Help — Snap Notifier

1

Sign in

Snap Notifier uses a magic link login system — no password required. Enter your email address and we send you a secure link that logs you in instantly.

1

Enter your email address

On the home page, type your email and click "Send my link".

2

Check your inbox

An email arrives within seconds with your personal access link. Check your spam folder if you don't see it.

3

Click the link — you're in

The link opens your personal dashboard. It's valid for 7 days and can be used on any device.

💡

Save your link

Bookmark the page once you're logged in, or add it to your home screen on mobile. The link stays valid for 7 days — just re-enter your email to get a new one anytime.

2

Create an alert

1

Click "New alert"

The button appears at the top of your dashboard.

2

Fill in the route and dates

Select origin, destination, and the date(s) to monitor. You can select multiple dates at once.

3

Choose the ticket type

Select Seated (assigned seat — 48h notice) or Unseated (exact train known on booking), or both.

4

Save — monitoring starts immediately

The first check runs within the hour. You'll receive an email (and push notification) as soon as a seat is found.

Eurostar Snap ticket types

💼

Seated (Snap Seat)

Assigned seat guaranteed

An assigned seat on a specific train — but Eurostar only tells you the exact schedule 48 hours before departure. You buy the ticket without knowing the exact time.

👳

Unseated (Snap no seat)

Exact train known at booking

The exact schedule is shown at the time of booking. Only available on certain routes (Brussels↔Paris, Amsterdam↔Brussels).

3

Email notifications

When Snap Notifier finds an available seat for one of your alerts, it sends you an email with all the details.

What the email contains

Route (origin → destination) and date
Ticket type (Seated / Unseated)
Time slot (morning / afternoon)
Exact departure times (if available)
Price (EUR) when known
Direct booking link on snap.eurostar.com
📅 Link to the official Eurostar timetable for that route and date

🔔

Notification frequency

Snap Notifier waits at least 48 hours before sending a second notification for the same availability (same route, date, type and time slot). This avoids spam if the same seat appears repeatedly.

4

🔔 Instant push notifications

Enable push notifications

Push notifications appear on your phone or desktop in real time — no need to check your email.

Go to your Settings page (gear icon).
Click "Enable push notifications".
Accept the browser permission when prompted.
That's it — the current device is now registered.

Repeat on each device you want to receive notifications on. Each device registers independently.

On iPhone / iPad (iOS)

Safari on iOS only supports push notifications for installed web apps (home screen shortcut). Three steps:

Open Snap Notifier in Safari.
Tap ⬆ Share → Add to Home Screen.
Open the app from the home screen icon and enable notifications in Settings.

💡

Requires iOS 16.4+

Push notifications for web apps require iOS 16.4 or later. On older versions, email notifications still work perfectly.

5

⭐ Ticket details before buying

When Eurostar redirects you to checkout, you have only seconds to decide. Snap Notifier shows you the exact schedule, booking reference and price — before you pay — in a single gesture.

Eurostar doesn't display times clearly on the cart page. This feature lets you instantly confirm you have the right train, date and price — no risk of confirming by mistake.

📋 Universal method — Copy-paste the URL

From any device or browser:

On the Eurostar cart page, copy the URL from the address bar.
Open snap.lipski.be/check and paste the URL in the field.
Click "View →" to see the full summary.

💻 PC & Mac — 1-click with a bookmark

Go to snap.lipski.be/check and drag the button ⭐ Snap — View my ticket to your bookmarks bar.
On the Eurostar cart page, click the ⭐ bookmark — a tab opens with the full summary.
Check the details, then click "Pay on Eurostar" to go back to checkout.

💡 Bookmarks bar hidden? Chrome: Ctrl+Shift+B (Win) | ⌘+Shift+B (Mac)

⚡ Launch a check from an Eurostar search (new)

A second bookmark on snap.lipski.be/check lets you launch an availability check directly from an Eurostar Snap search page — no manual route or date entry required.

How it works

Go to snap.lipski.be/check → drag the button ⚡ Snap — Launch a check to your bookmarks bar.
On snap.eurostar.com, perform a route search (one-way or return).
Click the ⚡ bookmark — Snap opens with the route, date, time slot and passenger count already filled in.
Click "Run checks" to start the availability check immediately.

📌

Round-trip in a single check

If your Eurostar search is a return trip, Snap Notifier checks both legs alternately in the same page: outbound 1 → return 1 → outbound 2 → return 2… Results for each leg appear in real time, displayed separately (outbound in gold ⭐, return in purple 🟥).

