National Express Coaches - Fares

Fares

A number of discount fare brands are available at a cost, including:

Coachcards

National Express currently offers a range of four coachcards to customers which allows discounts on National Express tickets. These are:

• 16-26 Coachcard - Available to young people aged under 26 and to full-time students of any age. This discount card allows up to 30% off the standard fare
• Family Coachcard - Available in a '1+1' or '2+2' format, this enables one child (3-15) to travel for free with one paying adult (or 2 children with 2 adults).
• Senior Coachcard - Following the Governments scrapping of the Concessionary half price fares for the over 60's in October 2011, National Express introduced a Senior Coachcard which enables the holder 30% off the standard fare. Initially, these were not valid on services to/from airports, however following complaints from passengers, this restriction was removed in March 2012.
• Disabled Coachcard - Following the Governments scrapping of the Concessionary half price fares for the disabled people in October 2011, National Express introduced a Disabled Coachcard which enables the holder 30% off the standard fare. Initially, these were not valid on services to/from airports, however following complaints from passengers, this restriction was removed in March 2012.

Brit Xplorer

This is a card valid for a set period of time (up to 4 weeks) which allows non-UK residents (a passport of another country is needed to purchase this) travel as a standby passenger on all National Express services, the holder can opt to pay a small fee in order to reserve a seat on a specific service.

Funfares

Launched as a result of severe competition from easyBus and Megabus, funfares are cheap single fares, purchased only on the internet as an 'e-ticket', similar to low-fare airlines, thus reducing overheads. Further restrictions are put on these tickets - such as the inability to change the time on the ticket, or to travel on a different coach. Funfares were launched on Shuttle services but have since been rolled out across the network. A percentage of seats on off-peak services can be booked in this way. For a long while Funfares were priced from a highly competitive £1 a ticket, which undercut Megabus when taking into account booking charges. Subsequently though the price of Funfares increased to a less attractive minimum of £5 a single ticket with an additional booking charge which means that they are often undercut by rival bus and on occasions train operators.

Multirides

For frequent travellers, packs of ten separate journeys can be bought for a saving of ten percent on regular fares on a limited number of services. Tickets are valid for up to six months and can be used in either direction of travel. These are only sold on a limited number of services.