SkyTeam Adds Eurostar As First Non-Airline Partner

At first I thought this was the most timely blog I've ever read as I am planning on purchasing Eurostar tickets this evening for early January. Now I'm curious to see if I'll be able to request mileage from it after the trip.

Is it really Skyteam's first non airline partner? Because in October 2018 you wrote that Hertz was Skyteam's first non-air affiliate.

This is an intriguing collab. I would definitely love to see more of these partnerships happened in the future involving other railways around the world (disclosure: I'm a railgeek).

Looks good with Eurostar saying they were considering stopping Amsterdam.

You said you were sceptical however ES competes with AF KL, therefore they will instead cooperate as partners.

AF already partners with SNCF so it could be they also join SkyTeam.

At least there’s a decent rail network unlike the laughable US network.

This could be away for someone to get miles if they travel often between London and Lille or Paris.

If one could avoid high UK air taxes by taking the train from London to Paris then from CDG to the US, this is a possibility.

That's an interesting idea, I'm sure AF would love to be able to lease some LHR slots to Virgin, or even one of the cash-rich Middle Eastern carriers. Not sure whether HMRC would be happy with that - currently connections are priced on the basis of the final destination so, at least when redeeming awards, it typically makes more sense to buy a Y flight to CDG/MAD/BRU/FRA and start the trip there as opposed to paying the silly premium cabin tax on UK tickets.

Since ES operates to gare du nord there is no benefit using it for connections via CDG. AF also only operates upto 6 flights daily to Paris ex LHR so unlikely to give up any slots.

Getting from Gare du Nord to CDG is a pain though.

Makes more sense to the LH/DB tie up where you can relatively seamlessly change from plane to train at an airport.

Why does Eurostar’s logo look like one of the Chicago stars?

Good point, I was thinking that they would need to run the train to CDG for it to work. Come to think of it, however, there might be a way to coordinate schedules, platforms, and passport checks, for connections to the TGV at Lille Europe- but it wouldn't be easy.

It may not work for direct airport-train connections, but I still see this as a great way to plan an overall trip to Europe. I could land in Paris, spend a couple of days in Paris, use Eurostar to visit other destinations and maybe return home from one of those destinations back to the states. Get miles for it as well (if, like Ben said, there are no idiotic strings attached).

It's very unlikely to be implemented by January.

I'm actually very much in favor of this. And given that especially KL has years of experience with train connections on specific routes (both operated by EuroStar and Thalys, which KL also partnered with), I actually consider trying this. That's also because I have quite ok experiences with ICE and Lufty, by the way.

I've been on a few extreme short haul flights to and from AMS, and sometimes the taxiing there takes more time than the actual flying. Especially when they still had domestic flights in The Netherlands some years ago (been on the one to MST just because I could) and also for example the short hop to BRU . I usually spent more time taxiing at AMS than in the air on those flights...

The train station at AMS is located in the basement of the airport, it's very efficient, just a 2 minute walk from most baggage claims and the actual rail time to the center of Brussels is shorter than having to board a plane, taxiing at AMS, even more taxiing at AMS, the actual flying and getting from Zaventem to the center. The low lands offer quite a unique landscape, so that's quite a nice bonus.

And when it comes to Paris and CDG: anything to avoid AF and CDG would do. I've just had a few too many disappointments with 'the frogs' due to strikes, general indifference, disorganized chaos and bad attitude over there that I'd happily take a train from London, Brussels or Amsterdam in order to avoid that airline and airport. Great that I can earn and redeem points on my ST memberships other than FlyingBlue as a bonus in the near future!

I'm sure there's some sort of incentive or just a political/feel good stunt with the current "green" movement being radically in love with trains as a save the earth thing.

Train travel over shorter distances is better than air travel. It’s not a “radical, save the earth thing,” it’s just a fact.

Train travel over shorter distances is better than air travel. It’s not a “radical, save the earth thing,” it’s just a fact.

To add, Air France has not had a strike for years. KLM on the other hand has had quite a few strikes and Amsterdam is a disaster with weather disruptions almost every week, rude indifferent Dutch staff, if you can find any and their awful food.

@James: indeed, especially in that region! I live in Brussels, a flight to Amsterdam takes about an hour while by high speed train it takes about 1h30 and conventional train 2h. The train takes you from downdown to downtown, you don’t have to be at the station 1-2h early and frequencies are very high. On top of that, Eurostar offers great service in first class, much better than what you get from KLM on the same route.
The same also applies to Brussels-Paris, Brussels-London and plenty of other routes in Europe.

I love flying but sometimes you can’t beat the convenience and speed of train travel!

This is kind of new and kind of not new. Thalys and Eurostar merged last year and took the Eurostar name. Thalys and AF/KL already had extensive codesharing arrangements with Thalys. What will be interesting is if this arrangement extends to the few London bound trains that pass through CDG or if CDG-london services are expanded.

It is somewhat limited by the continuing post-brexit immigration clusterF and the lack of sterile transfer to the train.

Amtrak used to have a partnership with Continental/United

European trains used to be great. DB Germany was always on time, not anymore. Swiss still has the edge on everyone in Europe. Only Japan beats them in the world.
We take a train from Frankfurt to Brussels and the train stops somewhere in between for an hour, then reverses to another track, no information. A passenger said they are building a bridge, take a few years, so we have to suffer this.

The British selling off their share of the Eurostar was probably a good thing. Now people in the company can get along and make a better service to all.

Trains are good, many times we calculate the flight, going to the airport early, getting all the check and security, and then the flight time.
The train choice usually is selected and can be the same amount of time overall.

Many times, the choice is a train. But not in the USA. Then its a car not a train.