News: direct Eurostar Amsterdam trains restart, Virgin Hotels Shoreditch joins Preferred

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• Lee says:

  3 Nov3 November 09:18

  Just got off a Eurostar in Brussels. Their “service” has become terrible and most unreliable. Late, expensive, dirty and crowded…

  • ChrisBCN says:

    3 Nov3 November 09:49

    Please define ‘crowded’ – more than one person to a seat?

    • meta says:

      3 Nov3 November 12:55

      I would also like to know the travel class?

    • Alex Sm says:

      4 Nov4 November 08:51

      😂😂😂

• ayearinmx says:

  3 Nov3 November 09:49

  it’d be nice if they opened up Ashford again too

  • Andy says:

    3 Nov3 November 10:49

    Is there room for immigration and customer facilities at Ashford?

    • Nick says:

      3 Nov3 November 11:18

      It’d always been there, it’s just currently unused.

      • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

        3 Nov3 November 12:05

        I’d imagine the security equipment would need a major overhaul having not been used for getting on for 5 years.

        But the biggest block will be provision of UK and French immigration officers. Let’s just say neither country is awash with them.

      • Alex Sm says:

        4 Nov4 November 08:55

        I have a friend whose mum lives literally 5 mins from Ashford and they used to go to Europe for a weekend or so a couple of times a year. Now they need to travel to London and then catch a train which passes by their station. Isn’t it insane? I’m sure many of us have such a friend somewhere. Answers the question

  • John says:

    3 Nov3 November 23:03

    It doesn’t make sense as they can already fill up the trains from St Pancras.

    • Nick says:

      3 Nov3 November 23:25

      The opposite. Trains at peak times out of London still have selling capacity limited because St Pancras can’t cope. If some of the customers went from Ebbsfleet, Ashford or even Stratford instead it would actually use up space onboard that’s currently empty.

      • Londonsteve says:

        4 Nov4 November 00:37

        I believe Stratford doesn’t have any infrastructure required for international services, despite the station name. It also wouldn’t make commercial sense due to being a 6 minute train ride to St. Pancras.
        Ashford and/or Ebbsfleet (Ebbsfleet in particular) would be modestly popular, especially if Eurostar offered cheaper fares from there, soaking up any excess capacity on the train that they cannot fill from St. Pancras. It’s a mere 20 minutes from St. Pancras on an HS1 service.

        • John says:

          4 Nov4 November 10:05

          The problem with Stratford is that trains can’t reverse without going to St Pancras anyway, otherwise they could build the facilities and serve people from East London/Essex/Cambridge etc and take some pressure of St P

• Peter says:

  3 Nov3 November 10:40

  If you have elite status with a major hotel chain email members@iprefer.com with proof of status, and they will match you.

  I did this before staying at the Virgin Hotel in New York and received a very nice upgrade and free breakfast each day out of it.

  • Rob says:

    3 Nov3 November 10:49

    Thanks, will add in.

• BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

  3 Nov3 November 12:02

  It’s “Centraal” as that is its proper name.

  The Eurostar area will initially be able to process 450 passengers (200 more than now) and later that will increase to 650

  https://www.dutchnews.nl/2024/10/eurostar-direct-trains-to-london-set-to-resume-in-february/

  “Work on the station includes expanding and updating services on the Eurostar platform to include shops and a larger departure lounge.”

  • Rob says:

    3 Nov3 November 12:25

    I know that, I lived there for four months at one point – but Eurostar spells it as Central in their press releases so we used that.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      3 Nov3 November 15:49

      Their press department needs to have a word with their ticketting department because when you buy a ticket is says ‘Centraal’

      • RussellH says:

        3 Nov3 November 17:12

        The website, when booking a ticket, uses the correct spelling with the double a for both Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
        However, the website refers to Brussels Midi/Zuid, rather than Bruxelles MIdi / Brussel Zuid, as well as Cologne Hbf. rather than Köln Hbf.
        And the “any Belgian station” offer only offers English names for Antwerpen, Brugge, Gent + Liège.
        While it has been UIC (International Railway Union) policy for years to only use local names on tickets, timetables, departures and arrivals boards and so on.

      • Alex Sm says:

        4 Nov4 November 08:59

        They need a proper Europarliament style translation department to be honest. They market their routes as Londres / London, Midi / Zuid / South in different places but when my name was spelled in a French way on one booking, the system said no – you are a different person and I didn’t get the points even after a long chat with CS ❌

• @thirdpassport says:

  3 Nov3 November 13:47

  Even better Virgin Hotel London Shoreditch is part of Preferred Platinum, so when you book with an affiliated advisor (happy to help!), you get:
  – Breakfast for Two Daily
  – $100 Hotel Credit per Stay
  – Hotel Welcome Amenity
  – Complimentary In-Room Internet
  – Room Upgrade (subject to availability)
  – Priority Check-in and Check-out (subject to availability)

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