👥

Automatic passenger count

The number of adults from your Eurostar search (e.g. 2 adults) is automatically pre-selected in the form. You can adjust it before running the checks.

⚠ This bookmark only works from snap.eurostar.com/*/search?... pages (the Search tab). On any other page, an alert will tell you.

📋 Summary — All check methods

Method	When to use	Automatic?
🔔 Hourly scheduler	Always active, checks all active alerts every hour at h+10	✅ Yes
▶ "Check now" button	Trigger an immediate check without waiting for the hour	❌ Manual
⚡ Bookmark from Eurostar search	You're on snap.eurostar.com and want to check immediately — no route/date entry	✔ Semi-auto (1 click)
⭐ "View my ticket" bookmark	Verify ticket details before paying (Eurostar cart page)	✔ Semi-auto (1 click)
📋 Copy-paste URL	Verify ticket details from mobile or any browser without a bookmark	❌ Manual
📱 iOS Shortcut "Snap Ticket"	Same as "View my ticket" but via the Share menu in Safari	✔ Semi-auto (1 tap)

📱 iPhone / iPad — Copy-paste URL

This method works on all iOS browsers (Safari, Chrome, Firefox…) with no installation.

On the Eurostar cart page, copy the URL from your browser's address bar.
Open snap.lipski.be/check and paste the URL in the field.
Tap "View →" — the details appear instantly.
Check, then tap "Pay on Eurostar" to return to checkout.

💡 Tip: add snap.lipski.be/check to your Safari bookmarks for quick access.

⚡ iPhone / iPad — Shortcut in the Share menu (recommended)

A ready-to-use iOS Shortcut — it appears in Safari's Share menu with a single tap, no copy-paste needed.

Install the shortcut (once)

Tap this link from Safari on iPhone: ⭐ Add "Snap Ticket" shortcut
Tap "Add Shortcut" in the Shortcuts app.

Add to Share menu favourites

In Safari, tap ⬆ Share.
Scroll to the bottom → tap "Edit Actions…".
Find ⭐ Snap Ticket → tap the green + to add it to favourites.
It now appears at the top of your Share menu every time.

💡 Usage: on the Eurostar cart page, tap ⬆ Share → ⭐ Snap Ticket — the details open instantly.

What you see

Departure & arrival station
Departure & arrival time + journey duration
Booking reference
Price and currency (GBP, EUR…)

6

Pause an alert

You can temporarily suspend an alert without deleting it. It will resume automatically on the chosen date.

1

Click "Pause until..." on the alert

The button appears on each active alert.

2

Choose a duration

Quick options: tomorrow, 3 days, 1 week, 2 weeks. Or enter a specific date.

3

Monitoring resumes automatically

On the chosen date, the alert restarts without any action from you. You can also click "Reactivate" at any time.

Active Monitoring in progress

Paused until May 15 Resumes automatically

Paused Suspended indefinitely

7

Explore availability

The Explorer page lets you see all available dates on a route for the next 4 weeks, in a single search.

1

Click the "Explorer" banner from the main page

Or navigate directly to /explore.

2

Select a route and click "Search"

The search runs in the background (3-5 minutes). The page updates automatically.

3

View results or receive them by email

Results are cached. Click "Refresh" to run a new search. Use "Send by email" to receive a full summary.

⌛

Search limit

Maximum 2 searches per 30 minutes per account, to avoid overloading the server. Cached results remain accessible without limit.

📅

Timetable button in results

Each result card has a 📅 Timetable button that opens the official Eurostar timetable for that route and date. Useful to check exact times before creating an alert.

8

⚡ Super Explorer — Brussels alternatives

The Super Explorer is an advanced version of Explorer, designed for routes to or from Brussels. It scans both the direct route AND alternative routes via Brussels, to find availability that the standard Explorer wouldn't show.

Two types of alternatives

🚌

Board at Brussels (board_bru)

Train passing through BRU

You buy a ticket on a train passing through Brussels-Midi (e.g. Cologne→Paris or Amsterdam→Paris). You board at Brussels even though the ticket destination is further. The displayed departure time is the Brussels-Midi time.

🚐

Exit at Brussels (exit_bru)

Train stopping at BRU

You buy a ticket on a train that stops at Brussels en route (e.g. Paris→Amsterdam). You exit at Brussels before the final destination. Useful for BRU as an arrival from Paris or other stations.

