ski hol but still very crappy.

Standard tickets & short stay tickets - you are now limited to just a 1 hour window for being late, after that your ticket is voided and lost and you have to buy a new ticket.

Standard Plus - you can arrive up to 4 hours late, after which your ticket is void and lost. 4 hours sounds a lot, but you only have to have a snowmageddon day (or that recent rockfall outside Moutiers) and that could easily be eaten away. (the old Standard let you arrive up to two hours late and travel, or between 2-24 hours late and travel with fare difference - now over 4 hours you've lost your ticket).

Flexiplus - limited to the day you are booked to travel, if you haven't checked in by 23.59 on the booked date your ticket is void. However you can still amend (subject to availability) or cancel a flexiplus before 23.59 on the travel day. Peak day surcharge still exists at between £10 and £250 per leg!

So basically, as far as I see it, a worse customer experience at every level.

A snowHead

Ferry starting to look a lot more attractive again.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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Looks like Swiss and the SBB will be seeing a lot more of my cash. I think I’d probably still draw the line at a TUI into Chambery though.

I wonder what has led to the change. The last few times I’ve used the tunnel there has been hardly anyone there and we’ve been sent straight on the next train without so much need to touch a parking space in the terminal.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Last twenty years four times a year I’ve always made my booked departure or put on an earlier one , have always allowed time for error but can’t recall any major incidents either . However new T&Cs look bloody harsh to me . Surely if there was something major that caused everyone to be late they would waiver

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Currently the cheapest tickets still allow you to reschedule, although you may need to pay an upgrade. I didn't see anything in those T & C's about being able to change.

Did I miss something?

After all it is free

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@Gazzza, Thank you. We live an eight hour drive from Folkestone so we tend to book a train at around 18:15, but as we get a couple of hours away reschedule on the app if there are free trains. Will have to read the details when we next travel.

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@Matt1959, I amended my crossing - standard fare with tesco vouchers - on Sunday 16th March while en route. I always book the 17.24 from Calais, amend to the 16.24 (which is the earliest without paying extra) then hope to get on an earlier train FOC, which we did (15.24). Same as its always been, but I had booked before 5th March. Will have to pay £20 to do that, and I guess we will and hope that they will still put us on an earlier train FOC if we are early enough

You know it makes sense.

I've just booked Irish Ferries for April, £80 discount using Tesco vouchers

Ferries
-ve longer, and nowhere to get a rest, seats bloody uncomfortable
+ve cheaper & longer to rest if you can

Tunnel
-ve more expensive, not as long to rest
+ve quicker and you have a nice comfy car seat to get a power nap, but a good idea to set an alarm, I woke up to see an empty train in front of me and a few impatient drivers behind me Laughing

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

@snowymum, that’s not been my experience. It’s still fully flexible to any date within a year as long as a) you amend your reservation online or via the call centre, and b) you pay a supplement if you originally booked an off peak date, but want to change to a peak date. If your original booking was for a peak date, you can change to whenever you want. I did this twice in the past year.

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@snowdave, Apologies. I didn’t realise that. However it used to be the case that you didn’t need to do anything online you just turned up a different day and checked in.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Will be interesting to see what reports are of how this works out in practice. I can't imagine that if you miss your time you won't get through check-in, that would cause huge queues. Likewise if you arrive early.

I suspect, which no doubt is the aim, people will just book the more flexible (expensive) tickets

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@Boris, unless you are using Tesco vouchers as you can't upgrade with them.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

We get a Flexi plus with our booking and have changed the day we travel without issues but needed to go through the agent we use instead of our own Eurotunnel account which is a pain, to be honest I'm not sure what the advantage of the high extra cost of flexiplus is now, it would be cheaper to just rebook a normal ticket if you missed the original time on a normal ticket

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@robs1, I think you’ll find that the only ticket you can buy on the day is expensive enough to balance that out. Plus the risk that the train is full and you can’t buy a ticket.

@snowymum, the ticket conditions since COVID have stated that you needed to notify eurotunnel if travelling on a different date, but this wasn’t actively enforced. The new aspect seems to be that your ticket actively expires if you miss the date and don’t change it manually.

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After all it is free

@robs1, on new years day this year, each member of our group was given a sealed bottle of champagne in the flexiplus lounge; we definitely got our money's worth on that trip! Agree with tunnel vs ferry - anything that avoids going into Dover is a winner.

Food at Flexiplus was mediocre on our last Christmas trip too. We get better stopping off at a Greggs, picking up a bacon roll and a coffee for breakfast, and stocking up on their sandwiches and wraps. I'll be back to making picnic lunches for our next trip.
Our delays at Eurotunnel have always been after check-in, usually after being told to proceed to boarding lanes, although we were once bumped to a departure 2 hours later because of a huge queue at pet check-in meaning we'd missed the 1 hour window.

