Budget bus carrier Megabus recently opened up bookings to as far out as September 6, and as of the writing of this post, there are all sorts of usually elusive $1 bus fares available on very popular routes for very popular times.
Since moving back to Boston from San Francisco, bus travel has become a far more regular occurrence for me. Given that it’s a 4.5-hour bus ride from Boston to Manhattan is only slightly more time than it takes to fly between the two cities (once you factor in getting to the airport early, getting off the plane, and the significant amount of time it takes to get to Manhattan from any of the three New York City-area airports), I often choose to take the bus, as it’s far cheaper, I often can spread out more, make calls, and usually have pretty reliable wifi. (And if you take the train, which you can do for free if you accrue Amtrak points well, it will take you even less time).
Knowing that I had a few New York trips coming up, I instantly hopped on this sale to purchase some tickets for myself.
Doing a random search for some weekends a few months out yields quite a lot of results, like this Friday night to Sunday night itinerary between Boston and New York (note that the booking fee is $2, so it comes out to a $4 roundtrip ticket than $2):
The deal is even on for the far less popular (and longer) LA to SF route, one I’m still hoping for the Hyperloop to address, assuming it doesn’t go the way of the Monorail. Given that it’s about a 7.5-hour ride, I’m only expecting people with a fair amount of work flexibility to snatch this up, but it’s still worth noting:
Booking is relatively straightforward, and can be done by going to the Megabus home page.
And before you jump on me, I am aware of Megabus’ questionable safety record. I’ve never had any issues with them, even finding the drivers to be better than others. It is a risk I choose to take.
While I’m sure there’s many other great $1 deals available, I chose to focus on these two particular routes, given how popular both of them are. If you found another great deal that you’d like to share, feel free to post about it in the comments or email me.
(h/t BoardingArea)
