Is it too early to book National Express coach tickets?

[angelin]

They are £67 return from London. I can't say I've ever paid that much. Do they come down at all? Has anyone any experience with the train or is that too much hassle?

[Amy Lawn]

I booked mine over Christmas when they were having a sale. I'm pretty sure that price will be set in stone, might be worth checking if you can get a deal through topcashback or groupon or somesuch.

[angelin]

Have you ever left from Wembley? Don't know where the stadium station is but it would be easier than Victoria.

[Amy Lawn]

Sorry, Manchester. [Insert obligatory reference to things in London generally costing more than they do in the north]

[little_jim]

Ive never seen em go down to be fair. Prices have gone up year on year by the odd fiver or so at a time,  so I tend to book mine up as soon as I have a ticket in the bag as you can get it for that years price.

[Chris Lfc]

Does seem abit expensive i bought mine when the glastonbury tickets went on sale, i think from liverpool it was 65-70.

[sloseph]

I'm pretty sure they said the prices are fixed as they are now and frozen from last year 

 

Don't forget you get a 10% discount if you book 4 in one go, that takes the sting out a little 

[somecoolusername]

2 minutes ago, sloseph said:

I'm pretty sure they said the prices are fixed as they are now and frozen from last year 

 

Don't forget you get a 10% discount if you book 4 in one go, that takes the sting out a little 

It's a 25% discount actually!

 

Can you travel home at any time on National Express coaches? I've gone by coach every year since 2010 but I've always been with see, and they let you get on any coach going to your destination on the Monday. Unfortunately I didn't get coach tickets for this year, which is pretty annoying as the seetickets London coaches depart from the O2, which is very near my house. I did get tickets in the main sale though, so I'm looking at going with National Express for the first time

[musky]

I paid £60.90 for a NE ticket from London last May. So they've upped the prices by 10% when general inflation is still pretty much flat-lining and diesel prices have dropped around 15-20% and the last pay rise for the drivers looks to have been less than 10p per hour.

Seems like they're taking the piss really.

 

[musky]

19 minutes ago, sloseph said:

I'm pretty sure they said the prices are fixed as they are now and frozen from last year 

 

Don't forget you get a 10% discount if you book 4 in one go, that takes the sting out a little 

I think they were frozen (i.e. didn't rise immediately after the festival), but someone posted a few weeks back that the prices from Bristol had gone up, so presumably they've gone up from all departure points.

[somecoolusername]

2 minutes ago, musky said:

I paid £60.90 for a NE ticket from London last May. So they've upped the prices by 10% when general inflation is still pretty much flat-lining and diesel prices have dropped around 15-20% and the last pay rise for the drivers looks to have been less than 10p per hour.

Seems like they're taking the piss really.

 

Have they? I'm looking at London tickets right now and it's £61.50 return, and that's without the 25% group discount

[___S_o_m_a__]

21 hours ago, angelin said:

They are £67 return from London. I can't say I've ever paid that much. Do they come down at all? Has anyone any experience with the train or is that too much hassle?

No chance of a liftshare Angelin?

[musky]

14 minutes ago, somecoolusername said:

Have they? I'm looking at London tickets right now and it's £61.50 return, and that's without the 25% group discount

I don't know tbh, I was just going off Angelin's post.

Looking at the last thread about the coach prices, a 10% increase does look to be roughly in line with Incident's post.

I wonder if NE adopt the policy of some other sites - if they're getting a lot of enquiries about a particular route the price rises?

 

Edit: Just checked myself. They've got different prices for different times - at the more popular times they're charging more (£66 for a return journey plus a £1 booking fee). Those were the times I used last year, so a bit less than 10% increase (I didn't include the booking fee in the price I quoted).

Edited February 12, 2016 by musky

[stuartbert two hats]

I posted this on the other coaches thread a couple of weeks ago, but it's worth repeating:

 

Just had a really odd experience on the National Express website. I entered my details for the Glastonbury package, but when I clicked for  earlier and later coaches, the prices went up.

Going back to the start and entering different times gave me the lower prices, but they went up again if I clicked the earlier or later buttons. This appears to be the same prices as if you'd entered Glastonbury Festival as a destination on the home page, rather than going from the event page: http://www.nationalexpress.com/events/glastonbury-festival.aspx

Edited February 12, 2016 by stuartbert two hats
Bad English

[musky]

7 minutes ago, stuartbert two hats said:

I posted this on the other coaches thread a couple of weeks ago, but it's worth repeating:

 

Just had a really odd experience on the National Express website. I entered my details for the Glastonbury package so the prices but when I clicked for  earlier and later coaches, the prices have gone up.

Going back to the start and entering different times gave me the lower prices, but they went up again if I clicked the earlier or later buttons. This appears to be the same prices as if you'd entered Glastonbury Festival as a destination on the home page, rather than going from the event page: http://www.nationalexpress.com/events/glastonbury-festival.aspx

That's odd Stuart. I just tried the same and found the home page already had the details of the journey entered (I went there direct from the event booking page). So I opened a private window, started from the home page again and... the prices were exactly the same. Maybe it was just a glitch?

[somecoolusername]

41 minutes ago, musky said:

I don't know tbh, I was just going off Angelin's post.

Looking at the last thread about the coach prices, a 10% increase does look to be roughly in line with Incident's post.

I wonder if NE adopt the policy of some other sites - if they're getting a lot of enquiries about a particular route the price rises?

 

Edit: Just checked myself. They've got different prices for different times - at the more popular times they're charging more (£66 for a return journey plus a £1 booking fee). Those were the times I used last year, so a bit less than 10% increase (I didn't include the booking fee in the price I quoted).

yeah I mean it's not cheap either way, but if you're looking to cut costs then booking outside of peak times and using the group discount will save you a bit. I think the cheapest you could get it is around £45 per person, which is still pricey but not terrible. As I said above, I've only ever gone with see coaches, and their departure point is much more convenient for me than the NE ones. So I'm still not 100% decided as to whether going with NE is worth it.

 

see coaches used to leave from Embankment by Charing Cross station, and while that wasn't ideal, it was much easier for me than Victoria or Wembley. When see moved to the O2 it was absolutely perfect for me, but I didn't get coach tickets this year so I'm left considering alternative travel options...

Edited February 12, 2016 by somecoolusername

[musky]

Personally I'm not too worried about the coach prices, but NE do seem to be trying to take advantage in a situation where people have limited alternatives.

I think the main benefit with NE is that you can choose your departure time on the return leg, but that's about it. At least with the see coaches you get an extra chance to get a ticket, which has got to outweigh any other considerations.

[stuartbert two hats]

29 minutes ago, musky said:

That's odd Stuart. I just tried the same and found the home page already had the details of the journey entered (I went there direct from the event booking page). So I opened a private window, started from the home page again and... the prices were exactly the same. Maybe it was just a glitch?

It was a couple of weeks ago. They might have fixed it now if it was unintentional, which it seemed to be.

[angelin]

I've noticed I can get 6% back with Quidco and 10% nhs discount. I'm wondering if there's a way to combine the 2?