My price range household weekend in Paris changed into a £4,000 nightmare
As mini-breaks go — and down the years we’ve executed a couple of — that is one that may stick in our reminiscences.
What may very well be extra enjoyable, we thought, than a weekend in Paris with the youngsters over the February half-term?
It can be a 424-mile spherical journey by Eurostar with two nights in a fairly priced Airbnb.
And the joys of a brand new metropolis for Harry, six, and Georgie, 4, to discover.
On y va!
Hugo and his spouse Jo had been resulting from return dwelling from Paris on the Eurostar with their youngsters Harry and Georgie however noticed their practice cancelled ‘due to a train manager strike in France’
For transport alone, the return fare for 4 on Eurostar got here to a princely £876 — or £129 per individual every means for me and my spouse Jo and £90 per individual every means for the youngsters.
To maintain prices down, we transformed 50,100 Avios factors collected by way of our British Airways American Express card to Nectar factors. These had been used to purchase Eurostar vouchers that sliced a good-looking £330 off the invoice that means we solely ‘spent’ £546.
The first signal of bother got here at lunchtime on the Thursday simply 22 hours earlier than our practice was resulting from depart St Pancras International in London for Gare du Nord in Paris.
An e mail from Eurostar knowledgeable us our return journey on Sunday had been cancelled ‘due to a train manager strike in France’ and we might be issued a refund for this leg of the journey — some £438. What to do?
With pleasure ranges at fever pitch, we went on-line and thru Opodo booked flights from Paris to Heathrow with British Airways to make sure we had been again in time for college and work on Monday morning. The value? £1,014. Ouch. The working whole for journey alone was now £1,890 and we hadn’t even left dwelling.
But not less than by paying for flights with our BA AmEx card we had been accumulating Avios factors (although what number of is tough to inform) and loved the safety and safety of a bank card transaction.
We woke on Friday morning and one other e mail had arrived in a single day, at 1.17am to be exact. Bad information. The reserving by way of Opodo had failed but we found cost had been taken, regardless of the e-mail stating: ‘Don’t fear, you haven’t been charged.’
With our Eurostar practice to Paris resulting from go away in simply 4 hours, the battle with Opodo must wait. To the BA web site we turned, and 4 new flights had been booked.
This set us again an extra £1,260. On high of this, we used 12,600 Avios factors price €80 to cowl the price of reserving seats, making certain we may all sit collectively.
What would have occurred had we not paid the additional? Would BA cabin crew actually have made our two babies sit with strangers? We had been travelling gentle, with hand baggage solely, so not less than we didn’t should pay additional for luggage. But our outlay was now some £3,220.
The household booked British Airways flights to Heathrow from the French capital by means of Opodo however this failed, but cost was nonetheless taken
So it was with some trepidation that we set off for St Pancras. Surely, nothing else may go incorrect? At the Eurostar check-in, it transpired that the desk for 4 we had booked didn’t exist. Why is anybody’s guess.
Here, although, our fortunes modified as one of many few heroes of our journey stepped in.
With good grace and with out a lot as a blink, the gentleman checking us in discovered a brand new desk — in enterprise class — with entry to the lounge earlier than boarding.
A free improve! Things had been wanting up. And so to Paris we travelled in some type, particularly for 2 youngsters extra accustomed to lengthy drives to Anglesey or the Lake District at the back of a 16-year-old Volvo.
Precisely two hours and 21 minutes later we pulled into Gare du Nord. Paris was all the pieces we hoped for — from the joys of taking the youngsters up the Eiffel Tower to meals on the banks of the Seine.
So it was on the Sunday morning, a bit of weary, however content material, we headed to Charles de Gaulle to catch our airplane dwelling.
And that’s when the true enjoyable started.
Online check-in had not been out there once we tried the evening earlier than. Self-check-in at these kiosks which have popped up at airports throughout the globe? Not in case you’re flying BA from Charles de Gaulle. So to the again of the BA check-in queue we went — regardless that we solely had hand-luggage. Now the queue wasn’t lengthy — maybe 40 folks or so — but it surely wasn’t transferring.
There gave the impression to be only one check-in desk open, baggage was piling up on the conveyor belts which gave the impression to be caught, and nonetheless nobody was transferring. A second desk opened. Progress remained gradual. There had been different workers wafting about, although not many, and so they appeared far too essential to take care of check-in.
We weren’t involved at this level. BA screens above check-in mentioned it will not shut till 10.10am so time was nearly on our facet, significantly as we solely had hand baggage and the flight was not resulting from take-off till 10.50am.
Hugo and his household acquired a free enterprise class improve after it transpired the the desk for 4 that they had booked didn’t exist
The household reached the entrance of the check-in queue for his or her BA flight from Charles de Gaulle solely to be instructed it had closed. They had been then booked on a later flight at 3.05pm
Perhaps we should always have been extra nervous. We ultimately reached the entrance at 10.10am precisely to be instructed examine in was closed. We had missed our flight.
We weren’t alone. But the airplane wasn’t resulting from take off for an additional 40 minutes. Surely somebody may give us a boarding go and ship us on our means? We solely had hand baggage in any case.
Our pleas, and people of others, didn’t a lot as fall on deaf ears however spark what at one level appeared prefer it may flip into an unseemly tussle.
‘So how do we get home?’ appeared the not unreasonable query to ask the apparently senior member of workers on the BA check-in desk.
‘Go fly easyJet,’ got here her response. Zut alors!
With no BA assist desk on the airport, we went to the airline’s web site and located a cellphone quantity for the grandly named Executive Club, of which we’re members resulting from our British Airways bank card.
Here we had been lucky sufficient to seek out the opposite hero of our ordeal, who booked us onto the three.05pm flight that afternoon. We had been too early to examine in for that flight on the airport (oh the irony) so she checked us in remotely. But there was a catch. ‘That’ll be £880,’ we had been instructed. Unsure whether or not this was for brand new tickets or to alter tickets, pay we did, and residential we arrived, having parted with a grand whole of £4,100, or practically a tenner a mile.
Of course, among the cash has been returned, although even this was not simple.
‘Sorry, you’re solely eligible for a refund in case your practice has been confirmed as cancelled,’ learn the primary e mail we acquired from Eurostar after making use of for a refund.
This, after all, we queried, and Eurostar did ultimately hand again the £438 it owed for the cancelled practice dwelling.
‘A minor amount of customers who paid with e-vouchers were sent an automated message that said they didn’t qualify for a refund,’ a press release from Eurostar defined. ‘Those who have been affected by this need to speak to customer service directly who will be able to process the refund.’
The Opodo reserving that by no means was, £1,014, has additionally been refunded.
A British Airways spokesman says: ‘We’re sorry to listen to about our buyer’s expertise and have refunded them the price of rebooking their flight in full.’
