Totally Frenched Out

From the blogger formerly known as Samdebretagne

Saturday, June 13, 2015

J'ai testé pour vous...

A few days ago, I had to catch a mid-week flight and instead of taking the RER or the Air France bus as I normally would, I decided to try out the new EasyBus service offered by EasyJet from the Louvre to CDG, at the low, low price of 2.99€. (As a side note, you do not need to fly EasyJet to book a seat on this bus, it is open to all travelers).

C also had to head out to the airport for other reasons, so we booked our tickets and off we went to the Louvre. The pick-up site was listed on the address as 2, place André Malraux, so we used handy google maps to locate the big ol' number 2 in front of a pharmacy.  Except the instructions also said that the pick-up site was in front of HSBC...which was all the way across a busy intersection at 3, place André Malraux. So we weren't quite sure where to wait, but we decided to camp out in front of the HSBC.  I noticed another French woman though who was obviously confused by the instructions as well, because she spent 20 minutes nervously pacing back and forth between the two sites.

The bus was supposed to arrive 10 minutes before the pick-up time, but our allotted time came and went...and then so did 5 minutes, 10 minutes and 15 minutes.  At that point, I was starting to panic a bit, and it was decision time...do we keep waiting it out?  Do we head back to the line 7 and hop on the RER B at Chatelet?  Do we run down to Opéra and try to grab the Roissybus?  Or do we try to grab a taxi?

Since we had luggage, we didn't want to go back into the metro, and a taxi was deemed too expensive in rush hour, so we hoofed it to the Roissybus (which - holy crap - costs 11€ now!).  But luckily we both made it on time in the end, minus a few extra euros of course.

C & I have both emailed them asking for an explanation and a refund, and I have also reached out to them on several of their social media sites, but to no avail.  I also booked them for my flight to Bangkok next week, so I'm currently trying to decide if I should give them another shot or not?  It does say on the ticket that you can take any bus up to an hour before your booked time (assuming they have space), so I may just go early and give it another try, especially since the tickets are non-refundable. Either way, I guess it's just another example of you get what you pay for!  Or otherwise maybe just using them from CDG to the Louvre, since you don't really have the same time constraints...

Labels: , ,

4 Comments:

Blogger wonky73 said...

I guess you do get what you pay for. I wonder if the bus ever did show up?

I have horrible luck with buses. I got on a bus that was supposed to go from the airport to a cruise ship. I guess the driver had never done the route before and just followed the GPS. We ended up in an industrial park

June 13, 2015 at 5:46 PM  
Blogger shannon said...

Looking at reviews online, this has happened to a lot of people in many different cities. Or them overselling the bus and denying entry. Or the driving stopping mid drive because he's hit his max hours and needs to take a long break. I'd be very wary of taking them... especially to the airport.

June 14, 2015 at 8:38 PM  
Blogger Lil said...

Sounds a bit too stressful for me - I'd stick to the RER B for now. Besides, I have tickets from carnet to still be used, and come September, my Navigo will go all zones so "free" rides to/fro the airport!

June 19, 2015 at 2:55 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

My Metro Taxi in Detroit is an executive Metro Airport taxi service that includes sedan, SUVs’ and van ground transportation in the Detroit area.

December 8, 2015 at 2:57 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home