Flight change times and national express

Marvel1

Hi,

Just want to check first.

Flight booked and travel by national express booked to match times of flight departure and arrival - done months ago.

Just had an email, flight change, both times are now later - departure is now 5 hours later and arrival is 2 hours later. 

Flight is October.

This affects national express, if I were to change the times, they charge £5 for amendment plus any additional costs of the travel cost for that time. 

Just want to where I stand as costing me a bit more.

TELLIT01

Unless the flight and travel by national express were booked as a package, I think you will just have to accept the additional costs.  The airline won't pay your additional coach costs and national express won't make allowance for changed flight times.  It may be worth checking with your travel insurance but I would expect any excess to wipe out anything they might consider paying.

Zinger549

You paid National Express for a coach to the airport. It's not the coach companies fault that your flight time has changed.

prettyandfluffy

Instead of paying to change the coach time, why don't you stick to the original booking and get to the airport nice and early? Check in, get free of any luggage and have a nice leisurely meal or even put the £5 towards admission to one of the executive lounges?

Marvel1

prettyandfluffy said:

Instead of paying to change the coach time, why don't you stick to the original booking and get to the airport nice and early? Check in, get free of any luggage and have a nice leisurely meal or even put the £5 towards admission to one of the executive lounges?

Getting early I can do, coming back will miss the bus.

Marvel1

Zinger549 said:

You paid National Express for a coach to the airport. It's not the coach companies fault that your flight time has changed.

Never said it was.

Marvel1

TELLIT01 said:

Unless the flight and travel by national express were booked as a package, I think you will just have to accept the additional costs.  The airline won't pay your additional coach costs and national express won't make allowance for changed flight times.  It may be worth checking with your travel insurance but I would expect any excess to wipe out anything they might consider paying.

Thought that would be the case.

tightauldgit

Nothing can be claimed as airline aren't responsible for consequential losses.

If you really want to scrimp on the changes then you can risk it with National Express - the driver MAY allow you to board with a ticket for another bus on the same route. By no means a guarantee and I wouldn't risk not making my flight because of it but you could maybe try on the way back just seeing if you can board the next available bus and telling the driver your flight was delayed. 

Of course the downside risk is you potentially have to buy an entirely new ticket if they say no you cant board. 

Personally I'd just pay the fees to change your bus tickets and accept it as part of the costs of travelling that sometimes things like this happen.

Marvel1

Update: Getting there 7 hours early was doable, however getting back is not - bus leaves 17:30 my new arrival time is 16:10 - too much of a risk.

Based on my ticket, I bought the restriced type, so need to buy a new ticket altogether - bright side total cost of paying new tickets and what I paid already is a lot cheaper than a train or car.

RefluentBeans

You could potentially ask National Express if there’s anything they can do as a gesture of Goodwill - they may just say no but it’s always worth asking - nothing to lose! 

CardinalWolsey

Marvel1 said:

Update: Getting there 7 hours early was doable, however getting back is not - bus leaves 17:30 my new arrival time is 16:10 - too much of a risk.

Who are you flying with and which airport are you arriving at? If it's a carrier/route that typically lands on time, it's usually less than 30 minutes from wheels down to being landside (hand luggage only). My fastest is 18 minutes at LGW and 22 minutes at LHR-T5 (C gates) - wheels down to climbing into taxi.