Eurotunnel Cali Premium over car

The only person who would ever consider the ferry over the Eurotunnel, is the person who hasn’t had one of those rough 24hr vom fest experiences.

The tunnel can take my money, it’s worth every penny…….
 
Ha, seen a few of those over the years! But I still take the ferry, Portsmouth to Caen or Plymouth to Roscoff if it’s running. Tunnel is just too far for us West Country folk. Collect the kids from school, 1.5 to 4 hours up the road, quick and easy embarkation, beer in the bar and 6-7 hours sleep in a small but functional cabin, wake up in France fresh, showered and ready to go. Might get a bit bouncy mid channel if it’s really rough but normally in deep sleep by then and those routes run decent size ships that cope with ease. What’s not to like?
 
soulstyledevon said:
The only person who would ever consider the ferry over the Eurotunnel, is the person who hasn’t had one of those rough 24hr vom fest experiences.

The tunnel can take my money, it’s worth every penny…….
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For our annual ski trip with the kids we’ve gone at February half term for about the last six years. The first couple of years I went on the ferry …we are stuck with travelling at peak time so c.9pm Friday evening and it is horrendous with all the bus loads of teens on school trips, especially when we were trying to get little ones to sleep. Then the last time we had storms for the return, massive delays and then we were held just outside Dover for a couple hours until the previous ferry had left…. full vomit comet experience! That 100% converted me to the tunnel. Give me my own little box every time!!!

On the pricing I’ve tried variations of California, Transporter, generic large car etc and not found much difference the past couple of years. It’s c.£420 return at the moment and I think it was about £30 cheaper if I put my Octavia in instead!!
 
When we went to France earlier this year I looked at the Le Shuttle prices vs the Ferry and to be honest i have no interest in the tunnel because of the cost......we also had something to eat on the ferry and watched the sea go by.
 
My father did three weeks on a RoRo ferry in the South Atlantic in 1984, from what he said 8 hours in the coastal north sea (Newcastle to Amsterdam) is a walk in the park, the new diesel electric ferries don't vibrate and shudder like the old ones do, just take a sleeping bag onto one of the outside decks and enjoy the tame rollercoaster
 
Kernowboy said:
Ha, seen a few of those over the years! But I still take the ferry, Portsmouth to Caen or Plymouth to Roscoff if it’s running. Tunnel is just too far for us West Country folk. Collect the kids from school, 1.5 to 4 hours up the road, quick and easy embarkation, beer in the bar and 6-7 hours sleep in a small but functional cabin, wake up in France fresh, showered and ready to go. Might get a bit bouncy mid channel if it’s really rough but normally in deep sleep by then and those routes run decent size ships that cope with ease. What’s not to like?
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Agreed.
It isn’t much of a choice when you have to drive possibly hundreds of miles more to take the tunnel to a place hundreds of miles from where you want to be unless there is a significant cost saving.
In the end it’s often a balance between convenience and cost.
 
soulstyledevon said:
The only person who would ever consider the ferry over the Eurotunnel, is the person who hasn’t had one of those rough 24hr vom fest experiences.

The tunnel can take my money, it’s worth every penny…….
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I guess, I was lucky, considering number of ferry crossings so far. A lot of recent trips is more last minute, so I don't travel when weather is bad. No kids, so no need to book well ahead or suffer during half term breaks, when weather can be worse.
 
willwander said:
Don’t like ferrys, they make me puke.
Being sea-sick for an hour feels like a lifetime.
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The overnight to Bilbao was truly awful. I wouldn’t consider myself, as someone who suffers seasickness. That night I was transformed into a bumbling mess.
Trying not to move, hoping I wouldn’t puke, the strange noise’s as waves smashed the boat.
Never again…..
 
soulstyledevon said:
The overnight to Bilbao was truly awful. I wouldn’t consider myself, as someone who suffers seasickness. That night I was transformed into a bumbling mess.
Trying not to move, hoping I wouldn’t puke, the strange noise’s as waves smashed the boat.
Never again…..
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Man up, you're a surf dude. :D:D
 
s2bear said:
Hi all. I’ve just begrudgingly paid £567 for a Bobby basic eurotunnel crossing for Feb half term ‘25. (Yeah silly season but what can you do!?!?)