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I suspect Eurotunnel think tis change will push more people to book more flexible and expensive tickets - increasing revenue. However, I think in practice it will mean people play it safer and arrive earlier - clogging up the terminal!

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@philhitch, absolutely, and I definitely won't be booking more expensive tickets as I can't currently do so with a Tesco voucher. It probably won't make me transfer to the ferry either as it is just so much easier with our dog. In practice, I'm not sure it will make a lot of difference to us. Until it does of course due to unexpected circumstances. We did arrive a little later than planned in January due to the A1 being closed, however we left on our booked train, as it had also been delayed.

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I think it's more to do with predicting and managing traffic flows against train capacity. On busy days if you arrive too early they will turn you around to come back later. Likewise if a load of flexiplus customers turn up unscheduled and jump to the head of the queue this leads to a knock on effect with delays to cattle class and possible comp claims.

I can recall at least three occasions over the last ten years where we've arrived in plenty of time but then queued for well over an hour from the M20 exit to the check in booths (albeit in school holiday peak periods). Wonder what they'd do in this circumstance....surely they couldn't invalidate your ticket just because of lengthy queues to the check in booths?
It's another nail in the LeSh1ttle coffin for me.

You know it makes sense.

I will be asking questions from the usually very helpful live chat before I make my next booking. Watch this space.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

@Specialman, yes you can buy a ticket at the machines. If I get caught out I'll be claiming on travel insurance, albeit with an excess

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@Specialman, The new cattle shed is to deal with the new EES system, its filling up with fingerprint or photo recognition machines.

For me these changes are a pain. I have just moved from using ferries to Le Shuttle as it was more flexible. Living in the frozen North I allow 6 and a half hours for the 5 hour journey to Dover/Folkestone. Because of the periodicity between ferries I often spent a lot of time watching seagulls - but with the tunnel I have always been offered an earlier train. I will have to rethink.

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@chocksaway, in a similar position. On our crossing last week, despite booking months ago, and arriving with plenty of time to spare, we were unable to get on an earlier train. We did ask when we did the pet passport stuff and were told there was no room on any earlier ones but to go to the boarding lane early, and we might be able to get the train in front of our booked one. It was fairly quiet in the car park and terminal, but it seemed as if they were consolidating us onto a reduced number of trains. The train after ours was moved to a later slot. They used to bump up anyone arriving early onto the trains to fill them, not make people wait longer. It did seem to be a change in policy (we booked months ago so not subject to the new T&Cs).

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

When we went over in September on a non flexi booking they cancelled a train so we all had to wait, but we " accidentally" got into the wrong queue so actually got away early. I think that will be a common tactic in future until they catch on and look at the letters on the hanger

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@robs1, We have seen people being returned to the terminal if they tried to proceed especially at busy times. Last Friday, car behind us at the boarding lane, had H2 hanger, we had G3. Was allowed through, but was put into a different lane to us and was still there when we boarded our train. Many vehicles arriving later boarded and he was still there. Couldn't say if they eventually caught our train, but we were towards the back of the train with a full lane behind us, so I suspect not.

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After all it is free

@Specialman,

So I've come across on the tunnel today having booked earlier this week so under the new t&C's.

I almost booked ferry based on the new terms, an hour's window with the history of the M25/23/20 is not much especially on a Friday night. Anyway I had a bunch of Tesco vouchers so effectively made the tunnel free despite the high price (257 return short stay saver v 109 on the ferry). Due to the new ticket rules and potential Fri night traffic I left home much earlier than normal . Roads were fine so got to check-in at 6pm for a 7.46 crossing. I was expecting it to offer a change fee to get an earlier train to which I'd have stuck two fingers and clogged up the terminal without spending any money out of bloody minded principle Eh oh!

.

Anyway to my surprise it offered me a train an hour earlier which I gratefully accepted. Maybe because it was mega quiet (literally drove to a window at check-in and both customs windows without any wait). 15 minutes from pulling up to check in we were in the pre boarding lanes having been to the terminal loo and made a purchase from duty free. Boarded 5 minutes later. Really un-faultable.

So on the face of it they are still being sensible with early arrivers for the time being. I hope that continues as it was for me the big selling point of the tunnel. I'm not so sure if would be the same on mega busy peak days when the value of Flexi plus comes into its own.

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I used to spend £500+ per annum with le Shuttle.
The new CEO came in, a few years back, dropped the frequent traveller package and I think I've done just one crossing with them since.

I hadn't even tried the ferries until then but I actually find DFDS to be a preferable option most of the time now.

Help!!

New (ie. worse) Eurotunnel T&C's from 5th March 25

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