Budget Travel: Hop on a bus

by Jamie Rhein on

Depending upon the time frame you have to go from one point to the next, bus travel is a worthy option when looking for a bargain. Last summer, I opted for Greyhound as a way to get back from New York City to Columbus with my son. It was a perfect trip with few kinks. At the time, the bus fare was much cheaper than a flight, and I didn’t want to drive myself.

A few years back, I made a similar trip (from Cleveland to New York City) with my daughter when she was five with equally favorable results. And, well before that, I traveled with a friend for three months across the United States, criss-crossing from Kentucky to California–mostly by bus.

Here is a look at bus options in addition to Greyhound as a way to save money. Plus, a bus gives you the opportunity to watch the scenery glide by and hear songs like Simon and Garfunkel’s “America” playing in your head. [The photo posted by bobster1985 is of the Greyhound bus terminal circa 1936.]

First up, Greyhound: With a network that stretches across the United States to 2,300 different destinations, Greyhound is more likely to get you closer to the places you might want to go. If you’re heading to a major city, golden. If you have a small town in mind or a national park, lots of luck.

When my friend and I were mapping out our trip, we nixed several places because getting there was impossible, or too inconvenient. We also found out that the further west we went, the later a bus departed–or the earlier it arrived. However, we spent a whole day Salt Lake City and Denver without staying overnight by arriving early in the morning and leaving after midnight. Granted, it’s not a picnic at a bus stop in the middle of the night, but it’s not awful.

Because a Greyhound bus tickets can be purchased the day of a trip at the station, you can build flexibility into a vacation. When we bought our tickets, we figured out the route we wanted to take and the stops we could make in order to maximize our tickets. One leg went between Lexington, Kentucky to Racine, Wisconsin with stops in Louisville and Chicago.

For bigger savings, Greyhound has several budget options. Book ahead and on-line for up to a 20% discount. Right now, you can purchase a ticket 14-days in advance and get anywhere in the U.S. for no more than $99 one-way if you’re traveling on Monday through Thursday. At other times, a 14-days in advance purchase can get you a 35 % discount, and 7-days in advance can save 20%.

Unlike air travel, children, senior citizens and students also get discounts. Children under 2 can travel for free. Children ages 2-11 can get a ticket for 40% an adult rate. Seniors can get a 5 % discount. If you’re a student, with a Student Advantage Discount Card, you can save 15%.

Find out if you can get a Family & Friends companion fare. It’s still listed on the Greyhound website. If you’re traveling with another person, one person pays full fare, and the other person pays 50%. For a parent traveling with two children, each child pays 50%.

About Trailways and Peter Pan: Trailways is included in the Greyhound network. In many cases, you may be on Trailways bus for part of the trip and then switch to Greyhound. Greyhound specializes in coast to coast travel, while Trailways service is focused within distinct regions. A Trailways issued ticket is good on a Greyhound bus.

Peter Pan bus line operates in New England and is one way to get to smaller cities and towns. I’ve taken Peter Pan to Wooster, MA. Booking on-line offers cheaper ticket options. Like Trailways, Peter Pan dovetails with Greyhound.

Megabus: When Josh wrote about Megabus last October, a couple of people left comments giving a thumbs up to their experience. Touted as having bus fares as low as $1, bus fares go up as seats sell. As of last May, the company had served 1,000,000 passengers. The company now offers service to seventeen Midwest cities, seven West Coast cities, eight East Coast cities, and into Canada, however buses have very specific routes, so the reach may not be as wide as you need. You can also hop on a Megabus in Great Britain.

The map on the website shows the bus routes, and a drop down menu lets you know which destinations are connected to each other. For example, from Columbus, I can only go to Chicago, Cincinnati or Indianapolis on one ticket. From Chicago I can head to Minneapolis. In order to get to Memphis or Kansas City, other destinations, I’d have to go to Chicago first. If the price is right, why not? Otherwise take Greyhound.

When booking a Megabus ticket, you can block out several return date options if you want flexibility. As a point to be aware of, you can only bring one checked bag that doesn’t exceed 50 pounds, and one small carry-on bag. Greyhound allows for more.

Unlike Greyhound that operates out of bus stations, Megabus has specific bus stops that may or may not be near a bus station, but stops are clearly marked. Although most of Megabus’s business is done on-line, you can make reservations by calling their telephone reservation line.

I’ve never ridden a Megabus, but from the the description, they remind me of the more deluxe buses that went between Hsinchu, Taiwan where I used to live and Taipei–roomier than Greyhound and quicker because there are less pick-up points in between.

BoltBus: Grant took a BoltBus from Washington, D.C. to New York City last March and was generally pleased. Similar to Megabus, BoltBus offers an inexpensive option for going between Boston, NYC, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Ticket prices start as low as $1. Like Megabus, Boltbus also offers Wi-Fi access and plug-ins. Grant, though said that the Wi-Fi wasn’t working for him.