It got me wondering- I changed the car details to LR Defender and the price came back at £388.

Seems the Cali premium being charged by Eurotunnel has now Rocketed to around £150 ish.


A bit galling seeing as we’re lower than many cars with roof boxes and shorter than discos / q7s etc

Would be interested to hear if anyone’s found any loopholes or discounts other than Tesco Clubcard Vouchers - the discount size of which is usually akin to putting a door ding in RMS Titanic.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Ive just been playing around with ticket prices trying to work out next years trips. I'm not convinced that there is a cali premium.

It looks like any car that gets put in the single storey coach gets the same penalty its not cali specific.

Putting in transporter both as camper or van ( none commercial), Caravelle or cali all come in at the same price.

Landrover Discovery & Porsche Cayene both say over height & need single storey carriage & end up the same price as a cali.

Also tried with our 911 & that said - "We have detected that your vehicle is either low to the ground or exceptionally wide. To ensure easy loading, we will allocate you space on a single-deck shuttle." and again came in at the same price as a cali.

To test the theory I tried the neighbours Mondeo - as a normal car it was cheaper, with a roof box it ended up again the same as a cali.

The premium was £22 extra in all cases for a standard single ticket.
 
s2bear said:
OK, so this gets interesting. Looks like if you own 750 shares of Getlink SE (€15.88 currently) you qualify for a 30% discount on 6 single / 3 return standard fare crossings per year. On top of that the stock currently yields 3.46% which if you bought 750 shares at this level would be €412 in dividends. Obviously you're taking on capital risk and I'm not advocating anyone do this - just pointing out what I've found on t'internet. You have to have owned the shares for 3 months for the benefits to kick in.

At current Cali crossing rates and 3 crossings per year the discount and the dividend could be worth €951. On that basis, the shares would have to drop to €14.61 for you to be down on the deal.

I'm just rambling now....
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How do you redeem the discount? Is there a code you have to enter when booking?
 
SOLVED - PLEASE READ
(for me at least, it would seem.)

So last night I tried booking the Shuttle crossing for our Christmas / NY trip and it came back at £505 which again, seemed high.

Opened an online chat and explained. The guy took the details and same crossing came back with £398 on his screen.

He said “your reg number draws a blank on our system when we use it to book”. He said “INSTEAD of using your stored reg number, Select VW CALIFORNIA … THEN stick your reg number in at the end of the booking when it asks for it” (optional).

Lo and behold £398 as a Cali instead of £505 - Identical crossing times.

I went back in and did the same thing for the IDENTICAL crossing for half term which I’ve ALREADY paid £563 for…. It came back at £446. I’ve asked for a credit but I suspect they may argue that prices fluctuate/fluid pricing etc.

I have a ‘private plate’ or whatever they’re called and it’s been on many vehicles, maybe this is the reason but regardless, knowing what I now know, I’d suggest always booking by selecting the vehicle details as opposed to your stored reg on their system - just in case.

(Even though I put in VW CALI it still asked for the length - which is sub 5m. My SAVED Vehicle with my Reg Nbr still says VW California but booking using that never asks for vehicle length - maybe this is where it was going wrong. Who knows)

Amazing how £398 now seems so palatable


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Just did a test booking, Dover/ Calais ferry 03-06-25. 06.00 return 2 weeks later £235 cheapest.
Euro tunnel similar itinerary £217
Think i will try the tunnel for the first time.
 
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s2bear said:
OK, so this gets interesting. Looks like if you own 750 shares of Getlink SE (€15.88 currently) you qualify for a 30% discount on 6 single / 3 return standard fare crossings per year. On top of that the stock currently yields 3.46% which if you bought 750 shares at this level would be €412 in dividends. Obviously you're taking on capital risk and I'm not advocating anyone do this - just pointing out what I've found on t'internet. You have to have owned the shares for 3 months for the benefits to kick in.

At current Cali crossing rates and 3 crossings per year the discount and the dividend could be worth €951. On that basis, the shares would have to drop to €14.61 for you to be down on the deal.

I'm just rambling now....
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Do you have a link to where it shows 750 shares? The only information I can find is for 1000 shares.
 
