TrainPal deals

Plus trick to get it for £65 via TrainPal, or 10% credit back via Uber

Eurostar has launched a sale with fares for £35 one-way, meaning you can get £70 return tickets to Paris, Lille, Brussels, Amsterdam and Rotterdam from London St Pancras International – the cheapest price for Eurostar fares direct. The sale ends at 10.59pm on Thursday 9 January, but it's best to do it ASAP as the cheapest fares often sell out fast.

The £35 one-way fares are for travel from:

• Tuesday 14 January to Thursday 3 April for Paris, Brussels and Lille

• Tuesday 14 January to Friday 28 March from London to Amsterdam or Rotterdam

• Monday 10 February to Friday 28 March from Amsterdam or Rotterdam to London

Tickets depend on availability, and some dates are excluded – see 'More info' below. Plus, we've a code to bag a return journey from £65 – or book via Uber and you'll get 10% credit back. Here are your booking options:

Option 1: Book via third-party booking site TrainPal to get a return from £65

TrainPal offers tickets slightly cheaper than Eurostar direct, and when you sign up or log in to TrainPal* and enter the code MSE35JAN at the checkout, you can make an additional saving. If you're new to TrainPal you'll get an additional 5% off with this code, making the cheapest return journey currently £64.67. If you've already got an account with it, you'll get an extra 2% off via the same code, making the cheapest return currently £66.71.

To find the cheap fares, you'll need to enter your destination (Paris, Lille, Amsterdam, Rotterdam or Brussels) and search for a return journey – you won't see the extra cheap fares if you search for one-way only. There are no fees when booking via TrainPal and you'll receive digital tickets (same as booking direct).

When registering with TrainPal, you might receive an email from sister brand Trip.com too. Don't worry, this won't sign you up to Trip.com – TrainPal also uses the Trip.com email domain when sending emails to its users.

Option 2: Book tickets via Uber to get 10% credit back

You can also book train tickets, including Eurostar, via Uber and get 10% back in Uber credit. There's no booking fee here either. The Uber credit will appear within 60 days of completing your journey, and it'll be valid for a further 180 days – it can be used on a future train or taxi booking, or Uber Eats order. This could be a good option if you regularly use the Uber app for travelling as you're essentially getting cashback to use towards your next journey.

Option 3: Book tickets directly with Eurostar, without the extra discount or credit

Head to the Eurostar website. You'll need to book a return journey to get the cheapest £35 tickets, as they're not available on single journeys.

How good is the deal and which services are cheap tickets available on?

Eurostar wouldn't tell us how many fares are at £35, but when we checked on Friday 3 January there were a good amount of £35 seats across both weekdays and weekends too, so it's possible to secure cheap seats for a long weekend. Return ticket prices usually range from £39 to £339, and the cheapest of these tend to be very limited, mostly off-peak and need to be booked well in advance, so we reckon this is a good deal given we could find plenty of £35 fares.

The £35 seats are randomly spread across all included dates on both peak and off-peak trains, so it could be trial and error finding the cheap seats. Keep in mind you'll have a better chance of snagging a cheap fare if you're flexible on your travel times and dates.

See our Cheap train tickets guide for more ways to save.

For TrainPal newbies. Claim via code in its app. Minimum £5.01 spend

If you've never purchased anything from train ticket booking site Trainpal* before, you can get £5 off any UK train ticket when you download/sign in to its free app and add the MSE Blagged code MSE5OFF to your account.

The deal will end at 11.59pm on Tuesday 31 December, or when 10,000 codes have been claimed, whichever's first – so go quickly if you've got a train journey planned. You'll have seven days to use the code once you've added it to your account.

The code is valid on all UK train routes on TrainPal, provided the ticket costs £5.01 or more. You can use this for any route or date (tickets are usually released about 12 weeks in advance). There are no booking fees.

How to get this offer:

• Download and sign up to the Trainpal app* (it's free). You won't be able to claim this deal if you've ever purchased any product or ticket from TrainPal before. If you're given the option to enter the code while signing up, you can – enter MSE5OFF in the 'Promo code (optional)' box.

• Once you're signed in to TrainPal, if you didn't add the code when signing up, go to the 'Account' tab and tap 'Promo Codes', enter MSE5OFF in the 'Enter code' box and your £5 voucher will appear below.

• Once you've chosen your train ticket costing £5.01 or more, your £5 voucher will appear under 'Price Details' and should be automatically deducted. If not, tap ‘Voucher' and select the offer (or repeat the step above if you don't see it).

You can only use this promo code once, per device, per email address. The code cannot be used alongside any other discount, except for a railcard – see how to get 34% off railcards on Trainpal.

If you've trouble accessing the deal, you can contact TrainPal via this email address: customer_complaint@trainpal.com

Trainpal* is a train ticket booking website and app operated by Trip.com, a large online travel agency, which is based in China, and also operates flight comparison website Skyscanner. TrainPal is rated 'excellent' on Trustpilot, with a score of 4.4 out of five from 4,300+ reviews at the time of writing.

See our cheap train tickets guide for more ways to save on rail fares.