How to travel on Eurostar with an Interrail or Eurail pass...

• Eurostar became a member of the Interrail & Eurail pass schemes in January 2017.

  Interrail & Eurail passes now allow you to use Eurostar between London, Ebbsfleet or Ashford and Calais, Lille, Paris, Brussels, Disneyland, Rotterdam & Amsterdam for a special passholder fare.

  These passholder fares have limited availability as explained below and are not always available on the busiest trains or dates, so you may want to check availability before buying a pass.

  The direct Eurostar between London & Lyon/Avignon/Marseille & Eurostar ski trains between London & the French Alps are not covered.

• You qualify for a Eurostar passholder fare if you have an Interrail or Eurail global pass.  You don't qualify if you only have a one-country pass.

• If you have a flexi-type pass, you must use one of your travel days, but of course this also covers other trains before or after the Eurostar journey, both in Great Britain and on the Continent.

• If you have an Interrail pass, you can only use it in your home country on a maximum of two days, normally the first & last days of your trip to get you out of the country & back home.  If you live in Great Britain, Eurostar counts as a journey in your home country, so triggers one of your two permitted inbound/outbound days.  You can take other trains the same day of course, for example Edinburgh-London-Paris-Orleans on your first day, Bruges-Brussels-London-Edinburgh on your last day, but no, you can't go Edinburgh-London day 1, stay overnight in London, London-Paris day 2, then Brussels-London-Edinburgh on your last day, because that would be 3 inbound/outbound home country days and you're limited to 2.  More information about inbound/outbound journeys in your home country.

• See the Eurostar page for a guide to Eurostar's trains, classes, check-in procedures and journey.

• Tip:  You need to check in at a staffed kiosk where staff can check your Interrail/Eurail pass, Eurostar passholder tickets will not work the automatic ticket gates at Eurostar stations (you'll get a red See staff warning).  Remember to record the Eurostar journey in your travel diary (if using a paper pass) or add the Eurostar journey to My trip and link it to your pass (if using a mobile pass), as with any other train journey.

How much is the Eurostar passholder fare?

• London to Lille, Brussels or Paris costs €30 in standard class or €38 in standard premier.

• London to Rotterdam or Amsterdam costs €35 in standard class or €43 in standard premier.

• The price is one-way, a round trip is two one-ways.

• You can only book standard premier if you have a 1st class pass.

• The passholder fare is the same for adults, seniors, youths & children.  Children under 12 still need to pay the adult Eurostar passholder fare, even though they get a free Interrail or Eurail pass when accompanied by an adult passholder.  Children under 4 travel free.

• Eurostar passholder fares are non-refundable, they can be changed to another date or train for the standard £40 change fee, which of course means it's usually cheaper to bin it and buy another one if you need to change the time or date.  If you're not sure when you're returning, buy the outwards Eurostar in advance but buy the inwards Eurostar at the station on the day - after all, flexibility is what passes are all about.

• Remember that normal Eurostar fares (without a pass) start at £58 return if you book well in advance, so only buy a pass if the cheapest tickets have sold out, if you're using other trains before or after the Eurostar journey making it worthwhile, or you need the flexibility of a pass.

Availability is limited...

• Don't assume you can just turn up, pay the fee and travel on any Eurostar you like.  Places for Interrail & Eurail passholders are limited.

  Here's how it works:  Eurostar has dynamic pricing, managed using 'price buckets' like an airline.  There are around a dozen buckets, let's say bucket 1 is the most expensive and always available as long as there are any seats at all left on that train, and price bucket 12 is the cheapest, available if you book months ahead for a wet Wednesday in February.  Eurostar in fact uses two-letter bucket names such as BZ, I'm simplifying...

  The Interrail/Eurail passholder fare is in the 3rd bucket down from top, bucket 3.  Which means availability is pretty good, even at short notice.

  If you book in advance you'll usually find plenty of availability, maybe not on the busiest trains on a Friday or Sunday afternoon.  If you book on the day of travel you'll often find availability on some trains, but not all trains, or perhaps on a few trains tomorrow but none today.

  However, on busy dates, days and trains you'll find that buckets 1 or 2 are available for normal travellers paying cash, but bucket 3 is unavailable meaning no passholder places, even though the train isn't full.  Friday & Sunday afternoons are very busy and so is July & August.

