Thumbs Up for Eurotunnel.

Travelling to and from France to sort the hideaway we often use Eurotunnel. They sell a 10 journey car and passenger package for just under £400 which allows the actual crossings to be taken any  time over the next year and journey times booked or changed  on the Net at short notice on off peak trains.  Using peak times or a larger vehicle ads a surcharge but the flexibility is useful.

Using the tunnel is not as relaxing as a ferry, and Dover to Calais involves a bit more driving than some ferry routes, it’s not as cheap as the cheapest ferry, but it has the advantage that it’s quick, and given the impossibility of time planning a long UK road journey it’s useful. If there is space they often offer an earlier train when you arrive early and it’s only half an hour to the next train if you miss the booked time.

This time we gave them a puzzle. Having been in France last year when the petrol delivery drivers went on strike, a national pastime, and with an almost empty fuel tank we shelved our tunnel crossing home and headed for the nearest ferry port. Going last week but in the van not the car and with an odd number of crossings on the ticket we decided to go ferry and return on the ‘shelved’ Tunnel ticket.

So we fell through the gaps of the online system, it couldn’t cope with the outward journey in a car last autumn and yesterday's return in a van subject to a high vehicle surcharge. You could change cars, change times, but couldn’t change vehicle type for the return.

So we phoned and booked a high vehicle place, but they couldn’t take the surcharge over the phone and said we would need to report on arrival to pay rather than simply drive through the usual automatic toll gate. So we made an effort to arrive early, explained to the woman in the toll kiosk why we had a high vehicle reservation but hadn’t paid the extra. 

She intercomed her supervisor, asked us if we would like the just loading earlier crossing to save waiting, printed the boarding ticket and handed it over with a smile saying not to worry, the upgrade is free. 

Thank you Eurotunnel, and we will be using your services again.

Makes a change to uncomplain about something.