the flixbus ordeal

for about a week this is what i booked. it's what was available at the time and what i ordered. at this point i feel good about my trip.

this is the start of my ordeal. i get this and i get so mad. my first reading suggests that they have pushed my return from las vegas by 14 hours. i immediately contact customer service for assurance and clarification. of course as i stare at this email over the next few hours i realize the month and day had been reversed. i think they're a european company and they do that there, but this MAJOR pain point happens over and over and over. every time they send me anything i have to carefully scan the date and adjust in my head the meaning of whatever arbitrary changes they're putting on me this time.

my second ticket. this isn't so bad. they pushed my return trip by a few hours. i can still work with this. at this point things are kind of messed up the day/month thing and my first new ticket leaves me feeling uncertain about relying on this first new ticket.

i have the customer service interaction still pending. a few days later i receive their response and i'm reassured. this is exactly what i needed from them. i'm feeling good about my trip again. this is the last time i feel good about this trip.

 

the day of my trip i get my last new tickets. i also get an email asking to book an alternative departure. it's incredibly passive aggressive how they want me to book a new departure and then immediately force a new departure time on me. at this point i'm committed. i've been flexible on flixbus and certainly there can't be anything else they can throw at me.

not less than an hour later they uncancel my previously scheduled departure.

 

i immediately message flixbus for clarification. i just need to know if the message is accurate. i need to be reassured that if i show up for a uncanceled bus i won't be stuck waiting three hours for the bus i'm scheduled for. i attach a bunch of pdfs that illustrate just how confusing this situation has become for me. there's one with the booking page that they asked me to look at. all my options cost me extra and the uncanceled bus isn't available; i suspect i'm being upsold. i include the random uncanceled message. i throw in a copy of my last new ticket.

and then i wait. the day passes slowly in silence and i don't hear anything from flixbus. i head out to catch the departing bus from my last ticket. i stop at my local bar for a few rounds; hopefully they'll help me get some rest on the six hour bus ride. i'm on the patio smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer. i'm on my tablet updating my gmail and my hotmail accounts. i'm looking for some response from flixbus. they never do.

i get down to union station and to the flixbus lot. the bus is early and so i board. the ride isn't great. there's no wifi, but even if there was wifi the connection is garbage dial-up speeds. i'm glad i packed my tablet with some videos to watch and books to read. we arrive in vegas about half an hour earlier than flixbus promised. in fact i arrive at the right wrong station. i was never given an opportunity to book a bus that arrived at the new flixbus vegas strip location. i had thought i would need to take an hour long bus ride to get to the strip. but here i am on the strip instead. it's blocks away to my waiting family, so i walk it. 

i spend the day in vegas but in the back of my mind i'm fretting about my return trip. whenever i have a free moment i check my email for some new dictate from flixbus. my time in vegas ends and i never hear from flixbus. i head to the south strip transfer station to catch my bus back to los angeles. about twenty minutes before my bus is scheduled to arrive, flixbus finally reaches out to me to tell me that my bus has been delayed.

the email appears reasonable; delayed might just mean an extra twenty minutes. there's a link to click for updates and i am absolutely floored. they pushed my bus by five hours. i'm stuck at the south strip transfer station for five hours. i'm lamenting my life choices. i consider heading off back to the strip. five hours gives me three hours on the strip, but i'm not tempted. i'm exhausted. i just want to go home. i curl up on a stone bench my rolled up jacket as a pillow. i set my clock to wake me in five hours and try to sleep. then it hits me that i'm at a transit station and there's a live person who can help me. i walk up to them with the delay on my phone and the guy saves my sanity. he tells me to ignore it. apparently flixbus is just trolling me. the bus is in fact scheduled to arrive in ten minutes. the sweet relief i feel as i watch the bus pull up is delicious. the ride back is uneventful and soon enough i'm home.

the next day flixbus finally responds to my frantic pleas for help by denying me a refund that i didn't ask for. the a.i. must be on the fritz again. i do the survey but it can't begin to serve as an expression of my frustration at flixbus. so this is that expression.