⚠

To London: board_bru alternatives not possible

For trains to London, Eurostar requires passport control at the origin station on the ticket. It is therefore impossible to board at Brussels on an Amsterdam→London or Rotterdam→London ticket. Super Explorer does not suggest these invalid alternatives.

9

Alert settings

Start date for checks

You can define from which date the app starts monitoring. Useful when your trip is more than 2 weeks away — Eurostar Snap only puts tickets on sale 12 to 14 days in advance, so there's no point searching earlier.

💡

Best practice

For a trip on June 15, schedule monitoring to start around June 1. You'll receive the first notifications as soon as tickets appear.

Time slot filter

For seated tickets, you can filter by time slot:

Option	Meaning
Morning	Trains departing before 1pm
Afternoon	Trains departing after 1pm
Any	All time slots (recommended)

For unseated tickets, exact times are always shown — the time slot filter still applies for notifications.

10

Interface guide

Element	Description
Status bar	Shows the last check time and number of availabilities found
"Check now"	Runs an immediate check without waiting for the hour
Explorer / Super Explorer banner	Access to the manual availability exploration pages
"Availabilities" section	Shows results from the last 48 hours under each alert
"Book on Eurostar Snap"	Direct link to the booking page — opens in a new tab
📅 Timetable	Link to the official Eurostar timetable for the route and date — available in notifications and Explorer results
"Pause until..."	Suspends monitoring until a chosen date
"Reactivate"	Restarts a paused alert immediately
"Delete"	Permanently deletes the alert and its history
Explorer tabs	Switch between seated (48h timetable) and unseated results
"Send by email"	Sends the Explorer summary to your email address
Alternative checkboxes (Super Explorer)	Tick/untick alternative routes to scan in extended mode
"Extended scan" (Super Explorer)	Runs a scan of the direct route + all ticked alternatives

11

Available routes

Snap Notifier monitors all routes officially offered by Eurostar Snap. The list is updated automatically every night by scanning the Eurostar website.

Brussels → Paris

Paris → Brussels

Brussels → London

London → Brussels

Paris → London

London → Paris

Paris → Amsterdam

Amsterdam → Paris

London → Amsterdam

Amsterdam → London

Paris → Rotterdam

Rotterdam → Paris

London → Rotterdam

Rotterdam → London

London → Lille

Lille → London

Paris → Cologne

Cologne → Paris

⚙

Automatic update

A full route scan runs every night at 1:20am. The Explorer cache (Super Explorer) refreshes automatically at 2:00am. Inactive routes or unsupported ticket types are automatically removed from the alert creation form.

Routes with "unseated" tickets

Only certain routes offer the "exact train known at booking" type (no pre-assigned seat):

Paris ↔ Brussels

Amsterdam ↔ Brussels

On all other routes (to/from London, Rotterdam, Cologne, Lille), only the seated ticket type (timetable notified 48h before) is available.

12

Frequently asked questions

I didn't receive my login link ▼

Check your spam folder. The link is sent from a Gmail address. If nothing after 5 minutes, go back to the home page and re-enter your email — you'll receive your existing link again.

My alert is active but I haven't received a notification ▼

This simply means no Snap seats have appeared for your route and dates yet. The check runs every hour automatically. As soon as a seat is found, you receive an email and push notification.

How often are checks run? ▼

Checks run automatically every hour at :10. For example: 10:10, 11:10, 12:10… You can also trigger an immediate check with the "Check now" button on your dashboard.

Can I monitor several dates at once? ▼

Yes! When creating an alert, you can select multiple dates. Each date is monitored independently and you receive a notification for each availability found.

Can I monitor round-trips? ▼

Create two separate alerts: one for the outbound journey and one for the return. If you use the search bookmark from snap.eurostar.com, a round-trip search launches checks for both legs in a single page, alternating outbound and return results.

Does the number of passengers matter? ▼

Yes — Snap Notifier checks availability for the number of passengers you specify. If you use the search bookmark, the passenger count from your Eurostar search is automatically pre-filled. You can adjust it before running checks.

What is the "Snap Seat" ticket? ▼

A Snap Seat is an Eurostar ticket at a reduced price, with a guaranteed assigned seat. The exact train schedule is only communicated 48 hours before departure. You buy without knowing the exact time — it's the trade-off for the low price.

What is the difference between Explorer and Super Explorer? ▼

Explorer shows all available Snap dates on a direct route. Super Explorer (for routes to/from Brussels) also scans alternative routes via Brussels — for example, a Cologne→Paris ticket on which you board at Brussels-Midi.