How Bus Ticket Prices Really Work, and When to Book for the Best Fare

People ask us two questions about prices more than any others. Why does the same coach cost a different amount on different days, and when should I book to pay the least? Both have straightforward answers once you know how a fare is actually put together.

The fare is the operator's

Every price you see on our site is set by the company running the coach. We do not add a margin on top of it and we do not decide what a seat from Tirana to Pristina should cost. What the operator sets is a base fare for each pair of stops on the route, sometimes with a different fare for children and for babies, and sometimes with a round trip fare that is cheaper than two singles when the same operator carries you both ways. That last point is worth knowing. A return only gets the discount when one company runs both legs. If you mix operators, each leg is simply its own single at its own price, and we say so on the results rather than letting you assume.

Why Tuesday is cheaper than Friday

Some operators go a step further and adjust their fares by how far ahead you are booking and how full the coach already is. A seat bought three weeks out on a quiet midweek departure might be a little cheaper than the base fare. The same seat bought the night before on a Friday coach that is nearly full might be a little more. The operator decides the rules and the limits, and the movement is bounded, so a fare never swings wildly. When a price has come down from what it was, we show you the old fare struck through next to the new one, so you can see the drop rather than take our word for it.

The practical upshot is simple. If your dates are fixed and the coach is popular, book early. If your dates are flexible, look at the strip of days above the results, where we show the cheapest fare on each of the surrounding days, and let the price choose the day for you.

What the price includes

The fare you see is the fare you pay, taxes included, for the passengers you have selected. Two things can sit on top of it, and both are optional and both are shown before you confirm. One is choosing a specific seat, on routes where the operator offers it, for a small fee. The other is Flexible Ticket, which lets you cancel or move the booking within the operator's window for a small percentage of the fare. Neither is ever added without you ticking it.

Paying

You pay by card, in the currency of the site, and the seat is held for you while you do it. A held seat is not a sold seat, so if the payment does not go through the hold eventually lapses and the seat goes back on sale. If that happens we will email you a reminder while the hold is still live, with a link straight back to your booking, because the most common reason a payment fails is a card that needs a second try rather than a change of heart.

And if you are the kind of traveller who likes to wait for a good deal, our mobile app can watch a route for you and let you know when a fare drops. It is the closest thing we have to booking at the perfect moment.