To buy a ticket, go to www.boltbus.com to purchase on-line. For the best deal, it’s recommended that you purchase tickets a couple weeks in advance. You can buy a ticket buy showing up the day of departure, but you’ll pay more and may not get a seat.

If you do buy a BoltBus ticket, be sure of your travel date because tickets are non-refundable. (Megabus allows you to change for a fee) Like on Greyhound and Megabus, children under the age of two can travel for free with an adult.

Chinatown Bus: Last year I found out about the “Chinese Bus” that leaves Columbus for New York City, every night (I think). Since then, I’ve discovered a vast network of buses that connect various cities to Chinatown. If you choose this option, book early on-line to make sure you get a seat, but be prepared that you may have to wait for another bus since buses fill up.

Like Boltbus, you can only buy a ticket on-line. Unlike Megabus, you must have a printed out boarding pass in order to get on the bus. Also, like Boltbus, tickets are non-refundable. (For more answers to questions you might have, click here.)

Departure cities range from Mobile, Alabama to Syracuse, New York and Spartanburg, South Carolina. This company also offers vacation package tours. There’s a three-day tour from NYC to Toronto that takes in Niagara Falls and Thousand Islands, for example. Excluding meals and admission fees, the tour costs $190 per person for a double occupancy room. If you buy two, the third person goes for free.

For a look at what traveling on a Chinatown Bus may be like, click here. One detail to know beforehand is that before you hop on one of these buses, make sure you are getting on the right one. Several leave from the same stop. Now, that really does sound like Taiwan.

An advantage of this bus over Greyhound is that it makes less stops so you can arrive at your destination more quickly. However, like Greyhound, departure times are hit and miss. The schedule, in a way, is a suggestion of when a bus might leave. Still, don’t arrive late or you might be out of luck.

Within the Chinatown bus offerings, The Fung-Wah Bus only travels between New York and Boston. You can either buy a ticket on-line or at the ticket office at 138 Canal Street.

Another company with the same service is Lucky Star. Currently, there is a promotion where you can pay $1 for a one-way fare, but this is first come, first serve.

For other bus company options, check out RK Chin, a journey through Chinatown. There are a few more you may want to consider.

Budget Travel: Three steps to a cheaper car rental

by Grant Martin on

Three main components go into any vacation package: Hotel, Airplane and Vehicle bookings. Once you can get around and have a place to sleep, activities and food can just fall into place as the days roll in.

Here at Gadling we’re covering all of the niches of vacation bookings in our Budget series. Earlier in the week was plane tickets. Later, will be hotel bookings. Today’s focus? Getting a good deal on your car rental.

It’s not as difficult as you think. The same booking engines (Kayak, Expedia etc.) used to find your bargain basement airplane tickets can be used to find cars as well. But with car rentals, the strategy is a bit different. Most of the time, airfare prices that are quoted from a search engine are fares that you’re stuck with until the bitter end. With car rentals, that’s the point from which you start.

From that marker, you optimize you booking in three ways:

  1. Join the club
  2. Get a coupon
  3. Be Flexible!

We’ll start with Joining the Club.
Like most hotel, airline and credit card brands, car rental companies will do anything they can to hook you into their product. By making you believe that you’re loved, you’re more likely to stick around, identify with them and feel better about yourself. Happiness is money.

National‘s Emerald program, for example, means absolutely nothing. Anyone off the street can join, get the card and walk to the Emerald Aisle when booking, it just takes time to follow the right links, sign up for service and fill in the forms.

Being a member, however, affords discounts. Coupon codes for Emerald members float around the internet freely, and by being in the “club” you’re entitled to these rates.

The same applies for basic membership in many other rental agencies — sign up for basic service and you’ll immediately see the benefit. Furthermore, you get the added bonus of getting through the line at the counter faster (or often bypassing it) and earning points, so it’s a win-win situation.

Get a Coupon

The internet is RIFE with coupon codes for car rentals. If you want a good place to start, check the repository at flyertalk.com, where coupons should be filed under each specific agency.

As a word of waning, remember that different policies and insurance coverage come with each contract code or coupon. You might get a great deal by renting under the Missouri Alligator Hunters contract ID, for example, but after you get into that fender bender, you also might find out that all insurance is waived. Just make sure you read the fine print and know what you’re getting yourself into.

That said, many a coupon code that we have found online have resulted in huge (40-50% discounts) over the rack search engine rate. Never, ever book without a coupon.

