My experience of this is that in 9 out of 10 times they would not let me take an earlier or later coach without paying the extortionate change fee. The excuse given was that there may be not enough seats at the next stop ... ummmm im getting off at the next stop though... they still wont have it though even if the bus is empty.

IMO its wholly unreasonable to expect passengers arriving at airports to accurately guess which time bus they should book themselves on. Changes should be allowed at the NE desk for free given how much the ticket costs already!

I have now stopped using NE coaches back from the airport as the train is cheaper and i dont have to pay for changes. Ive repeatedly filled this in on NE surveys but they dont seem to care.