Eurostar have brought back Eurostar Snap, a discounted fare for last minute trains where you can get up to 50% off the price of your train. However, there is a slight catch…
Intrigued? Here’s everything you need to know about Eurostar Snap.
What is Eurostar Snap?
Eurostar Snap is a service from Eurostar that offers discounted train fares across several of their routes. However, whilst travellers can choose their date and destination, they won’t know what specific train they’re on until 48 hours before their departure!
Why don’t they confirm your train until 48 hours before?
By leaving the train allocation until 48 hours before departure, Eurostar Snap are able to utilise seats that may otherwise go unsold. Basically, they’ll fill emptier trains with Eurostar Snap customers and in return, they get a discounted rate! It’s kind of a win-win situation.
Where can I travel to with a Eurostar Snap ticket?
You can buy both a one way and return ticket, and Eurostar Snap is available on the following routes:
Both Ways
- London to Paris
- London to Brussels
- London to Lille
- London to Amsterdam
- Paris to Brussels
- Paris to Amsterdam
- Paris to Cologne
How do you buy a Eurostar Snap ticket?
To buy your own Eurostar Snap ticket, you need to:
- Head to the Eurostar Snap website
- Choose your dates
Pick your travel dates – you can currently book up to 14 days ahead of your travel date - Select how many passengers
You can book a Eurostar Snap ticket for up to 4 adults in one go - Check out your discount
Here you’ll be able to see what price you’ll be paying for your chosen dates – you could save up to 50% off compared to buying through the standard Eurostar website - Complete payment
Eurostar Snap accepts a large range of different debit and credit cards, as well as Google Pay and Paypal - Receive your tickets
Eurostar Snap will send you your train times at least 48 hours before travel
Can I book a day return?
If you are booking a return, you cannot book a same day return. This is because your return ticket could end up being before your ticket out which wouldn’t make much sense!
What times can I travel on a Eurostar Snap ticket?
You could be travelling at any time on a Snap ticket. The website states that the times range from 5:40am until 8:40pm for all routes, but it’s worth cross checking what trains are running on your route on the day of your choice as the window may be smaller. For example, on an upcoming Saturday, trains between London and Paris ran between 6:31am and 8:01pm.
However, even with this slight decrease in time, it’s still quite a large time period! And so these tickets won’t be for everyone, but if you can be flexible then it’s a good way to get a ticket for less.
How many Eurostar Snap tickets are available a day?
There isn’t a set number of Snap tickets set aside each day – whatever seats remain available as the travel date draws nearer will be offered up through Snap. This means you could purchase your Snap ticket at any time, even last-minute, provided the train isn’t full booked.
Can I choose my seat with a Eurostar Snap ticket?
You don’t get to pick your seat with a Snap ticket, you’ll be assigned one by Eurostar. If you are buying multiple tickets, your group will not necessarily be sitting together since this service is a way for them to fill empty seats.
Who can travel on a Eurostar Snap ticket?
You can only get adult tickets on Eurostar Snap, which are for adults and kids over 12. You can book for up to four adults on one booking. If you’re taking kids over 12, bear in mind they might not be sat next to or even near you.
If you have very young kids, you can also take them along, as kids under 4 travel for free as long as they sit in your lap.
Children between 4 and 12 can technically travel on an adult ticket, but that won’t work for most kids, as you won’t be sat all together.
I’m a Club Eurostar Member, do my benefits apply to my journey with a Eurostar Snap ticket?
Club Eurostar is Eurostar’s reward scheme which gets you perks like discounts, upgrades and even free tickets. You earn 1.2 points per £1 spent. There are different tiers depending on how many points you have.
If you’re a Club Eurostar member, you still get some of the benefits when booking a Snap Ticket – you can earn points on the booking or use your points to pay. If you’re on a tier level that gets you access to the Eurostar and Business Premier lounges and priority ticket gates, then you can still use those.
But you can’t enjoy the flexible benefits that usually come with Club Eurostar, because essentially you’re filling a seat. So you can’t switch trains or upgrade.
Is Eurostar Snap a permanent offer?
It’s not completely clear how long Eurostar Snap is going to be available for, there’s no mention of an end date on the website so I presume it’s not going to be withdrawn any time soon.
What are my cancellation rights with a Eurostar Snap ticket?
Snap tickets cannot be exchanged, refunded, cancelled or transferred.
Is Eurostar Snap actually a good deal?
That’s a great question and for that, we need to dig into the history of it a little bit more.
Why it's not as good a deal as it used to be
Eurostar Snap originally launched in 2016 and offered tickets from just £25 each way and so straight off the bat, it’s not as good a bargain as it has been in the past.
That, and you used to be able to select ‘morning’ or ‘afternoon’ as well as your date, whilst this new version doesn’t allow you to confirm your preference. This makes things really difficult if you’re not local to the Eurostar service you hope to use, since an early morning train could be difficult to make on time, and therefore could incur an extra cost in having to stay overnight before you travel.
You also used to be able to select trips further into the future than just 14 days which may be something that makes it harder to use for those needing to make future plans.
However, it’s not all bad
Firstly, the old Eurostar Snap was often released for just select dates whilst we haven’t been given an end date this time. We’ll have to wait to see how this looks for peak dates such as Christmas, but it could hold some promise for those of us hoping to get away when prices get high.
Secondly, if you hadn’t booked in advance or fancy an impromptu trip then you could well save a decent amount of money.
At the time of writing, the lowest price Snap ticket (return) we found online was £90 for London to Brussels. The lowest price we could find on the regular Eurostar website for the same dates was £203, which is actually 56% off.
However, we should point out that if you did book this exact trip, there is a chance you’d get put on the latest trip out to Brussels on the Monday, and then the earliest train back on the Tuesday morning and so we’re not sure how effective it is for 1 night trips!
My experience of Eurostar Snap
How does Eurostar Snap compare to booking in advance?
The final thing worth mentioning is that if you are booking in advance, you can find fares for as low as £39 (one way, when booking a return) which are actually cheaper than any of these last minute Eurostar Snap options that we found. There are also flash sales where prices get as low as £35 each way, and so it could well be that there’s another option that could save you more money than Eurostar Snap.
Do we recommend Eurostar Snap at Cheap Holiday Expert?
It is good to see it back, albeit not as great of an offering – and if you aren’t picky about your travel times and live local to a Eurostar station, then you can definitely save a large amount on your ticket. However, it won’t work for everyone. For most travellers, you are more likely to get the right kind of ticket for you by booking in advance or during a flash sale.
