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Home > Travel > Holiday Essentials > Bus Companies > National express

User Reviews

for National express

Rating Summary based on 98 reviews

  • 5 Stars
    		17
  • 4 Stars
    		31
  • 3 Stars
    		20
  • 2 Stars
    		16
  • 1 Star
    		14

Detailed rating

  • Customer service
  • Frequency of bus / buses
  • Quality of Rooms
  • Reliability
  • Speed
  		• 3.3
  		• 3.5
  		• 2.8
  		• 3.5
  		• 2.8
Previous page Next page Page 1 of 10 | 1 to 10 out of 98 Review(s)
  • 0 of 2 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of Peteeer

    Level 1 Peteeer

    Member since 05/08/2012

    Reviews written: 1

    1 Star National Distress 05/08/2012

    Advantages Advantages None

    Disadvantages Disadvantages None

    National Express are vile both as a service provider and as a employer! I have worked both on the coach division and on the bus side. Coach division - Start Hill nr Stanstead, Sipson Road nr Heathrow and Crawley depots are all owned operations the rest are franchised to small local operators such as Veolia (now gone), Flights Hallmark who operate the 210 and 777 and Travel de Courcey who operate some London services out of Birmingham. On the whole National Express treat their staff like dirt and put shareholders before customers. They are arrogant in the extreme mainly due to holding the ... more
  • 6 of 6 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of Marcus1980

    Level 1 Marcus1980

    Member since 30/07/2012

    Reviews written: 1

    2 Stars It's like flying to get to Australia, but you're still in the UK! 31/07/2012
    User doesn't recommend the product

    Advantages Advantages Good value for money considering the long, long treks and waiting times between connections

    Disadvantages Disadvantages 2/10 you'll get a nice driver, the others are miserable and journey time is so incredibly long

    Firstly before I start, I know it's a new law in the United Kingdom to wear a seatbelt and is the passengers responsibility otherwise they'll be toying with a huge fine, but its a stupid law as no serious accidents have happened to justify this and it bluddy well hurts my shoulder after such a long journey. Also, why do the drivers keep reminding us?, it's US who will get the fine, so why the constant reminding?. My father works for the transport ministry and thinks the law is outrageous. On one coach from Southampton in July 2007, we had this little stubby man wearing a wooly hat, talking ... more
  • 7 of 8 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of MaMal2

    MaMal2

    1 Star Unreliable, unprofessional, almost missed my flight 28/02/2012
    User doesn't recommend the product

    Advantages Advantages None

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Highly unreliable and unprofessional

    I booked national express coach tickets for my journey from Bethnal Green to Stansted airport. There has been 10 people waiting for a coach for almost 2 hours and phoning up customer help centre. They kept saying that bus will be with us in 10,15, 20, 10mins for two hours (bare in mind that they charged us 10p per minute for those phone calls) and they kept promising that they will get back to us (leaving us ion hold and charging for that as well). As there was no coach we decided to take the tube to Liverpool street and a train from there (which was really expensive as we did not get chance ... more
  • 0 of 3 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of david4321

    david4321

    1 Star Cannot change the bookings to lower fare. 07/12/2011

    Advantages Advantages Nothing but sometimes cheaper than Megabus

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Very poor customer service, Cannot change the bookings to lower fare.

    Very POOR customer service! CANNOT change the bookings to lower fare and it automatically charge 5 pound per person. I just found out the lower fare on same destination in National Express website after I made the original booking. I rung customer service and they refused to change it to lower fare and suggest it as cancellation which charges more. Nothing is written about those condition in their terms and condition. After those conversation, I referred to their Terms and Condition and FAQ page, but NOTHING was written about the fact they don't make a refund in case of amendment to lower fare ... more
  • 28 of 28 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of Emma1973

    Level 6 Emma1973

    Member since 16/09/2001

    Reviews written: 244

    4 Stars All Aboard The Riot City Express! 26/09/2011
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Comfortable buses, frequency of buses

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Bad website, lack of information.

