Bus and coach passengers in the EU have rights set by Regulation (EU) No 181/2011. Most summaries of it are cheerful and slightly misleading, because they skip the threshold that decides whether the good parts apply to you. On a lot of Greek routes, they do not. We would rather you knew that before something goes wrong than after.
§1. Who owes you what
§2. The 250 km rule, and why it matters so much here
The Regulation splits into two tiers. The substantial protections — assistance, re-routing, reimbursement, the 50% compensation — apply only to regular services with a scheduled distance of 250 km or more. A shorter list of rights applies to all journeys regardless of distance.
Greece’s intercity network is mostly made of journeys well under that line.
| Journey | Roughly | Full protections? |
|---|---|---|
| Athens – Thessaloniki | ~500 km | Yes |
| Athens – Ioannina | ~450 km | Yes |
| Athens – Kalamata | ~240 km | Borderline — check the service |
| Athens – Kalambaka (Meteora) | ~350 km | Yes |
| Athens – Delphi | ~180 km | No |
| Athens – Nafplio | ~140 km | No |
On the routes marked no, a cancellation leaves you with the operator’s own conditions of carriage and general Greek consumer law — not with a statutory right to a hotel and 50% back. That is the honest position and it is why we say it here rather than in a footnote.
§3. On a long journey (250 km or more): cancellation and delay
If departure is cancelled or delayed more than 120 minutes
The carrier must offer you a choice between:
- Continuing or re-routing to your final destination under comparable conditions, at the earliest opportunity and at no extra cost; or
- Reimbursement of the ticket price, and where relevant a free return to your original departure point at the earliest opportunity.
If the carrier fails to offer you that choice, you are additionally entitled to compensation of 50% of the ticket price, on top of the reimbursement. Note the trigger: it is the failure to offer the choice, not the delay itself.
If departure is delayed more than 90 minutes on a journey scheduled over three hours
The carrier must provide, free of charge:
- Snacks, meals or refreshments in reasonable relation to the waiting time;
- Hotel accommodation, up to two nights, where an overnight stay becomes necessary, together with transport between the terminal and the hotel.
The accommodation duty does not apply where the cancellation or delay is caused by severe weather or a major natural disaster.
§4. On any journey, whatever the distance
These apply to all regular services:
- Non-discrimination in fares and conditions on grounds of nationality or place of establishment.
- Non-discriminatory access for passengers with disabilities or reduced mobility, and free assistance (see below).
- Information about the journey, and about your rights, before and during travel.
- A complaints procedure operated by the carrier.
- Compensation for death, injury, and lost or damaged luggage arising from an accident, under the applicable national law.
§5. Travelling with a disability or reduced mobility
- Carriers and terminal operators may not refuse a booking or refuse to carry you on grounds of disability, except where it is genuinely impossible to do so safely or the vehicle’s design makes it physically impossible.
- If carriage is refused, you must be offered the choice between reimbursement and, where feasible, alternative transport.
- Assistance at designated terminals and on board is free of charge, provided the carrier is notified at least 36 hours in advance and you arrive at the agreed point on time.
- An accompanying person travels free of charge where required to meet safety requirements.
- Lost or damaged mobility equipment must be compensated.
§6. How to actually claim
- Keep everything. Ticket, booking reference, photographs of the departure board, receipts for anything you had to buy. A claim without evidence is a conversation.
- Complain to the carrier first, in writing, within three months of the date the service ran or should have run. Miss that window and you may lose the claim on procedure alone.
- They must acknowledge within one month, telling you whether the complaint is upheld, rejected, or still under investigation, and give a final reply within three months of receiving it.
- If they do not, or you disagree, escalate to the designated national enforcement body for the country the service departed from. For services departing Greece that is the body designated by the Greek state under Article 28 of the Regulation; the European Commission publishes the current list of national enforcement bodies.
- Consumer routes remain open as well: the Greek Consumer Ombudsman, or the EU Online Dispute Resolution platform.
§7. What Ktelio does for you
We are not the carrier, so we cannot pay you the carrier’s compensation. What we do, automatically and without being asked:
- Refund what we hold. If the service is cancelled, you get the fare back as soon as it reaches us, plus our service fee in full. If we have not bought anything for you yet, nothing has been charged and there is nothing to refund.
- Tell you who to claim from, with the operator’s name and the correct contact route — which is often the hardest part of the whole exercise.
- Give you the paperwork. Your request, our reply, the ticket if there is one, and the times exactly as we quoted them. We hold all of it and we will send it.
- Write in Greek if that helps. A complaint in Greek to a regional cooperative goes further than one in English. We will do that for you.
- Pass on your accessibility notification inside the 36-hour window.
None of that is a legal obligation on us. It is what an agency worth its fee does.