Cheapest way to take a car through the Channel Tunnel

Before the channel tunnel the ferry companies did the same. Cheaper to get a return and use it as a single than get a single.
You also have the bizarre situation on the railways where it is sometimes cheaper to get a ticket to a station past the one that you want to go to and then run the gauntlet of irate staff when you get out at a station before the one that the ticket is valid to.
Seriously what could they do, put you on a black list, sue you in the courts?

It used to be the same way with airlines and still can be with some operators, basically its about filling seats or trains, so if you are on a return it means they have sold the two spots but if only one way they have to fill another seat with another person/car travelling one way.

30 years ago it was probably uncommon for someone to travel only one way but these days quite normal so a bit shortsighted of the channel tunnel. The likes of Easyjet and Ryanair make the bigger airlines change there thinking obviously the channel tunnel has no competitors.

Edited by: richiavo

Well they could try and get the extra money back from you since they have your credit/bank card details.

I'd check your terms and conditions and so on. Admittedly we are talking legal penalties here but hire car rental companies can get you in the same way for fines and tolls.

Can the Chunnel guys get you for not using both legs? Sure, airlines don't (I once had an Air France guy tell me to buy a return and only use one leg since a return was GBP250 cheaper) but I believe ferries do (but I can't find a source for that, only word of mouth). But that doesn't answer the Chunnel question.

I would hope that Euro Tunnel weren't that anal that they actually check that every return journey was made. Now I am trouble with the mods for using the word "anal"

ok I did write surely Euro Tunnel aren't that a n a l to check that each return leg was used expecting the new moderation regime to bounce the post because of the word a n a l and sure enough it did.

aren't the ferries much cheaper? OK, so it takes a bit longer but as you aren't coming back for quite some time, what's the hurry?

I found the tunnel an unpleasant experience - no sight of the sea, smelly and generally no fun.

Am I missing something? Every time I've booked the Eurotunnel, I've got two prices ; one for each leg and there's no advantage or disadvantage in having a return.

Seriously what could they do, put you on a black list, sue you in the courts

EC law does permit them to insist you comply with the terms of your ticket. So if you bought a restricted ticket to a specific destination only, and stopped short, then if you were caught they can make you pay the fare for the journey you actually took plus a fine for not having it in the first place, and the legally empowered to do so. On full fare tickets you can disembark short.

There is some logic to this. A direct air ticket is a superior product to an indirect air ticket with a change. So the passenger who tries to buy a direct air ticket on the cheap, being one leg of an indirect air ticket, is cheating and if they can routinely get away with it prevents airlines from selling cheap indirect air tickets.

That's the good side of it. The bad side of it is that a train company may sell a cheap ticket from A to B because there is competition on that segment, but not sell a cheap ticket from A to C, C lying in between A and B, because there isn't competition. People who live in Bletchley (which doesn't benefit from the cheap tickets of nearby Milton Keynes, where 2 rail companies compete) will know what I am talking about. Now that becomes taking advantage of a monopoly situation.

You may find that when you buy the cheap ticket you have to authorise Eurohole to charge a surcharge to your card if you fail to take the return journey. As someone else said, it is known for the ferry companies to do this.

The ferry is generally much cheaper than the train.