# Chase Ultimate Rewards -> Free Eurostar Travel



## Ryan (May 14, 2014)

This may be of interest to people heading across the pond.

Another reason why I'm a fan of the Chase Ultimate Rewards-earning cards. 1:1 transfers to AGR when I can take the train, 1:1 transfers elsewhere when I want to do something else.

You can trade UR points into British Airways Avios, which can then be transferred into an avios.com account that will allow you to redeem travel on the Eurostar.

Details here: http://thepointsguy.com/2014/05/how-to-use-british-airways-avios-to-book-eurostar-awards/


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## CHamilton (May 14, 2014)

RyanS said:


> Another reason why I'm a fan of the Chase Ultimate Rewards-earning cards. 1:1 transfers to AGR when I can take the train, 1:1 transfers elsewhere when I want to do something else.


You mean you might actually want to do something _else?_


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## Devil's Advocate (May 14, 2014)

I'm a big fan of what Eurostar has accomplished, but I'm not a fan of this convoluted points redemption process. First you need to permanently transfer your UR/AMEX/SW points to British Airways Avios which are then transferred by international phone call to Avios.com which are then used to hopefully redeem tickets on Eurostar. That's a lot of effort for roughly 1.3¢ of value per point. I'm actually looking to book tickets on the Eurostar for travel in a couple months but I cannot imagine how this could be considered a good redemption value for UR/AMEX/SW points collectors. If any of the rules change or anything goes wrong those points could end up stuck in Avios, which is just shy of useless in my experience. If you're based in Europe and flush with Avios points then maybe this option make sense. For anyone with convertible points I'd blow this off unless you're looking for ways to drain the last few points out of a soon to be domant account.


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## caravanman (May 15, 2014)

If anyone is thinking of booking Eurostar, please book as much in advance as possible. The first train each day tends to be the cheapest option for late bookings. (There is a HI Hostel a few minutes walk from St Pancras Eurostar for any budget travellers!)

Ed


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## Devil's Advocate (May 22, 2014)

Here in Ultimate Rewards land there's a new direct transfer partner...







Redeeming for premium cabins on Singapore Airlines has become more and more restricted over the years. Largely due to SQ's own decisions but also due to a growing dysfunction of the inherently mismatched Star Alliance. As a result the best (and often only) method for redeeming for premium tickets on SQ has been through KrisFlyer. But unless you were based in Southeast Asia or heavily involved with Membership Rewards points that was not an easy option. Now Ultimate Rewards has raised the bar yet again and I'm having a hard time seeing where AMEX retains much if any advantage, even in the case of SPG.



caravanman said:


> If anyone is thinking of booking Eurostar, please book as much in advance as possible. The first train each day tends to be the cheapest option for late bookings. (There is a HI Hostel a few minutes walk from St Pancras Eurostar for any budget travellers!) Ed


I'm looking to get this reserved this weekend so hopefully that will work out well.


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## beautifulplanet (May 24, 2014)

Being a week or so late to the party, still: Thank you for posting this. Possibly getting a little off-topic with this post... 



RyanS said:


> Details here: http://thepointsguy.com/2014/05/how-to-use-british-airways-avios-to-book-eurostar-awards/


Some might think it's really great to see the "points guy" - a frequent flyer - advertising rail travel.

The list right below the picture of the Eurostar trains, called "The advantages of Eurostar awards over airline awards", is great. Though it is being posted in the context of frequent traveler awards, basically it lists the advantages of high-speed rail over air travel - in a blog which possibly is read by many who regularily fly and many who might not have heard about all the advantages of high-speed rail yet.  One advantage the "points guy" forget to mention: in case the Eurostar arrives between 60 and 119 minutes late at the destination (which very rarely happens, but in case it did), then one gets either 25% of the ticket price refunded, or a free one-way ticket for future travel - does any European airline offer that? Answer: no  - all there'll be is "We're sorry for the inconvenience" via the intercom.

When there's an actual choice between high-speed rail and short-haul flights, many will agree high-speed rail is the better option in most cases. 

About the actual Avios deal: Of course it's good in case people use their Avios on rail travel instead of air travel. Still the value offered here with the redemption on Eurostar seems to be not as high, compared to some other things one can do with Avios. The value of redemption on Eurostar definitely seems to be higher compared to redeeming them on intra-European flights or some transatlantic economy award where one has to pay $350 one-way extra in taxes and fees in addition to the Avios.

A 9,000 point round-trip Eurostar ticket when tickets cost 69 pounds (approx. $117) each way is a good value. Still, if I can use just a few more points, 12,500 for a one-way economy ticket from Dublin to Boston on Aer Lingus with just ca. $40 in taxes, that's possibly just as good. And if one compares the value of each Avio used when booking an Aer Lingus DUB to BOS business class award for 25,000 one-way with ca. $40 in taxes, the value of each Avio was probably higher (especially with AerLingus adding flatbeds in 2015, and already having the immigration and customs in Dublin, so once stateside one is ready to go). A friend of mine in the Boston area always wanted to visit Ireland, and was surprised to find out that if one is okay with getting a new credit card, making $2,000 in purchases in the first 3 months, and then waiting like 2 months for processing, then one is able to fly in business round-trip for as little as $95 credit card membership fee for a year, and ca. $80 in taxes round-trip with Aer Lingus...

Back to the topic of booking Eurostar: In case one happens to have so many spare Avios, and one doesn't mind the complicated transfer process by phone, of course it is a good use to spend Avios on. Still, me personally, I might already refrain from that just because I think the transfer by phone is too complicated or too much of a hassle (sometimes the hotlines of these award programs make you wait for half an hour etc). And unfortunately, I don't know of so many good ways to get London to Paris Eurostar tickets cheaper. Fortunately, there is a way to buy London to Brussels that might be cheaper than on Eurostar.com - DeutscheBahn offers tickets to and from Cologne, as a combined Eurostar/ICE ticket, and often those are cheaper, for the same Eurostar train. So even in case one just wants to travel London to Brussels, it's better to buy a ticket from London to Cologne, and not use the Brussels to Cologne part, and save some money, and have more flexibility.

For example: Going in 3 days, on Tuesday, May 25, the 6:50 a.m. departure from London is offered for 129 Euro by Deutsche Bahn (to Cologne, via Brussels). On Eurostar.com, the same 6:50 a.m. departure costs 175 Euro (to Brussels only). Or in 2 and a half weeks, on June 11, the 6.50 a.m. departure from London is offered for 69 Euro by Deutsche Bahn. 91 Euro on Eurostar.com. And the best part of it, DeutscheBahn tickets are refundable (minus a 15 Euro processing fee) up to the day before departure. The cheap Eurostar tickets don't allow any changes or refunds at all. And one last thing, with a BahnCard discount card one can save an extra 5 Euro off of all mentioned DeutscheBahn fares to and from London... 

So before using any Avios, me personally, I would probably check the fares first, maybe there are some cheap ones, and in case there were then to me it's not worth the whole Avios transfer hassle...


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