How a Failed Bus Experience becomes a Rally Cry for Passengers

A single experience can shed light on major vulnerabilities in transportation experience. A bus trip we took from Atlantic City reveals the danger of breaking promises to customers, the importance of disruption management, clear communication, and reliable technology, and the fundamental human need for hospitality. Moreover, it should make us all a little nervous about how ready the New York New Jersey area is for the global tourists arriving for World Cup 2026 and all the other amazing experiences our region offers when we are capable of delivering on our promises.

It’s Just the Bus

We should not lower expectations because it is a bus. Inclusive transportation means transportation for all. That does not stop at meeting accessibility mandates. It starts with caring for all riders, across all forms of transportation throughout the infrastructure. That includes designing passenger experience for elderly riders, students, and travelers who cannot afford air or rail. Passenger experience on bus lines, both local and regional, is often excluded from conversations about elevating experience. Regardless of the facts:

1. All passengers, regardless of what they pay and what mode of transportation they utilize, deserve clean, safe, and accessible passenger-first experiences.
2. Infrastructure in places like Atlantic City, New Jersey, depends on ground transportation as a connector to MTA and New Jersey Transit, and in their emerging role in the entertainment and tourism ecosystem.

This spring, we had an appalling experience on a Flix North America Greyhound route from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York. I have been hesitant to share this story, choosing instead to reach out to the customer experience teams responsible for passenger experience on the bus line. After repeated attempts to contact, thoughtful suggestions for improvement, and an affirmation of my shared commitment to their very public claim of customer centricity, I share this story with today. This is a cautionary tale of bad customer experience. More importantly, it is an invitation for the larger transportation community to do better for those we serve by bus.

We could share this story solely through the passenger experience lens. Those of us who are customer experience consultants by trade are best at our job when we operate through that lens of the customer. When we know, design for, and action feedback that captures real customer sentiment. When we know what the experiences we invest in actually deliver for the people we make promises to.

I share this experience through two lenses. The actual human experience my colleague and I had. And the expert perspective we bring. Unlike the average passenger, we know precisely how these failures happen. More importantly, we know how to fix them. I understand what it costs to be responsive, polite, and responsible (in investment spent when it works well, and in brand loyalty lost when it breaks or worse, when the right systems are not built).

Current State Bus Experience Contradicts Customer Promise

The current state of the Greyhound passenger experience in New York is worlds away from the value of parent company Flix North America’s promised “commitment to innovation and a customer-first approach.”

Flix North America promises to “improve customer engagement through seamless technology integration,” a commitment echoed by CEO Kai Boysan, in an interview with Metis Strategy. In that interview, Boysan makes the responsibilities between Flix North America and Greyhound explicitly clear. Riders are to expect seamlessness, innovation, and “customer connection, powered by AI.” Going farther, Boysan promises “innovation with purpose.” This is exactly what a customer-first organization should promise.

Flix North America and their CEO claim AI-driven operations that “forecast demand and optimize efficiency.” They tout customer-facing technology that “enhance[s] satisfaction with real-time updates.” On an operational level, a CX programming level, and a market share level, these promises are ideal. On the level of real experience, they are not happening. They are so far from happening, that I wonder if anyone on the Flix North America team has taken a Greyhound bus to Atlantic City. Let alone how they would react to that experience.

There is a meaningful gap between the words we are hearing from executives in the media and what real passengers encounter on the ground.

Broken Link in Transportation Infrastructure Threatens Experience at Scale

For context, this is important both to passenger experience and to larger regional infrastructure commitments. The same area our bus trip covered includes the region of the upcoming infrastructure project at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and planning for World Cup 2026, which will pose additional challenges to the Greyhound passenger journey.

Many associations hold conferences in Atlantic City, in addition to all its entertainment offerings. Thinking expansively, NYC-AC for Greyhound could logically become what NYC-Washington, DC is for Amtrak. If the experience improves significantly.

In recounting this story to friends in the tourism and transportation community, with whom we often connect in Atlantic City, we learned many people take the Amtrak train to Philadelphia and connect there just to avoid having to take a Greyhound bus from NYC! If people are taking those measures to avoid the bus, the historical regional opportunity of World Cup 2026 in New Jersey will never materialize with the current quality of the bus experience in an area that depends on ground transportation.

