A guide to booking your first trip

Certain programs offered by Zeelo enable you to reserve your seat in advance. However, the Zeelo platform also provides flexible options that do not require prior booking. If you are uncertain about which option has been selected by your employer or school, please check your booking page for clarification.

1. Head to the booking page 

Your employer or school can make your program publicly accessible to anyone via our search, or to make the program private (by using a pass code, or making the page only accessible to those with a link, or those invited via email). Refer to the communications sent by your school or Zeelo. For more details about the different access options, click here.

2. Select your stop location and destination

If you are on the app, click book now to be taken to the stop options.

If you are on your web browser, you will be able to choose the stops in the right-hand panel.

3. Where to check the timetable & Schedule before getting a pass?

For program that requires booking a seat in advance (Most common for Education, referred to as a "Booked" program): You can access the timetable on the Program page, we usually include a link: "You can view the full timetable here". Clicking on this will open up a live timetable in your browser, which you can refresh and refer to as needed. Find your route in the list and expand the card to view the full timetable.

For program that requires getting a pass, but you don't need to book seats in advance (Usually shorter train station or car park shuttles, referred to as a "Scan to board" program). Select the "See stops & timetable" button on the Program page.  A timetable screen will appear. Click on "Pick-up stop" to choose a stop from the map or the list, then repeat this action for the drop-off stop. The list of scheduled trips will be displayed for your selected route.

For a detailed article on timetable & schedules, read this article.

4. Select a passenger type and how many people are travelling

You may have to select a passenger type (e.g the team you work in or the year a student is attending) and define how many passengers you wish to buy a pass for (For some schools, you can only buy for 1 student at a time, in this case, you will repeat the process for each child).

5. Choose your pass

Once you have select all of the above, there may be a few different passes available to choose from. If you need more information to evaluate the options, click here.

6. Create an account or log in

You can create an account with Zeelo using one of the following methods:

• Your email address & password
• Google Login
• Facebook Login
• Apple ID
• Your organisation's SSO (you will be redirected after entering your email address)

7. Specify who is travelling (only for Schools)

This is to let the driver and Zeelo know who will be boarding the bus. You can select yourself (if you're a rider - e.g a college student managing their own bookings) or any other rider you have linked to your account. If you can't see the rider yet, you can add a new rider. If you can't see the option to add a rider in the drop-down, it might be because your school admin is managing this list on your behalf.

8. Pay for the pass (unless it's free)

Pay by card, Apple Pay (on iPhone) or Direct Debit (only available on selected School Travel Passes in the U.K)

9. Do i need to book a seat after getting a Travel Pass or Ride bundle?

It depends on the type of pass you have just purchased.

School Travel Pass with automated bookings turned on: You don't need to book trips manually since the system will auto-book you or your child as soon as trips get scheduled. Please check that our system has correctly booked you or your child. Please allow a few minutes for our system to complete the Auto-booking process before all bookings appear on the page. The pass will be listed on the rider app's homepage or in "My rides" on the web app. Select the pass to open a list of days and review the trips you've been booked on. 

If you have a Travel pass or Ride bundle: These passes will be listed on the rider app homepage or in "My rides" on the web-app. Select the pass to open a list of available days to book seats. Unless the Travel Pass has "automated booking" turned on (usually only for Schools), you will now need to select what dates and times you want to be booked onto. To do this:

1. Tap "Book" on the days of your choice (If you can't see any dates yet, or some days seem to be missing, read this)
2. A screen will open showing an option to book onto the Outbound and Inbound (unless you're using a one-way travel pass, in this case, you will only see a single leg).
3. If the selected trip is already full, you will see an alert. If this happens, try selecting another time or try again later (in case someone else cancels their booking).
4. When you click continue, this booking will be confirmed, and a screen will open to allow you to "repeat" this booking on other days of the week. This is effectively a "copy/paste" tool to speed up booking at a similar time during the week. If any trips are already sold out, you will see a message under that date.
5. When you submit, you will be booked on to all selected dates (if you're using a Ride bundle, you will get charged the corresponding amount of credits based on the number of individual trips selected).
6. Review your bookings to check that everything is accurate.

If you have booked a Single or Return ticket, you're done, the bookings will be listed on the rider app homepage or in "My rides" on the web-app.

10. Changing or Cancelling your rides

If you change your mind, you can log in to your account at any time to change or cancel an upcoming booking. Click "Change" on the trip you want to change and follow the prompts. Your organisation sets the program's booking & cancellation cut-off time, so please make sure you make any changes ahead of time! Read this article

11. Setting up "Followers"

Any Travel Pass or Ride bundle holders have the ability to set up to 3 "Followers", who will receive email updates about the rider's trip. This is useful for additional parents or guardians who want to access their child's tracking and get confirmation that they have successfully boarded and arrived at their destination.