Train Tickets

[mushroom25]

Mrs Mushroom's school will soon be receiving a French "exchange" teacher - she's booked herself to London St Pancras OK, but then hit a snag. It seems that the train companies she's tried won't sell her a ticket onwards to Leicester with payment on her "carte bancaire", presumably because she doesn't have a UK address.

Any ideas how she could buy a ticket to Leicester before arriving in London?

[dzug]

National Express East Coast and possibly Virgin are reputed to be friendly to foreign cards

Or you/ Mrs Mushroom could buy it and get reimbursed later.

[Buenchico]

Which companies has she tried? This should be the first place to try (simply because they actually operate the trains on that route):
http://www.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk/EMTrains/T ickets/HowToBuy.htm

However, if she's coming by Eurostar, I'm mystified as to why she's booked to St Pancras when the Eurostar website allows passengers to book through tickets from Paris (or other principal stations in France) to Leicester. Perhaps she could contact Eurostar and change her ticket to London for one to Leicester?

If neither of those options work, she could try TGV.com:
http://www.tgv.com/FR/

Chris

[mushroom25]

thanks guys - Mademoiselle will be calling the school secretary tomorrow, and your advice will be passed on.

[koster]

I assume a "carte bancaire" is debit card. Does it have a Maestro symbol on it?

[koster]

You can book the entire journey (Paris to Leicester) on eurostar.com.

Mastercard, Visa, American Express, Maestro, Switch, Visa Electron, Delta and Solo cards are accepted.