Be Flexible

Being flexible in pickup time, location and vehicle has its benefits, but some days, your favorite car company just doesn’t offer the best price on your itinerary. It’s difficult breaking free from your preferred carrier when you’ve worked so hard to earn that “granite status” that gets you the free windshield wash fluid, but you have to remember: most car rental agencies are charging you way too much to begin with. If they can’t offer a competitive rate, you can’t let their perks sway you. Join the competitor’s rewards program, do the research and book the cheapest fare. Hey, you might like the vehicle that you get to drive.

**

The nice thing about vehicle rentals is that getting a good deal is less time dependent than in working with airplane tickets. There is almost a higher supply than demand for cars, so usually a near term rental isn’t much more expensive than a reservation that you make three months out. Airplane seats, conversely, often sell out.

So take your time. Book your airplane tickets first, hotel second and spend a while shopping around for car rentals. Get the perfect convergence of membership rewards and coupon codes lined up, and you just might drive away with a bargain.

Budget Travel – The Low Cost Carrier

by Scott Carmichael on

Summary: The low cost carrier (LCC) may seem like a new development in the aviation world, but the concept is anything but new. The first real low cost “no frills” airline was Laker Airways, which took off back in 1966 from the UK, and shuttled passengers to destinations all around the world for as little as $50.

Laker Airways provided the inspiration for many of the current low cost carriers, and even major airlines like Virgin Atlantic took a close look at Sir Freddie Laker’s business model to learn from his experiences and mistakes.

A low cost carrier is exactly what the name implies – low cost. In order to offer these low prices, the airline naturally makes some cuts. You won’t find anything “free” on the majority of these carriers. Everything from drinks to checked luggage will add to the price of your ticket, but in return you are able to book an insanely cheap fare.

Finding a low cost carrier: Several days ago, Jeffrey wrote about some basic ways you can find a low cost carrier. This information is very important, because almost all low cost carriers handle their own bookings, and do not participate in sites like Expedia or Travelocity. There are 100’s of low cost airlines out there, so if you can’t find what you are looking for, try entering your destination into Google, and a airline or other resource is bound to pop up.


When not to use a low cost carrier: As you navigate the low cost airline websites, you may notice a trend – many of them do not use the airport you expect them to.

For example; Ryanair flies from London to Brussels. Their destination is not to the “normal” airport of Zaventem, but “Brussels South Airport” in Charleroi. Zaventem airport is just 10 miles from the Brussels city center, Brussels South airport is about 50 miles with no direct rail link.

You’ll need to take this into consideration when you book a ticket, as the trip from Charleroi to Brussels takes about an hour by bus and will add about $30 (round trip) to your ticket.

The same goes for many other airport destinations serviced by a low cost carrier. Before you hit “purchase now”, always pull the airport up on a map, and check out the airport site to determine just how much of a hassle it will be to get to your final destination. Saving $50 on a ticket is meaningless if you have to spend another $50 just to get to your hotel.

The low carrier will not always warn you about these remote destinations, so make sure you do your homework. One more thing to keep in mind is that many of these airports are low cost themselves, so do not expect too many facilities.



Too good to be true? When you research a low cost carrier, and compare their prices with a normal carrier, you’d be forgiven if you wondered whether the whole thing is too good to be true.

If you come across a $3 fare on Ryanair, don’t be too suspicious, these carriers sell millions of tickets, and many of them do indeed start that low. In fact, some of these airlines are amongst the largest in the world, all thanks to those cheap tickets.

Of course, you do need to keep in mind that even tickets on a low cost carrier are subject to taxes and other surcharges, so your $5 ticket could easily become $60.

Competition = good: Don’t always depend on the low cost carrier. On routes within Europe where competition is stiff, you’ll often be able to find similar rates on the legacy carriers. For example; easyJet charges about $42 for a one way ticket from London Luton to Amsterdam. But British Airways charges just $68 for a flight from the much nicer Heathrow airport to Amsterdam. If you are on a budget, but still have a little cash to spare, consider your comfort before committing to a low cost carrier.

Booking on a low cost carrier: As i mentioned earlier, don’t expect to use your favorite booking site to book a ticket on a low cost carrier. All these carriers handle their own bookings. This means you’ll have to select the cheapest airline yourself.

A great place to start is FlyLowCostAirlines.org, this site has most major low cost carriers in their database, and allows you to enter your destination to locate all the low cost carriers that operate on that route.

Low cost carriers are everywhere! When you think of low cost carriers, most people will think of the airlines they recognize – Spirit, JetBlue and Southwest are all very well known in the US.

There are however 100’s of other low cost carriers around the world. Heading to India? Check out GoAir. Going to China? Take a flight on Spring Airlines. A convenient list of all the low cost carriers in the world can be found at Wikipedia.

Get your expectations straight: There is no easy way to say this – low cost carriers are not a luxurious way to travel. If you are used to flying in the first or business class cabin, and having a flight attendant look after all your needs, then a low cost carrier is going to be mighty disappointing.

