National Express - has anyone ever seen coach prices go down? PLUS cancellation rights... 5 February 2020 at 11:59AM in Public transport & cycling 6 replies 350 views

Tunstallstoven

Hi all

Last year I bought tickets with National Express from Swansea to Heathrow (return) for travel in August. They were really cheap, around £22 for both fares.

I need to do the same this year. The prices however are around £100! I've been in touch with NE to discuss and they say the price will only go up. Apparently they release their tickets in tiers, with each batch getting more expensive. So the earlier you buy the cheaper it will be. And once the tickets at said price are gone, the fare only ever goes up.

Bad news if so... I was hoping to wait it out and pounce when the fares dropped. But now I'm not sure whether this is NE tactics to get people to buy, or whether it is truth. So I wondered if anyone has experience of fare prices dropping?

Many thanks

Ngozi

I did a search for random dates in April and hat was around £40 return and roughly the same for dates in Feb.
So what they're saying is not true, I would have a guess that the closer you get to a date the price will come down as they'll have empty seats on a coach to fill.

TELLIT01

Ngozi wrote: »

I did a search for random dates in April and hat was around £40 return and roughly the same for dates in Feb.
So what they're saying is not true, I would have a guess that the closer you get to a date the price will come down as they'll have empty seats on a coach to fill.

The price may come down if they have empty seats. There is no guarantee that either element will be true.

Also a spec check for prices in April doesn't necessarily have any bearing on prices in August. April is low season, August is peak season.

jackieblack

In my experience (always travelling in August), prices have only ever gone up as you get closer to the date of travel

secretmachines

I can't say I've ever seen prices go down - I've only ever booked NE for airport runs though, which aren't always the cheapest. And airport runs never seem to be included in sales. 
So as with all these travel-related things - I think if you see a price you're happy with, just book it.

heatherw_01

Moving to the public transport board.

Wanderingpomm

You could drive instead? Europcar one way deals are usually avaliable from Swansea. You still have to get back but l find them to be a good option 
https://www.europcar.co.uk/deals/one-way-uk.step