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SkyTeam (the alliance which includes the likes of Delta, Air France, KLM, and Virgin Atlantic) and Eurostar (the European high-speed train operator) have announced that they have signed a partnership agreement that will see the airlines of SkyTeam and Eurostar working closely together.
The details of this new agreement don’t appear to have been fully worked out yet, so we don’t know just how deeply connected SkyTeam and Eurostar intend to be, but we do know that in the short-term, this partnership hopes to allow airline customers to add Eurostar journeys to their their airline bookings and to allow Eurostar customers to add flights to their train bookings.
Once the partnership is up and running (at some point in the first half of 2025), it should be possible to, for example, book an itinerary that sees a customer flying from Los Angeles to Paris and then taking the Eurostar to Cologne without having to split payments between the airline and the train operator because all sectors would be covered by the same ticket.
For reference, here are the Eurostar routes from Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK:
We’re also told that someone booking such an itinerary will be able to ‘enjoy SkyTeam benefits’ which, presumably, means that SkyTeam elites who get airline lounge access as part of their benefits package would also get Eurostar lounge access where that’s provided.
That sounds pretty good, but it will be interesting to see how far this partnership actually goes.
Will it start and end with nothing more than single bookings for air and train travel + lounge access, or will Eurostar effectively become a non-airline member of SkyTeam with travelers able to earn and burn miles/points on Eurostar bookings?
This is what the CEO of Eurostar, Gwendoline Cazenave, had to say about the new partnership:
“Offering travellers the choice to see Europe in the most sustainable and convenient way by rail is a key component of Eurostar’s vision for growth. We are creating a future where travellers can connect between Eurostar trains, domestic railways and long haul flying, opening up our services to new markets across the globe. Today is a major step forward towards this mission and we look forward to working with SkyTeam to develop the customer proposition so more travellers can experience Eurostar’s unique service.”
And this is what the CEO of SkyTeam, Patrick Roux had to say:
“Working with Eurostar as our first non-airline partner underscores SkyTeam’s commitment to delivering a more integrated and responsible travel experience by incorporating intermodal travel. One of the world’s most-loved train operators, with a reputation for customer service, Eurostar is a natural fit for SkyTeam. I look forward to developing our partnership and offering customers greater choice in how they travel across SkyTeam’s global network.”
That’s all very nice, but it doesn’t tell us much and leaves us with a few questions.
Leaving aside the whole part about miles and points earning and burning that we’d love to know about, there are a few more simple things that it would be good to know.
- Does Eurostar have plans to match its booking window with the booking windows of the SkyTeam airlines? Right now, we’re told that Eurostar tickets can only be booked as far out as 6 to 8 months in advance, but that’s not going to work very well with airlines whose bookings open up at least 331 days ahead of travel (~11 months).
- Currently, it looks like Eurostar doesn’t allow round trip bookings where the return journey is more than ~4.5 months after the outbound journey. Will this change once flight segments can be added?
- Will it be possible to book multi-cabin itineraries? If you book a transatlantic Business Class fare, for example, will you be able to add on a Standard Class Eurostar segment or will you be restricted to a Eurostar Premium Class booking? If you book an Economy Class airfare, will you be prevented from adding a Eurostar Comfort or Premium seat to your booking?
- Eurostar doesn’t have a Basic Economy/Light fare, so will flyers be able to add a Eurostar segment to the cheapest Economy Class fares?
- Will the SkyTeam and Eurostar partnership mean that it will be cheaper to book both modes of transport on one ticket, or will it often still be cheaper to book separately (if there’s going to be a premium to booking everything as one fare, this won’t be a very useful partnership).
Overall, this looks like a very interesting development, and it has the potential to offer travelers a nice way to combine modes of transport within Europe, but just how useful this partnership actually turns out to be will depend on just how closely the airlines and Eurostar are prepared to work together.
If this partnership doesn’t go any further than airline + rail tickets on a single fare, that’s an improvement on what we have now, but not exactly groundbreaking.
If, however, we see Eurostar being treated more like a full member of SkyTeam with reciprocal elite benefits, reciprocal miles and points earnings, and if Eurostar expands its booking window to 331 days, that would be genuinely exciting and may even make the most boring of airline alliances considerably more interesting.
What do you think of this partnership and where would you like to see it go?
Featured image courtesy of Eurostar.
