Florence to Bologna to Florence
This summer we spent six weeks in Florence. Whenever we base in Florence or anywhere else, we check out what’s going on in the area. If there’s a great concert an hour away, we don’t want to miss it.
The Lucca Summer Festival is always a priority. They typically get great acts, the stage is in the middle of town, it’s an easy train ride from Florence, it’s easy to get a nearby hotel for a night, and Lucca is charming. This summer however there was no one that we wanted to see that worked for our dates. But seeing that Zucchero was performing later this summer led me to see where else he was performing, which led to us buying tickets for his show in Bologna. Bologna is just half an hour from Florence by high-speed train and it’s a great city to spend a night or two.
After getting concert tickets and booking a hotel, I went to get train tickets and…there was a problem. Actually, there were a couple of problems. First, there’s serious track maintenance going on south of Florence this summer, including a bridge replacement. Because high-speed trains can’t get through Florence, they’re only able to travel from Milan to the main Florence train station (SMN), or from a different Florence station to Rome and Naples. Trenitalia and Italo opted to simply cancel most trains.
I managed to find one high-speed train from Florence to Bologna and grabbed tickets. Coming back, however, there were no good train options, and there was an Italy-wide train strike announced for that day as well. Great.
Backup Plan: FlixBus
I’ve always known that FlixBus was an option around Italy and around Europe, so this was a good chance to try them out. I purchased two one-way tickets from Bologna to Florence for $26.97. That was higher than a regional train would have been, but cheaper than the high-speed train. I didn’t pay extra for seats together, but the bus is only so big. However, then our plans changed and we needed to be back in Florence earlier. That’s when I discovered that the FlixBus pricing model is similar to a low-cost airline – sell cheap tickets and then have fees for everything else. In order to move our tickets up a few hours, I paid a $23.78 change fee. Then we needed to be back even earlier, so I once again paid a change fee to move them, this time $28.38. That took our original $26.97 tickets to $79.13, but we would be getting into Florence when we needed to.
When Things Started Going Wrong
In Bologna we walked to the bus station, conveniently located next to the train station. We arrived at 8:30am for our 8:50 bus. It was right then (8:31) that I received a text stating that our bus was running 111 minutes late. That would no longer work for us. I therefore opened the FlixBus app, hoping that there would be an option to switch to an earlier departure for free. Nope. Not only was there no free option, there was no longer any option at all to modify our departure time, despite other FlixBus buses having open seats.
We went inside to the FlixBus ticketing window and the very brusk ticket agent said that he was unable to help us. Our only option seemed to be to purchase new tickets for the earliest possible bus (9:30am), which I did. I was hoping that after all this I could get a refund from FlixBus. At that point we had purchased tickets for four buses that day (originally 3:30pm, then 10am, then 8:50am, and now 9:30am).
FlixBus Bologna to Florence: The Actual Trip
After spending almost an hour at the bus station, we boarded the 9:30bus to Florence, my wife in seat 3C and me in 20C. The person in front of 3C was fully reclined and asleep, so she had virtually no room to sit comfortably and read. Additionally, after sitting there for a few minutes, she realized that she was soaking wet. Someone had spilled something on her seat and neglected to clean it up. She was wet the entire journey as well as back in Florence for a while. Not fun. I had more room in the back and was comfortable.
Our bus trip included what was supposed to be a 10-minute break at a rest stop only a few minutes after leaving Bologna. Annoying for us, but there were people who had been on the bus far longer and who needed the break. But then the break stretched to 20 minutes because four passengers came back late. Ugh. So yeah, between the reclining passenger, the spilled liquid and the people who didn’t care about keeping the bus on time, it became apparent how much better train travel is. If you’re not on your train on time, it leaves without you.
FlixBus in Florence
Another reason trains are better: in Florence the train takes you to the center of town, but the FlixBus stop is at Villa Costanza, on the outskirts of Florence. From there you get on the T1 Tram line (tickets are currently €1.70, going up to €2.00 on August 1) and it’s 25 minutes to the train station.
FlixBus “Customer Service”
When we got back to Florence, I sent an email to FlixBus Customer Service. I simply requested a refund for the final tickets that we purchased, and I asked why there was no option to switch to another bus when our bus was delayed 111 minutes. It took nine days to hear back. In their response, FlixBus stated that because our bus was only 111 minutes late and not 120 minutes late, we were not due any refund, but they were going to refund $4.97 in processing fees and thanked us for understanding. They did not respond to my question about why there was no option to simply switch to an earlier bus.
FlixBus Review: A Summary
FlixBus charged me twice to switch to an earlier time, they didn’t honor that earlier time, and then they charged me again to stay with a schedule even close to the time that I had purchased. I would think any sort of reasonable company, or customer service rep, would see that wasn’t right and refund the final tickets purchased. Nope. Even more than FlixBus’ inability to keep to its scheduled times and the rudeness of our fellow passengers, it’s the lack of customer service that would keep me from traveling by FlixBus again. After posting about our trip to Instagram, I received DMs from others whose FlixBus journeys also had issues, some far more serious than our delay, and no one had received any resolution from FlixBus.
You may have a better experience. FlixBus could be a good option for you if cost is a major consideration, if you’re in no hurry to get to your destination, and if your plans are flexible. But don’t expect any sort of customer service if things go wrong.