Alied said:
Do you have a link to where it shows 750 shares? The only information I can find is for 1000 shares.
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Looks like interest from this site alone is going to push the share price up. Had better get on this escalator early! :D
 
s2bear said:
SOLVED - PLEASE READ
(for me at least, it would seem.)

So last night I tried booking the Shuttle crossing for our Christmas / NY trip and it came back at £505 which again, seemed high.

Opened an online chat and explained. The guy took the details and same crossing came back with £398 on his screen.

He said “your reg number draws a blank on our system when we use it to book”. He said “INSTEAD of using your stored reg number, Select VW CALIFORNIA … THEN stick your reg number in at the end of the booking when it asks for it” (optional).

Lo and behold £398 as a Cali instead of £505 - Identical crossing times.

I went back in and did the same thing for the IDENTICAL crossing for half term which I’ve ALREADY paid £563 for…. It came back at £446. I’ve asked for a credit but I suspect they may argue that prices fluctuate/fluid pricing etc.

I have a ‘private plate’ or whatever they’re called and it’s been on many vehicles, maybe this is the reason but regardless, knowing what I now know, I’d suggest always booking by selecting the vehicle details as opposed to your stored reg on their system - just in case.

(Even though I put in VW CALI it still asked for the length - which is sub 5m. My SAVED Vehicle with my Reg Nbr still says VW California but booking using that never asks for vehicle length - maybe this is where it was going wrong. Who knows)

Amazing how £398 now seems so palatable


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Interesting. I'd been getting my £435 crossing cost not logged in. As soon as I logged in to my Eurotunnel account where the Cali details were saved the price went up to £565!! Also the availability changed. Removed it from my saved vehicles and did the above and the price went back down to £435 and the other times became available again. Like you say, thinking it was going to be a load more makes the "lower", but still extortionate, price so much more palatable!!
 
The Fockers said:
Try Newhaven to Dieppe. Not many people seem to know about this crossing so it's fairly quiet with much shorter queues.
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I've just put my money where my mouth is and booked a return in November for £230. Outward 23:00, return 19:00. No cabins.
 
I booked my Ocean via the size option on ET during the school holidays and there was no problem at all
 
@s2bear great info… :thumb

Anyone use Flexiplus…?
We started to use Flexiplus once we were constrained to the kids school holidays. It’s less hassle not having to worry about getting to the tunnel at certain times and the priority boarding.

It’s a great system…
 
soulstyledevon said:
@s2bear great info… :thumb

Anyone use Flexiplus…?
We started to use Flexiplus once we were constrained to the kids school holidays. It’s less hassle not having to worry about getting to the tunnel at certain times and the priority boarding.

It’s a great system…
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When using flexi plus we do our best to get the full value out of the included snack bar before getting on the train.
With 4 people a bag each of sandwiches, snacks & drinks V what we would have spent in the terminal whilst waiting on an ordinary ticket goes a way towards the extra cost of flexi plus.

On one of our typical peak time Friday evening crossings its easily a couple of hours saved as no need to get there early/ leave a contingency in case the traffics bad.
 
We had one year sat on the M25, realising we were stuck and missing our crossing.
Since then, we’ve paid for Flex. It’s great not having to commit to designated times and gives greater flexibility, plus the priority boarding.
We try and get the bags bulging, innocent smoothies into the fridge and plenty of ice creams in the freezer ;)
 
Back in May, I noticed something strange on the Eurotunnel site: when I logged in and tried to book the absolute cheapest return in late August, it was £167 each way. This was using my saved vehicle details. When I went incognito and not signed in, it offered the crossings at £131 using the registration number search. This despite it recognising the registration as a campervan. I then had to go to my vehicles, add the golf, delete the campervan, add the campervan again and presto! Same vehicle but £36 cheaper each way.

I think I must have previously saved the van at 5.5 to 8 m total length because of (tow bar) bike rack. But this time (new website) it didn’t display this anywhere and didn’t give the option of reducing the length.

Now I have saved the vehicle at 5 to 5.4m, it always shows the cheaper prices. But at no point does it mention the vehicle length, once saved. Something to watch out for.
 
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