Dover-Calais ferry ticket

Hello,

We are moving from the UK to Switzerland at the end of the month and I was looking at ferry prices with P&O. Has anyone ever tried to use the cheap one day travel ticket and not returned the same day or at all? Do bad things happen?

Cheers,

blooming_nicki

pay cash, that's all I can say.

They still have your car number plates...you are traveling with a car right?

Try www.speedferries.com if you have a car - they can't take trucks - if you want to save. I've used them 3 times without problem. Though the fact that the guy in the port's duty-free shop packs up just before sailing and then captains the catamaran is a little off putting.

I was offered a day return by the person in the booth at the Calais side of the Chunnel a few years back without asking. It was £120 single or £70 day-return. I did think of trying to sell the ticket when in the UK. They still have not found me, but changing my name and plastic surgery helped...

Hi. I have done this before, and this is the way I did it. I booked a day trip from the Uk , online, for £ 30. Enjoyed a few good days driving around the continent......and then booked another day trip, online again, for the way back. Only, I used the Web Cafe as the address , and stated that that was my 'resident' country. Inside the Registration box (online) I put down 'TBA' .

Bingo. Turned up at Calais, and was on the ferry, no questions at all. Its been almost a year , and I have not heard anything at all.

Twenty years ago I did this, buying two days returns and was left paying full fare on one ocassion. I hasten to add that I got away with it for years. Sea France appears to have cheaper tickets than P&O.

Hui you guys are fast!

Yes, we are going by car and I don't think I will ever drive my car back to the UK unless we decide we really hate it in Switzerland. Just wondered if P&O will try and track me down if I don't return. The cheap day return is £30 (you can even get a promotional code from ebay for £3 which would knock off a bit more) instead of around £55 for a one way ticket. Thanks for the help!!

blooming_nicki

by the way the best site I know is www.aferry.to (with www.aferryto.fr and www.aferryto.de , etc)

I've just booked a Dover Dunkirk one, they seem to be cheaper than Dover - Calais for some reason, saying that they take a little longer getting across!

He is right we now use the Norfolk lines service from Dunkirk to dover .. we seem to save a lot of money - cost this last friday morning was 126 euro one way on P&O - and we paid 150chf return from Dunkirk....

Aslo a tip - drive through belgium not france , no road tolls and the roads are a lot better .

SP

I'll second that, I'd fill up with fuel in Luxembourg, cheaper than France/Belgium (And no nasty speed traps, well less than France!)

Hi,

my mother and her boyfirend go over frequently. They tried this and got away with it on several occasions. They got "caught" once - they saw they had lots of luggage - so apparently they wont let you sail on a one way ticket if you have a car full of luggage.....

another reason for privacy glass

hello have also done the day ticket trick but now only use norfolk line very cheap and if your early still let you on not like p+o who make you wait or buy new ticket, also good when you take your pet with you only £20 per booking and not each way.

It is ludicrous that a return ticket can be much cheaper than a one-way ticket. If the ferry operators charged properly, people wouldn't need to try and find ways around the system. Similar situations can happen with UK train tickets. Is it just a UK peculiarity?

As usual if there is a way to get cash out of you on ferry/train in the UK the customer seems to lose every time.

I looked at the fare to come over with Eurotunnel last week as the weather was bad and single ticket for day trip £27.00 but put it in as a single trip and it was £82.

In the end I always end up using Seafrance and got a return ticket for £59. They seem to be cheaper than P&O.

When I go up North on the train to visit one of my daughters I always book ahead on trainline.co.uk if I can as I last paid £16.50 to get to Wigan. If I cannot do that the return fare is usually about £90 -what a rip off......

I have seen a special offer that may be of interest. Norfolk Line are offering tickets for car + 5 passengers from £14 each way. Book by 15th April for sailings until 17th December. They also have offers on regular trips /bulk bookings from £19 each way. Details on www.norfolkline.com

I followed AbFabs advice below for my last trip over 2 weeks ago and it was cheap and easy. I doubt I'll use Eurotunnel again actually unless i am in a real hurry.

I would suggest the ferry discussed in the posts 10, 14 and 17.