What are Club Eurostar points worth? We do the maths

What are Club Eurostar points worth?

18 months ago Club Eurostar had a relaunch which doubled the cost of free trips – albeit with a higher earning rate going forward and a status bonus for elite members.

At the time, cash tickets were expensive as the company rode the post-pandemic travel boom. We thought it was about time to take another look.

How much are Club Eurostar points worth?

It is important to remember that Club Eurostar lets you redeem on ANY train.  You need more points for ‘anyime’ redemptions but as long as seats are bookable for cash you can book them for points.

This means that the value you get depends on whether you prefer to travel on the most expensive services at peak times. It also means that you are certain to be able to use your points when you want to, which should cause you to place extra value on them.

Here is the new points pricing from 1st October 2023:

• Eurostar Standard – 2,000 Club Eurostar points for normal reward availability and 3,000 points ‘anytime’, return

• Eurostar Plus – 4,000 Club Eurostar points for normal reward availability and 5,000 points ‘anytime’, return

• Eurostar Premier – 6,000 Club Eurostar points at all times, return

You earn 1.2 points per £1 spent, with a 25% to 75% status bonus if you have elite status. A Carte Blanche (the old top tier, now 2nd tier, which has a 50% elite bonus) member would need to spend £2,800 for an ‘anytime’ return ticket in Eurostar Plus.

‘Normal’ and ‘anytime’ reward pricing is NOT driven by date.  We understand that there are a fixed number of tickets available for each service at the base price and then it switches to ‘anytime’.

For the purposes of this analysis:

• I am only looking at London to Paris, the most popular redemption option

• I am only looking at Eurostar Standard and Eurostar Plus.  In my mind, Eurostar Plus is the ‘sweet spot’ in terms of value – you get the same Eurostar Premier seat and a three course meal with wine, but you don’t get fast track security, lounge access or a ‘premium meal’.  Many people are perfectly happy with Eurostar Standard, however, especially if travelling as a couple (I think that there are no solo seats in Standard).

I looked at pricing for a weekend break to Paris booked last week for one month, two months and four months ahead.

How much are typical Eurostar weekend break tickets?

I took the same trains for each example, which I thought were the ideal ‘weekend break’ services:

• 18.01 from London St Pancras on Friday, arriving at 21.25 in Gare du Nord

• 19.01 from Paris Gare du Nord on Sunday, arriving at 20.30 in St Pancras

Here were the prices:

Eurostar Standard:

• One month ahead: £245 return

• Two months ahead:  £400 return

• Four months ahead:  £140 return

Eurostar Plus:

• One month ahead: £320 return

• Two months ahead:  £440 return

• Four months ahead:  £190 return

What does this mean for ‘value per point’?

Let’s look at the value you are getting for your points on this basis, turning the prices above into ‘pence per Club Eurostar point’.

Eurostar Standard:

• One month ahead: 9.8p per Club Eurostar point (2,500 points return as one leg was ‘anytime’)

• Two months ahead:  16.0p per Club Eurostar point (2,500 points return as one leg was ‘anytime’)

• Four months ahead:  7.0p per Club Eurostar point (2,000 points return)

Eurostar Plus:

• One month ahead: 8.0p per Club Eurostar point (4,000 points return)

• Two months ahead:  9.8p per Club Eurostar point (4,500 points return as one leg was ‘anytime’)

• Four months ahead:  4.75p per Club Eurostar point (4,000 points return)

What about upgrades?

Good question. Upgrading from Eurostar Standard to Eurostar Plus is now better value than it used to be, because the upgrade cost has not risen sharply.

Let’s look at what you get, comparing the cost of Eurostar Standard and Eurostar Plus. Remember that the cost to upgrade is 1,200 points return.

• One month ahead: cash difference is £75, value per point is 6.25p

• Two months ahead: cash difference is £40, value per point is 3.33p

• Four months ahead: cash difference is £50, value per point is 4.2p

Upgrades can only be done after you have booked your Eurostar Standard seat for cash.

Conclusion

Based on the analysis above, we can say a few things:

• Whilst I didn’t show price comparisons, cash rates have not come down in the last 18 months. The post-covid spike in pricing hasn’t gone away, which offsets some of the 2023 devaluation in the reward chart (your free ticket now has a higher value)

• Standard class redemptions are the best value and it is still possible to get around 10p per Club Eurostar point

• Travelling in Eurostar Plus will get you 8p-10p per point on a good day for a full redemption, but you will get a poorer deal if you use points to upgrade

So …. to my surprise, the value of Club Eurostar points has held up despite the 2023 devaluation if you look over a longer time horizon. This is especially true when you adjust for the 20% increase in your earn rate going forward (now 1.2 points per £1 vs 1 point) and the elite status bonus awarded on top to elite members.

One clear place where value has been lost is with transfers of American Express Membership Rewards. 15 Amex points gets you 1 Eurostar point, and if you assume that a Eurostar point is worth 9p-10p in Standard or 7p-8p in Plus, our ‘value of an Amex point when used for Eurostar’ is a poor 0.55p.

Not adjusting this transfer rate was a mistake (the transfer rates from Accor were adjusted) and means that it is no longer worth it unless you plan to redeem on a very expensive day. Moving this from 15:1 to 10:1 would mean that Eurostar transfers continued to be attractive and would ensure the payments from American Express keep coming.