Eurostar cancels its dedicated ski services to France for 2020

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Eurostar has cancelled its dedicated ski services to France for 2020.

Last month, we reported that Eurostar has cancelled its services to the south of France. These were the trains heading to Lyon, Avignon and Marseille.

As well as cancelling the services for 2020, Eurostar has already cancelled them for 2021 too.

The axe has now fallen on the Winter ski services too.

Eurostar cancels its ski trains for 2020 and 2021

The Eurostar website now says:

“IMPORTANT: We unfortunately won’t be running our ski trains during the 2020-21 winter season. It’s been an absolute pleasure to take thousands of travellers direct from St Pancras to the Alps over the years. But in the wake of the coronavirus and a challenging travel market, we’ve had to make some changes to our services, focusing on our main routes with the highest demand.

You’ll be able to book an indirect trip to the Alps on our website from October. This would mean taking a Eurostar train to France and changing onto an SNCF train for the rest of the journey.

Eurostar is a member of Railteam, which means travellers can benefit from the ‘Hop on the next available train’ feature should they experience any delays or cancellations on their journey, providing peace of mind when connecting between trains.”

How to get Club Eurostar points and lounge access from UK credit cards (December 2021)

Club Eurostar does not have a UK credit card. However, you can earn Club Eurostar points by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards. These are:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 1,333 Club Eurostar points. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with two free airport lounge passes.

The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 30,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 2,000 Club Eurostar points. Card benefits include Eurostar lounge access.

American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 5,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 333 Club Eurostar points. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 15:1 into Club Eurostar points which is an attractive rate. The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, so you will get the equivalent of 1 Club Eurostar point for every £15 you spend.

American Express Platinum comes with a great Eurostar benefit – Eurostar lounge access!

You can enter any Eurostar lounge, irrespective of your ticket type, simply by showing The Platinum Card at the desk. No guests are allowed but you can get entry for your partner by issuing them with a free supplementary Amex Platinum card on your account.

Category

Club Eurostar

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

John Gallagher says:

19 Jul19 July 15:20

Are the Hilton key worker rates points earning and will I get my status benefits?

Thanks
- Rob says:
  
  19 Jul19 July 17:16
  
  Hilton isn’t known for excluding points or benefits on special rates, put it that way.
- Harry T says:
  
  19 Jul19 July 17:35
  
  That’s good because I’m pretty sure the Hyatt health care workers rate prohibits any status benefits or points earning.
PizzaMan says:

19 Jul19 July 15:56

Yet again, Takeaway delivery drivers not included. 7 nights a week I worked through the whole of lockdown!
- Anna says:
  
  19 Jul19 July 19:59
  
  Are you not classed as some sort of general food supplier? I bet that would count.
  - PizzaMan says:
    
    19 Jul19 July 20:40
    
    Unfortunately we don’t get any form of ID or way of proving it.
BT0122 says:

19 Jul19 July 17:12

There are a lot of issues with Eurostar at the moment, they may still go bust as they cannot get Government funding from either the French or British Governments, lots of hassles from both governments. They are also only offering 80% of their services at least until June 2021 due to Covid19.
- Rob says:
  
  19 Jul19 July 17:13
  
  80% doesn’t sound too bad!
- Lady London says:
  
  20 Jul20 July 02:58
  
  Shurely if airlines can get support, Eurostar would qualify?
  - BFT0122 says:
    
    21 Jul21 July 12:06
    
    The problem is the French Government says that it’s a British Company because the HQ is in London & the British Government says that it is a French company, plus there are a lot of complications around it all.
    Only 80% of train bookings for 6 months is a big deal as it’s not guaranteed that they will book that many trains, when historically its all booked & paid for months in advance.
Sunguy says:

19 Jul19 July 20:45

https://www.fca.org.uk/firms/key-workers-financial-services

I just about fell off my chair back in March when I first read this (after my boss told me we were key workers!)….but … it oddly made sense:

(for me – I fall under the – Individuals essential in the operation of trading venues and other critical elements of market infrastructure.)…..

The types of roles that may be considered as providing essential services could be:

Individuals essential in the overall management of the firm, for example individuals captured by the Senior Managers Regime.
Individuals essential in the running of online services and processing.
Individuals essential in the running of branches and providing essential customer services, such as those dealing with consumer queries (including via call centres), client money and client assets and those maintaining access to cash and other payment services.
Individuals essential to the functioning of payments processing and of cash distribution services.
Individuals essential in facilitating corporate and retail lending and administrating the repayment of debt.
Individuals essential in the processing of claims and renewal of insurance.
Individuals essential in the operation of trading venues and other critical elements of market infrastructure.
Risk management, compliance, audit and other functions necessary to ensure the firm meets its customers’ needs and its obligations under the regulatory system.
Any individual that provides essential support to allow the functioning of the above roles, such as finance and IT staff.
Jonathan says:

19 Jul19 July 22:37

Unless you received from your employer a key worker letter or in an obvious occupation that would be, have some shame and don’t abuse the scheme from Hilton or insult real key workers.
- aDifferentSimon says:
  
  20 Jul20 July 10:19
  
  I’d be far too embarrassed muttering underwriter – not exactly a paramedic am I!?
Ben says:

19 Jul19 July 23:04

Have Eurostar decided how many points Carte Blanche holders need in order to retain their status?
- BFT0122 says:
  
  21 Jul21 July 12:08
  
  I doubt it as Eurostar have a lot of other problems at the moment to worry about.
Adil says:

20 Jul20 July 10:46

Doesn’t seem to be stated anywhere but the Hilton offer seems to be for stays in 2020 only.
cinereus says:

22 Jul22 July 12:39

Zero offers for any of my Amex cards 🙁