A Study in How to Fail Bus Passengers

The story we share here is emotional and personal. And we share it because it demonstrates the real human cost of bad experiences and broken customer promises. And the compounding negative impact of communications failures that fail to explain, let alone redeem, those broken promises.

We have to start by giving credit where it is due. The Flix tech platform works for bookings. That promise is kept. However, the moment the customer enters the passenger journey, that innovation with purpose commitment does not materialize. The technology does not deliver as intended.

Time and again, in our articles and in our engagements with clients, we explain that customer experience is the expression of the brand promise and culture. We also demonstrate that people, processes, and technology build customer experiences that fulfill customer promises. Failures in all three of these categories emerged in our Atlantic City bus trip.

Technology

We begin with technology because it is integral to the Flix North America ethos and brand promise. The customer-facing self-service page “Locate your Bus” did not reflect sufficient information for passengers to make decisions about their trip. It showed the bus was on time when it was not. The technology failed again when we were sold tickets with assigned seats, but the fleet was old and did not have that feature. We bought something you could not sell.

Worse, let’s dive into the app experience as it unfolded in the moment.

Not AI, Not Innovation: The App Failure

We were waiting for the scheduled 7:55 a.m. bus. It was not at the pickup spot on time. When we checked our app to track the bus, the app showed two inaccurate pieces of information: 1) the bus is On Time; 2) the bus has LEFT our pickup spot and is moving towards its destination. Clearly, this was not true. There was no bus. It did not arrive; we were not on it; it did not depart. This is a technology failure. The app was communicating inaccurate information. Worse, there was no physical backup for that technology. No front-line team members were on the ground to answer questions or provide updates.

After the bus arrived (at 8:36 a.m.), the bus driver manually updated the app and began speeding to make up for the lost time.

How to Fix the CX Technology App Failure

The CX technology failure in this case is significant. It is more than the fact that the app displayed inaccurate information. What we witnessed revealed that the claim that the app allows users to track their bus is spurious. The app is not actually synced with operations; it seems to be broadcasting the published bus schedule.

For this app to be fully functional and to deliver on the AI innovation for customer experience promise, the app must become a single source of truth for passengers. To do that, it must report real information, in real time. Not self-reported information after the fact.

Breaking the Reserved Seat Promise Prioritizes Profit over Customer Care

When my colleague and I attempted to sit in our reserved seats, we heard, “they said no assigned seats on this bus; sit wherever.” Here is where that customer experience consultant lens kicks in. As a passenger, yes, this is an inconvenience. Frankly, infuriating. However, as someone who has been working in transportation experience for nearly two decades, I know how unacceptable this is. And what it reveals about the enormous gap between the promised experience and actual experience.

Like airlines and trains, bus lines account for the price value of a reserved seat when they set the ticket price. This is a standard industry practice. Despite the fact that they did not have technology to support the reserved seat feature across their fleet, they offered it (and, because it is built into the price, charged for it), anyway.

Not only is this a technology issue, it is a customer experience failure (and an operational black eye) to roll out this revenue collection model to all reservations if not all vehicles in the fleet can participate in the program.

We cannot stress this enough. In the transportation world, reserved seating is a big deal. Do not offer what the passenger has purchased only here and there. If they bought it, give it to them. If you can’t, issue a refund.

How to Fix the Customer Experience Reserved Ticket Failure

There are a few solutions here, to resolve for the fleet and technology challenges. First, offer dynamic pricing and offer assigned seats where they are possible. Next, upgrade the fleet fully to keep customer promises and deliver on the product that is offered.

Simply put, only sell the Assigned Seat product feature when it exists.

Process

The call center did not have any real-time information about the bus and was unable to contact the bus driver. In addition to the CX risk (and broken customer promise), this poses a safety and security risk.

At 8:16 a.m., twenty minutes after scheduled departure time, I called the customer care number. This is when I learned, after finally getting through to a human agent, she has no access to the driver or to data from the bus.  She put me on hold, then came back to the line to say she “has no update.” I asked her if she was aware the app reported the bus had already arrived and left, whether she could confirm that the bus had not yet arrived. She could not.

