Eurostar's 'not available' usability problem

There's something really stupid about Eurostar's website. Something that is confusing and unhelpful for travellers trying to buy tickets. 

Eurostar is either uninterested in solving it, or unable to do so. 

If it's the former, that's ridiculous. If it's the latter, that's ridiculous too. 

So what issue are we talking about? Well, if you search for a journey and the journey is sold out, you'll see a 'Not available' message, as per the screenshot below:

The site says 'Not available' for a search for Saturday 7th March 2026. But what does 'Not available' mean? 

Well, in reality it means one of two things: 

a) the tickets are not yet on sale
b) the tickets are sold out

There's another, equally unhelpful message that sometimes comes up too, saying 'Sorry, no trains are available on this date'.  Again, that could mean anything but I believe it's when trains aren't yet on sale. 

Eleven months ago, I contacted Eurostar's Press Office to tell them about this issue. 

What I said to Eurostar: 

'There’s some confusion from travellers about whether the Eurostar Snow service is sold out for certain dates.

The confusion is caused by the Eurostar website saying ’Not available’ rather than ’Not on sale yet’ or ’Sold out’ .   A similar thing happens on London - Paris, for example. (see screenshots attached)

For the traveller, there’s no way of knowing the reason.

Is Eurostar aware of this as a problem for travellers and does Eurostar have any plans to make the distinction between the various causes of a train not being bookable?'

Eurostar Press Office's response: 

'Thank you for getting in touch. We’re looking into this and will follow up as soon as possible.'

But in the 11 months since then, nothing has happened. Last week I wrote to them again. Let's see what happens!