A little over a year ago, I wrote a post about how I wanted to try out Megabus with my kids. I never got around to trying it last summer because we had a busy summer with an extended stay in Florida. However, since I’ve recently been finalizing our plans for this summer, my thoughts drifted back to Megabus.
Scoring $1 Tickets on Megabus
Last month, Megabus opened up its schedule to include all of the summer months through September 10, 2019. Usually, the best time to snag those $1 fares is right after the new schedules are available to book. Even though I follow Megabus on Facebook, I didn’t see the announcement come across my news feed.
Last week, when I finally remembered to check on megabus.com, I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of dates over the summer that still had $1 fares from Dallas to San Antonio. None of the dates included weekends, but that was ok since the kids are out of school.
After finding a few dates that worked, I landed on some days towards the end of summer break. The tickets were $1 each person each way, plus a $2.50 processing fee, for a total of $10.50. I can’t even believe that 4 people can travel round-trip from Dallas to San Antonio for that low price. Note: As more seats sell, the price goes up. I checked out prices for the same route for this week, and tickets were $48-$68 per person each way.
I decided to splurge for reserved seats so that I could be assured we would sit together. For $3 a person, I reserved us seats on the lower level with a table in the middle.
For an extra 50 cents, I purchased a text reminder/tracker for the bus. Our grand total for four round-trip tickets with the reserved seats, processing fee and text alerts was $35.
Plans for San Antonio
San Antonio is my favorite city in Texas to visit. I’ve been there alone with my husband pre-kids as well as a few times with our kids.
The primary reason for this summer visit, though, is to use my Hyatt renewal certs at Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort and Spa. My family stayed there over New Year’s a few years ago. The pool area looked so inviting, but the weather wasn’t conducive to swimming. So, a visit in the summer will be a better chance to enjoy the lazy river, slides and pools.
Hyatt Regency Hill Country costs 15,000 points per night, and it is still eligible to use with the renewal certificate from the World of Hyatt credit card. I’m afraid that it will go up in points next year, so I want the chance to enjoy it this summer while we still can.
Pitfalls and Perceptions of Megabus
I’ve read a lot of reviews of Megabus online. Some are great, and some are horrible. One of the main complaints is delayed buses. To minimize this, I picked the first bus of the morning each way.
We will definitely bring our own food and drinks, since this route won’t include a food stop. And since some people complain of the extra cold air conditioning on the buses, we will bring light jackets.
When I published my original post about a potential trip on Megabus, it received a mixed bag of comments across social media on both the Miles For Family Facebook page and my personal Facebook page. Experienced travelers and city dwellers were more excited/supportive of the idea of taking the bus. Others seemed to think I was crazy for considering taking the Megabus.
For people in many parts of the world, taking a bus like this between cities is a normal occurrence. However, for folks who live in the middle of the U.S., riding a bus like this is “weird.” Some of my Facebook friends expressed concerns for our safety after my original post.
I’m not worried about our safety. I am curious how comfortable we will be and if we will enjoy the ride.
Do you think I’m crazy for riding Megabus with my kids from Dallas to San Antonio? Would you/did you do a similar bus trip in the U.S.? What about in another country?
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Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
Megabus Farefinder is the sure shot way to get 1 dollar ticket. I got it multiple times. Also i traveled in Megabus with my wife and kid and experience was decent.
Interesting! Could it be a socio-economic thing. Like maybe when you can afford to fly or drive you – there’s no need to look further. I hosted many University students that took the Mega Bus around for travel and I have friends that have taken it to Chicago to cut down on the cost of travel.
Obviously I’m typing too fast. I think you can decode what I meant though!
@Talchinski It could be a socio-economic thing, but also I think in many areas there just isn’t much public transportation available so everyone is used to driving all the time. I’m in a suburb of Dallas, but we are too far north to even have any public buses. The suburb just south of us has buses and a train to downtown. Also, I think that trains have a coolness factor that buses don’t have.
When we visit my family in Denver, we prefer to stay downtown and take the public trains. But, my family thinks we’re weird for doing that. Renting a car in Denver is expensive and it takes a long time since there is nothing truly onsite, and we love the ease of the trains there.
Yeah, I’m with you there! Trains are awesome!
By middle of the US do you mean rural areas? It’s pretty common for people on a budget to take the Mega Bus from Mpls to Chicago. I think of Minnesota as being in the middle, but maybe you weren’t counting the edges!?
@Talchinsky Not even necessarily rural areas in the middle of the U.S., but I’ve heard feedback from my family and friends who live in bigger cities in Texas, Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska. Riding a bus is almost unheard of in these areas. Maybe it will catch on. One of my former co-workers told me she rides Megabus between Dallas and San Antonio for her new job a few times a month.
My parents tried it once and said it was fine… while another friend of ours tried it with her college aged kids and said never again… it was a Jerry Springer show on wheels.
Good luck! Looking forward to the trip report.
“Jerry Springer show on wheels”–ha ha! Free entertainment! I’m hoping it’s a quiet, uneventful, comfortable ride. Most of the drama on reviews is about late buses, so I hope that by picking the first run of the day we don’t have that issue. Of course traffic on I-35 in Texas is unpredictable.