    In my continued quest for cheaper travel between Manchester and Bristol I came to my last option, National Express. Why not my first option? Well, its always been the train firstly, mainly for snob value I guess. Then it was a toss up between Megabus and National Express. I've always always this notion of National Express being cramped dirty coaches with rank toilets. A few weeks ago I took the Megabus, it was an excellent price of £8 but comfort was not on their priority list. The prices to take my son back to Bristol was also getting expensive at £34.00 for myself. So I looked at National ... more
  • 22 of 22 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of headofwords

    headofwords

    3 Stars National Express Bus Company 10/04/2011
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Lots of destinations, cheaper than the train

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Random fare prices

    I've been to a fair few countries and travelled on a number of different bus services. It's safe to say that National Express is far from the worst bus company I've ever used (that would go to one in Vietnam) but as the UK's premier bus company really NE should be striving to meet higher standards. The Buses - Good points They look great on the outside. They have toilets, but it's potluck whether they'll work properly or not. On my recent trip back England I used NE five times. I used the toilet on two of those trips - once there was water to wash your hands, once there was not. The ride is ... more
  • 1 of 7 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of maidentales55

    maidentales55

    3 Stars National Express bus service 06/01/2011
    User doesn't recommend the product

    Advantages Advantages Used to be good value for money

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Now more expensive compared to discounted train tickets

    I used to book with National Express a lot whilst travelling to and from Europe but just recently their prices have become uncompetitive and I am tending to look for alternative, discounted rail travel. Also, if you book a certain coach on line and have to make changes to the coach you get, they charge 5 pounds for making any change per booking. EG, my partner booked separately being over 60 and therefore got a discounted rate. I booked myself and my child in on another booking. Our flight was earlier (great news) than expected and the bus we wanted meant a 2 hour wait, when another was due ... more
  • 0 of 8 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of yannick73

    yannick73

    5 Stars Traveling to London with National express 20/09/2010
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages 2 for 1 offers, fast, comfortable

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Busy

    I recently travelled to London with national express. The service was very good with the coach picking us up on time from our local coach station. The journey took around 3 hours but the time flew buy in the comfortable seats with my headphones on. When we got into London we did all of the usual tourist stuff then took advantage of the 2 for 1 tickets that national express offer when you travel with them. We went to see the musical grease and with the 2 for 1 tickets we had a great time and saved a bunch as well. Overall national express did a very good job and made our whole experience of ... more
  • 0 of 5 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of Doddster83

    Doddster83

    1 Star National Express Disappoints 31/12/2009
    User doesn't recommend the product

    Advantages Advantages Price

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Rude Staff

    I'm writing this review on the journey I took from Brighton to Devon over the Christmas holidays. Initially I was impressed with value for money in comparison to its rivals (Trains) However, when the day came to travel I was shocked to find out how poorly organised and rude the staff were to its customers. I can understand how the bad weather can affect travel times etc, but the way National Express handled it was nothing short of awful. Firstly, the bus was half an hour late, then the driver needed 45 minutes as a break which is fair enough through legal reasons. That meant 1 hour 15 mins ... more
  • 2 of 3 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of denzel09uk

    denzel09uk

    2 Stars Telephone ordering for Tickets 26/10/2009
    User doesn't recommend the product

    Advantages Advantages I got my money back

    Disadvantages Disadvantages The fact that I had to spend that extra money because of their rubbish phone system

    National Express get it wrong At the beginning of July I called National Express to order 2 return tickets from Cambridge to Edinburgh for the end of August. These cost me £54 each They said we will have them at the station and you can pick them up before you travel. I said thats ok. The day of the travel came and i gave the ticket office the code/reference national express gave me over the phone. They didnt have my tickets available either under the reference number or my name or even my address. I was fuming so the only option i had to do is buy 2 extra tickets at double the price £108 each ... more
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