• Tip:  See for yourself!  Use the b-europe website suggested below to get a feel for how availability looks today, tomorrow, whatever...

• Tip:  I've known people turn up in Paris in July or August to find the next Eurostar with passholder places is in 3 days' time. If this happens, don't forget you can always catch a train to Calais or Le Havre and take a ferry back to Dover or Portsmouth, see the London to Paris by train & ferry page.  Or from Amsterdam or Brussels, use the Hoek-Harwich Stena Line service between Amsterdam & London.

How to buy a Eurostar passholder ticket...

Option 1, buy online at www.b-europe.com...

• You can check Eurostar passholder availability on Belgian Railways website www.b-europe.com before buying a pass because (unlike option 2 below) you do not need a pass number to run an enquiry and see availability on different trains and dates.

• You can buy your Eurostar passholder ticket here, but you need the pass number so need to have bought the pass.

• DO NOT USE THE MAIN JOURNEY PLANNER.  Instead, follow these instructions:

  1.  Go to www.b-europe.com, hover over Plan & book then click Interrail train passes.

  2.  Then scroll down to THALYS AND EUROSTAR PASS FARE and click Book your Thalys or Eurostar pass fare now.

  3.  Then use the journey planner to book your train.  You should see the €30 or €38 passholder fares.

  4.  Remember that you can only choose standard premier (1st class) on Eurostar if you have a 1st class pass.

  5.  You are emailed your Eurostar ticket to print or you can show it on your smartphone using the B-Europe app.

  6.  www.b-europe.com charge a €4 booking fee (per booking, not per person).

• Even though www.b-europe.com only mentions Interrail, Eurostar passholder tickets are exactly the same for Interrail and Eurail, it makes no difference, so just go ahead and book one of these Interrail passholder tickets, whether you have an Interrail or Eurail pass, assuming it accepts your pass number.  If it doesn't switch to option 2 below. 

• Tip:  If you have a mobile pass and the system won't accept your pass number, go to eurail.zendesk.com/hc/en-001/requests/new and ask for an InterRail cover number.  This has worked for several people.

• Tip:  Once you've bought your passholder ticket, you can choose better seats from a seating plan like this:  Go to www.eurostar.com, click Manage booking, enter your booking reference & last name, when your booking appears click Change seats and select your preferred seats from a Eurostar seating plan.  The Eurostar website will email you another ticket showing your new seat.

Option 2, buy online using the InterRail/Eurail reservations service...

• You can book Eurostar passholder reservations using the official Interrail/Eurail reservation service at www.interrail.eu or www.eurail.com.

• Click BOOK RESERVATIONS at the top, enter your pass number and use the journey planner to bring up train departures for the route you want.

• In this case you need an Interrail or Eurail pass number even to run an enquiry, so you can't check availability before buying a pass, although if you have a pass you don't need to have activated it yet.  Eurostar reservations are automated, the ticket is emailed to you minutes after booking.

• It's a good system, quick and easy to use, although you get no control over seat or berth position, even 'window' or 'aisle' cannot be specified.  There's a small booking fee of €2 per person, so they are cheaper than b-europe.com if there's only one of you.  Maybe use b-europe to check availability before buying the pass, buy the pass, then buy the reservation at the Interrail/Eurail site!

• You can also make passholder bookings in the Interrail/Eurail Railplanner app on your smartphone - I recommend this app for its usefulness for offline timetable enquiries in any case, and mobile passes are displayed using this app.  Download the app at www.eurail.com/en/plan-your-trip/rail-planner-app.

• Tip:  Once you've bought your passholder ticket, you can usually choose better seats from a seating plan like this:  Go to www.eurostar.com, click Manage booking, enter your booking reference & last name, when your booking appears click Change seats and select your preferred seats from a Eurostar seating plan.  The Eurostar website will email you another ticket showing your new seat.  The seat choice link may not appear if the train is already pretty full.

Option 3, buy at the station or call Eurostar telesales...

• Eurostar passholder fares are available directly from the Eurostar ticket offices at London St Pancras, Ebbsfleet, Calais, Lille, Paris Gare du Nord & Brussels Midi, or by phone from Eurostar telesales on 03432 186 186 (UK) or +44 1233 617575 (overseas) but there may be a phone booking fee.  You will need your pass number.

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