Reserved seat on National Express

[Mike99]

Hi, For the first time, I've reserved a seat on a NX Service from Victoria Coach station, Is there a different boarding procedure for passengers with a reserved seat? What happens if someone else is sat in the reserved seat? Is it the poor old driver to resolve?

 

[JJM22]

Same boarding procedure, there will typically be a head rest cover showing the seat is reserved.
If there are any issues, then yes the driver should ask the other passenger to move seats.

 

[Mike99]

Same boarding procedure, there will typically be a head rest cover showing the seat is reserved.
If there are any issues, then yes the driver should ask the other passenger to move seats.

Thank you for the info

 

[j_walker1804]

It’s worth noting that from last week it’s now the first 8 rows that are reservable up from the first 5.

Seat number stickers and headrests are in the post so they may not be on yet.

Rumour has it the whole coach is reservable from January if this “trial” is a success.

 

[route101]

It’s worth noting that from last week it’s now the first 8 rows that are reservable up from the first 5.

Seat number stickers and headrests are in the post so they may not be on yet.

Rumour has it the whole coach is reservable from January if this “trial” is a success.

I prefer the set up with seat reservations at the front, you can board without worrying about seats that are reserved.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 May 2026 ==

Hi, For the first time, I've reserved a seat on a NX Service from Victoria Coach station, Is there a different boarding procedure for passengers with a reserved seat? What happens if someone else is sat in the reserved seat? Is it the poor old driver to resolve?

I would tell the driver if the person does not move. I find increasingly people are obvious to seat reservations on NX or Flixbus. You get people who ignore you if you ask.

 

[Eyersey468]

I prefer the set up with seat reservations at the front, you can board without worrying about seats that are reserved.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 19 May 2026 ==


I would tell the driver if the person does not move. I find increasingly people are obvious to seat reservations on NX or Flixbus. You get people who ignore you if you ask.

We get it all the time where people sit in seats that are reserved, I'm certain people think we put the reservation signs on to make it look pretty

 

[JonathanH]

I prefer the set up with seat reservations at the front, you can board without worrying about seats that are reserved.

It won't have escaped the notice of National Express that there is money to be made from moving to an allocated seat approach, in the manner that Flixbus hace demonstrated.

It would be interesting to know the proportion of Flixbus users who pay for reservations as opposed to being allocated a seat by the booking algorithm.

The Megabus approach (and indeed National Express's own experience) seemed to have indicated that more users went for 'general seating' than a reservation but once they whole coach is allocated perhaps that changes.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Rumour has it the whole coach is reservable from January if this “trial” is a success.

One assumes this would mean a move to allocated seating which would mean they wouldn't need to mark reservations as all passengers would be reserved? It does make a lot of sense to do that now they no longer routinely hire in lots of random coaches for capacity now PSVAR is mandatory.

Those boarding at intermediates would I expect be particularly appreciative of that because at the moment the chance of getting two seats together for a couple boarding at an intermediate is a bit low as everyone just takes a pair for themselves at the origin. With allocated seating and chargeable selection that would be much reduced as only those single travellers who were willing to pay extra would be able to do that.