Book your ticket with the correct expectations, and your flight will be just fine. Remember, most of these flights are under 2 hours, and the money you saved will go towards a nice dinner at your destination. If you board the plane expecting full service, then you are going to be in for a nasty surprise.

What to be on the lookout for: Every low cost carrier will do what it can to “upsell”. During your booking process, you’ll be offered all kinds of additional services, for a fee.

Some of these services may be cheaper than buying them directly, but others may not be the best value out there. If you have money to spare, you may want to consider paying for “priority boarding”, which allows you to board in the first group, greatly increasing your chance of getting a decent seat. This is especially important if you are traveling in a group and do not want to be split up.

Remember, almost no low cost carriers do the seat assignment game, so as soon as the boarding doors open, you are on your own to snag the seat you want.

One other thing to keep in mind, is that not all airlines let you check in for free at the airport. Ryanair is a good example of an airline that charges for checking in at the airport, so don’t be surprised if your family is charged an additional fee, just because you were not able to do an online checkin.

Budget Travel: 7 Quick tips for cheap airplane tix

by Grant Martin on

Spending some time on the road this year? Chances are, you’re going to have to battle the internets for a good deal on your flight. But what to do when the prices are sky high and your wallet is recession skinny?

Most respectable travel websites out there have giant lists, strategies and flow charts about the best way to get the absolute best price. It works, but it can be complicated, and in a busy world like this, few of us have time to look through an ITA Matrix and calculate the most optimum routing.

Don’t know what an ITA Matrix is? Then keep reading for our quick tips to getting the best price on airplane tickets.

  • Flexible Flexible Flexible: There’s a reason that Kayak has a “flexible dates” option in their search engine. Traveling on Fridays and Sundays are most expensive (highest demand,) so if you can, try Thursday or Monday. Monday AM flights are often drastically less expensive and you can still often get into work by 10.
  • Book early: Probably more than a month out. Definitely more than two weeks. If it’s inside of a week, drive or take a hot air balloon.
  • Use a metacrawler: Given that we just mentioned Kayak, we should point out this important tip: Always use a metacrawler. Both Kayak and Mobissimo search engines search all of the traditional search engines on the market AND airline websites, so you can guarantee that you’re not shelling out extra cash on a third party website.
  • Check the Low Cost Carrier: Southwest doesn’t publish its fares on the regular search engines, so make sure you do a cross check at southwest.com before you book your ticket.
  • Search nearby airports: Flying out of Los Angeles? Make sure you check Long Beach (LGB,) Santa Ana (SNA) and Ontario (ONT) as well. Airports with a large LCC presence often have more competitive fares.
  • Look for coupons: As our friends at Airfarewatchdog (AFWD) recently pointed out, promo codes are the way that airlines are going this year. American, Virgin America and JetBlue are among the carriers that frequently used coupons last year and you can expect moreto come. Not sure where to find codes? Check with AFWD or your respective carrier over at flyertalk.com.
  • Consider a consolidator: For international travel, consolidators often buy tickets in a discounted block and pass the savings onto passengers. Hotwire.com and airlineconsolidator.com are both fairly simple sites that you can use, or you can always use a local (physical) source.

Finally, the best piece of advice we can give is to be patient. If you’ve got a few months before your dates of travel, set up a fare alert at Kayak. You have to create an account, but once you do, you can have the software automatically search for your fare every day and report to you when the price drops.

Gadling Take FIVE: Week of January 24-30

by Jamie Rhein on

When it comes to finding places to stay, this week has turned up several options from national parks to a person’s backyard.

  • For the budget conscious traveler, Alison offers a new idea in her post Out: couch. In: tent. Instead of looking for a couch for a sleeping arrangement, there’s another network where travelers can find a place to pitch a tent–like a person’s backyard. If staying in a stranger’s house seems unnerving, staying outside a person’s house may feel more comfortable.
  • Brenda has given us the dibs on the Hostel Trail in Latin America. After telling about her personal experience at a guest house in Popayán, Colombia, she presents tips about how you can find the same kind of deal–the type that leaves a person beaming, just like she’s beaming in the photo.
  • In Kraig’s post The World’s Best National Parks, follow the link to National Parks Traveler. Along with descriptions about the top 10 parks, you’ll find links to the parks themselves and places to stay if you go. For example, here’s the link to places to stay in Fiordland, New Zealand, number one on the list.
  • In Budget Travel: Detroit, an installment of our series on budget destinations, David Landsel, editor of the New York Post’s Travel section offers many suggestions for where to stay in Detroit. The Inn on Ferry Street sounds the most unique and interesting.
  • If you want to avoid the dirtiest hotels, one place to look is Trip Advisor’s 2009 Travelers’ Choice Awards.

And one more. If it’s late and you have no where to go, Annie suggests that you try 2itch.com, a site that will find places near you that are open.