London-Paris booked ahead: 78-180
Advanced options
The headline flight price is rarely the flight price: add bags, seat selection, and the airport transfers at BOTH ends (city-centre to airport runs GBP 10-25+ each way) before comparing with a train that starts and ends in the city centre with luggage included. Time works the same way: a 1h15 flight is a 5-hour door-to-door once you add getting there, security lead time, and getting in from the far airport: the 2h16 train is about 3.5 hours door-to-door. Book trains like flights: months ahead for the cheap buckets.
What The Eurostar vs Flying Calculator Works Out
- True cost: the train fare against the flight fare plus its extras. Bags, seat selection and airport transfers at both ends (GBP 10 to GBP 25 plus each way from a city centre) routinely flip an GBP 80 versus GBP 120 headline into a train win.
- Door-to-door time: the 75-minute flight becomes about five hours once you add the trip out, the two-hour lead time and the journey in from CDG or Orly; the 2h16 train is about three and a half hours door-to-door, and its hours are usable ones.
- The rest of the ledger: the train includes two unweighed bags, has no liquids rule and runs city centre to city centre. Flying wins on genuinely cheap days, beyond rail's range, and from cities far from St Pancras.
- Travellers (advanced): multiplies both routes for the party. Family fares and the luggage rules tilt the comparison further toward rail for groups.
- Train extras (advanced): the tube or train to St Pancras, a Standard Premier upgrade or a bike reservation, so the rail side is priced as honestly as the flight.
- Door-to-door hours (advanced): edit the 3.5 and 5 hour defaults for your own start point and airport. The Manchester or Glasgow traveller's extra London leg erodes rail's lead, and a flight from a local airport can win outright.
- Value of the time difference (advanced): the hours saved on the round trip multiplied by what an hour is worth to you (a working traveller might use their hourly rate). The cost including your time card adds it to the slower option.
- Carbon footprint (advanced): the flight at the DEFRA-style short-haul factor of 0.151 kg CO2e per passenger-km over the distance you enter, against about 4 kg per passenger each way by Eurostar. The rail route comes out roughly 90% lower, decisive for some and a tiebreaker for the rest.
- Booking: cheap train buckets open months ahead and empty forward exactly like airline fare classes; Tuesday, Wednesday and shoulder-hour departures underprice the Friday evening peak.