Eurotunnel - recent experiences of turning up early or conversely late

[OMGitsnotgood]

i'd appreciate responses from people who have travelled recently (last couple of years)

We haven't used Eurotunnel for quite a long time. Back then, if you arrived early and there was space they would let you travel on an earlier train. Is that still the case?

We don't particularly want to break the journey in the UK, but have a long drive down, so need to build in a lot of contingency if we are to drive and take the train on the same day. So was thinking book on a later train than we plan to take and hope to be allowed on an earlier one ( this will be outside of school holidays).

IF we were to miss our booked train, online says you may be charged for another ticket . Not sure why 'may' - anyone had experience of missing their booked train and being allowed on a later one?

i know you can get fully flexible tickets but it's a lot more money.

Thanks

We travel on it very regularly on standard tickets. We always aim to get there early and are sometimes given one or two trains earlier. But there is definitely no guarantee. Only once have we missed our train due to massive tailbacks that were clearly impacting many other travellers. We were allowed on a later train but it wasn't the next one, it was later when they had space. It will also depend on the day you are travelling. If it's one of the hugely busy days they are less likely to be flexible.

Thank you @LondonMummer , very helpful.

We will be travelling midweek outside of school holidays, beyond that,what are the 'hugely busy times' please?

We travel on it 5/6 times a year and have never had a problem getting on an earlier crossing. The only time we’ve been very late was down to big queues getting to the check in so it was a case of just getting on the next one- no problem.

In my experience it's peak holiday days so sounds like you should be ok. I think if you were an hour late and blamed it on traffic (btw you have to go into the terminal and talk to them at the desk rather than doing it at the machines on entry) they won't charge you. If you were hours late and looked like you were taking the piss they might! They do appreciate that it's hard to time the journey and by making flexi tickets crazy expensive this is one of the consequences. Personally I think they should price flexi more reasonably. It ought to be better for them to fill up empty trains but what do I know!

In my understanding It’s the same system as before. You have I think leeway to get on any available train in a 24 hour period before or after your booked crossing, subject only to price differences in the slot time. I travelled at Christmas and Easter and it was fine - no unusual delays or queues.

So it’s no problem to miss your booked crossing time.