megabus (US): refund request
Tickets are non-refundable; refunds apply only when the operating carrier materially fails to provide the service.
What does this mean?
Grade A (high: almost everything comes from official pages read directly). 100% of 11 sources are the organization's own pages or government sites.
Collect
- reservation number
- scheduled and actual departure times
- cause given
- receipts
Steps
If you need a different trip, trade in the reservation online more than 3 hours before departure and pay the trade-in fee.
If the trip was cancelled or badly late for reasons within megabus's control, ask for a refund or alternative travel by email or chat.
Emailmegabus questions email (answered first by the virtual assistant "Chuck", who can connect a representative) questions@us.megabus.comIf refused, send a written request that cites Section 2E of the terms, then dispute the charge with your card issuer.
More contacts for this issue
Facts you can cite
- Policy
Reservations may not be refunded or cancelled except where a megabus operating carrier has materially failed to provide the service (Section 2E); carriers are not responsible for delays or cancellations caused by traffic, road conditions or weather.
Source: us.megabus.com, verified 2026-10-12
- Fee
Changes must be made at least 3 hours before departure. Trade-in fees: $3.00 more than 24 hours before departure, $5.00 at 6 to 24 hours, $7.50 at 3 to 6 hours, plus a $3.99 reservation fee ($7 by telephone).
Source: us.megabus.com, verified 2026-10-12
- Policy
Either party may elect individual AAA arbitration in the customer's county; class arbitration is excluded, megabus pays the arbitration fees for claims up to $75,000 unless frivolous, and small claims court remains available.
Source: us.megabus.com, verified 2026-10-12
If that fails, escalate
Go up one step at a time. Keep the reference numbers and dates from each contact.
Customer service
Written complaint
Emailmegabus questions email (answered first by the virtual assistant "Chuck", who can connect a representative) questions@us.megabus.comFederal regulator
Interstate bus carrier.
Card or bank dispute
Fair Credit Billing Act billing-error and purchase-dispute rights (Regulation Z)
Electronic Fund Transfer Act error resolution and unauthorized-transfer liability (Regulation E)
State agency
Your state’s attorney general. Find it in the list of state agencies (also as JSON:
states/<code>.json, for example states/ny.json).Arbitration
Either party may elect individual AAA arbitration; small claims court remains available.
Watch out
- megabus publishes no general customer service phone number; first contact is a virtual assistant by email or chat.
Let your AI agent handle this
Escalate Anything is a free, open-source MCP server for Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini CLI, Codex and other AI apps. Your agent gets this playbook, keeps a case log with reference numbers and follow-up dates, and drafts each message for you to approve.
1. Set it up (needs uv):
uvx escalate-anything setup2. Ask your agent:
megabus (US) owes me a refund of [amount] for [order or service]. Use Escalate Anything to get it.Source code, other install options and the Claude Code plugin