Ultimately, her recommendation, vague as it was, was to call back later if the bus did not arrive. Let’s translate this to passenger experience. A company left their passengers entirely on their own with no information or support.

What good is a call center that has no visibility to the operation? In a technology-enabled world, let alone from an innovation company with an AI promise, this is unacceptable.

Further, none of the feedback channels have a closed loop. When we spoke with the bus driver’s manager at the end of our trip (more on the reason for that, below), he did not offer to remain in touch with us or provide further support. There was no path for him to do so. Even though my colleague was crying in front of him.

How to Fix the Customer Experience Failure

This is a fundamental customer experience failure. To remedy it, Flix North America needs to stand up a project that creates a real-time connection to drivers from the contact centers. Action feedback in real-time when possible; establish processes to follow up on feedback in a timely, relevant manner, when it is not. Leveling it up, set up a new department that liaises with the operation in real time.

This comes down to more than living up to AI innovation promises. It positions the company to protect their passengers, and themselves, from real physical risk. What would happen if one of the buses had a safety or security issue? Is abandoning passengers and drivers really the solution? It can’t be.

People

One reason we often use the phrase human-centered is because we operate in the space of human experience. That includes passengers on the customer journey and employees who deliver experiences along that journey. That means human interaction matters. Humans require (and deserve) hospitality, and decency, whether they are paying for a transatlantic flight or a local bus trip.

Because this is about people – about our shared human promise – this is the hardest part of our story to share. The driver of our bus, clearly a longtime driver who felt untouchable in his position, did not acknowledge, let alone apologize for getting to our pickup spot 35 minutes late. Nor did he update the bus beacon to indicate our new expected arrival time.

When my turn came to board, the luggage compartment was full and the second side was nearly full. I grew concerned. My colleague, who was next in line, has severe back issues. Her bag was larger than mine. Although the second compartment had space for my small bag, her bigger bag would require significant effort to rearrange the storage space. I bent and saw that the opposite side of the bus was completely empty. So, I asked the driver to open the storage on the other side of the bus. He refused. Then, my colleague asked him for assistance. He responded, “what?” Since I was closer to him and assumed he had not heard, I asked him to help her. Again, he said, “what?”

At this point I felt (remember, understanding a customer’s emotional state is a core principle of customer-first hospitality) that he was acting in a passive aggressive manner and refusing to help us. I raised my voice, in case he simply could not hear me, repeating our request for help. He responded by shouting, cursing, and threatening. Without focusing on the very real, very emotional effect this had on us as humans (as passengers entrusting our safety to the same driver who was shouting at us when we needed help) let’s look at the passenger experience failure of this interaction.

A passenger with an accessibility need was refused assistance despite the policy that states that, upon request, a driver should assist with bags. The bus driver violated fundamental hospitality standards, let alone those that must be in place to carry through on “customer-first” promises made by Flix North America. Did we deserve this treatment because we were riding a Greyhound Bus from Atlantic City? Does the parent company assume bus riders will take what they can get and keep quiet? That they don’t deserve to be treated with human decency?

How to Fix the Hospitality Fail

Clearly, our bus driver is not trained in hospitality. The self-proclaimed “innovators” who say they are “fundamentally improving the experiences of millions of customers,” have a chance at following through on their promises only if they wake up to the humanity of human experience. Implement hospitality training programs to inform, educate, and empower employees. Build hospitality into hiring practices. And, importantly, develop incentives to enable bus drivers to be responsible and accountable for the passenger experience on board their buses.

Yes, there was a feedback collection mechanism on board. But if that feedback does not impact a driver’s performance and pay, he will not care about the feedback we shared.

What Happens Next?

For Flix North America and Greyhound, what happens next depends on whether their commitment to customer centricity and innovation is a bullet point for their media sit downs, or an actual commitment to the humans who ride their buses.

On a larger scale, what happens next is customer experience leaders, transportation stakeholders, infrastructure builders, municipal governments, and the communities that invest in places like Atlantic City commit to accountability from the people, processes, and technology that build the foundation for human experience. And start building a future that benefits – and is accessible to – all.