My first-ever train ride on Eurostar in Premier Class was smooth and productive, through not quite what I expected.
First Impressions Of Eurostar Premier From Brussels To Amsterdam
Sometimes I like walking into new experiences (trains, planes, hotels) without knowing what to expect. I know it’s a bit ironic considering a large part of this blog is geared at sharing about my travel so that you know what to expect…but part of me likes the surprise of something new.
For years, I’ve heard about the famed Eurostar…the “luxury” train line that connects London and Paris via the “Chunnel” and I’ve always wanted to try it. While searching for my return ticket from Brussels to Los Angeles, I stumbled upon an Air France/KLM Flying Blue award ticket for only 60,000 miles that included not only Amsterdam to Los Angeles in KLM World Business Class, but also a train segment on Eurostar from Brussels Midi to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.
My ticket indicated that I would be in “business class” on the train, but Eurostar doesn’t have a cabin it labels business class. The Air France/KLM Air&Rail page says:
If you’re flying with KLM Economy Class, you’ll be in Eurostar’s Standard class. With a KLM Business Class ticket, you’ll get the Premium experience with Eurostar.
What is the “Premium experience” on Eurostar? That’s also not a class…Eurostar offers three classes of service:
- Eurostar Standard
- Eurostar Plus
- Eurostar Premier
While hoping for Premier, I was expecting Plus…however when I checked in the agent confirmed I would be traveling in Premier.
There’s a Eurostar Lounge in Brussels, but it does not open until 6:00 am, which was not helpful for my 5:53 am train.
Stepping onboard, it felt like stepping into an old-school TGV first class cabin than the sort of spacious, modern cabin I was envisioning. Granted, that’s not a complaint, but it just felt much older (and a bit more beat up) than I was expecting.
We took off on time and an attendant appeared to welcome me onboard (and the only other passenger in the cabin) and offer us breakfast…a choice between a cheese and deli plate or fruit plate, served with yogurt, a croissant, juice, and coffee. For example, my footrest was broken…
It wasn’t much, but the fruit was good and the coffee wasn’t bad either…I enjoyed the breakfast.
Internet was available onboard and worked well, so it was a very productive two-hour journey to AMS.
I could have flown out of BRU for the same price, but was very glad to try Eurostar and found the catering onboard much better than the slop KLM serves on intra-Europe flights.
I’ll post a full review of this train journey at some point with a lot more pictures, including of some of the other carriages.
Our first and only time using Eurostar was in 2024 from SPX to BRU. We were in Eurostar Plus (I could not justify the added cost for Eurostar Premier), and we enjoyed a pleasant trip, high quality complimentary food (a night and day difference from the atrociously processed food served on the Amtrak Surf liner), and beautiful country side views as we transited the continent.
My general preference is to earn BA Tier Points, but on this occasion, Eurostar made the most sense as we were in central London (did not feel like schlepping it to LHR again) and there were no non-stops from LCY to BRU.