Compensation for delays

General Rule

• If your international train journey is delayed by more than 1 hour (whether you are travelling by day or overnight), the distribution network will refund you 25% of the value of one single ticket (min. € 4).
• If the delay is more than 2 hours, the refund will represent 50% of the value of one single ticket (min. € 4).

The journey needs to begin and end within the European Union, Norway, or Switzerland.

To claim your entitlement, you have to submit your refund application (PDF) accompanied by your valid, cancelled ticket (and any reservation) within the two months following the journey date. If you have been given a delay certificate, please enclose this as well.

These compensation rules are not applicable in the following cases:

• "go as you please" offers (InterRail, Eurodomino, etc.) and trains running on behalf of third parties (e.g. charter trains);
• delays due to one of the following:
  - traffic restrictions announced in advance, due to building or maintenance work
  - the passenger's fault
  - the behaviour of a third party
  - circumstances outside the railway operation which the carrier could not avoid (= external cause)

How to obtain your compensation

If your journey by Thalys, Eurostar or TGV Brussels-France has been delayed, the on-board personnel or the staff at your destination station will usually give you a form, which you just fill in and send, along with your rail tickets, to the Client Service Department whose address is given on the document.

N.B. the fact of being in possession of a compensation application form does not automatically entitle you to compensation.

If you have taken a different international train, or you didn't receive a document in spite of a delay on Thalys, Eurostar or TGV, please contact the relevant Customer Service Department by filling in your request form (PDF).

Thalys Regularity Contract

Thalys International provide compensation for delays of more than 30 minutes, except in cases of force majeure. To be more precise, if Thalys reaches its destination more than 30, 60 or 120 minutes late, Thalys offers you 20, 50 or 100% of the price of the journey in question (only for Thalys tickets on an international journey).

This compensation consists of travel vouchers to be used on another Thalys journey.

Important comment: Thalys may suspend its regularity contact if there are considerable, extended disturbances to traffic, on condition that passengers have been notified of the delays prior to their departure.

Eurostar compensation policy

If a train is eligible for compensation, this will be announced on board by the train manager.
Depending on the scale of the delay, Eurostar undertakes to provide the following compensation:

• Delays of 60 to 119 minutes:
  Customers may be entitled to a free single ticket or 50% discount on a return Eurostar journey on the Brussels-London or Paris-London lines (with the exception of Brussels-Lille and Paris-Calais).
  
• Delays of 120 to 299 minutes:
  Customers may be entitled to a free return journey on Eurostar valid for 12 months from their delayed leg of the Eurostar journey.

• Delays of more than 300 minutes:
  Customers may be entitled to a cash refund for the affected leg of their journey and a free return on Eurostar.

Eurostar's compensation policy does not apply to delays due to bad weather, events of force majeure (actions/events beyond Eurostar's control), or strikes independent of Eurostar.

N.B.: journeys subject to availability; to be reserved in the same class as the journey that was delayed.

TGV Brussels-France regularity commitment

When your train arrives, if it's 30 or more minutes late through the fault of SNCF or SNCB, we undertake, on a commercial basis, to compensate you for the equivalent of 1/3 of the price of your TGV ticket.

In some cases, however, we may have to suspend our commitment temporarily.

Your application, accompanied by your original cancelled ticket, must reach us within the two months following the journey date. You may be able to use the specific compensation application forms available at the Luggage counter at Brussels-Midi.

Download and print your compensation request (PDF).