Megabus to end L.A. service? JetBlue getting sued over toilet travel; Hotel Palomar Los Angeles opens today
Good morning travelers! What’s going on in your travel neck of the world? Here are some helpful links if you are trying to send donations to China or Myanmar.
Local | Megabus has stopped taking travel reservations between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, San Jose and Millbrae, California, for trips after June 8, and from Los Angeles to San Francisco and Oakland after June 22, 2008. Are you going to be upset if the $1 transportation option is taken away? Speak out in the comments. [Los Angeles Times]
Airline news | Flights to Florida for $18? Yep, on Spirit Airlines. Peter Pae talks to bargain hunting travelers and industry leaders on how to find good airfare bargains this summer. Read: Taking a different route for a cheap airfare. [LAT]
Strange travel news | JetBlue is being sued for more than $2 million by a man who says a pilot told him to sit in the bathroom while a flight attendant took his seat on a flight between San Diego and New York. [USA Today]
Hotel news | Kimpton’s eco-luxe Hotel Palomar opens today in Westwood.
— Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel Deal Blogger
[Photo: Megabus by Jen Leo]
7 Comments on “Megabus to end L.A. service? JetBlue getting sued over toilet travel; Hotel Palomar Los Angeles opens today”
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May 13th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Lack of advertising seems to be part of their problem or at least it wasn’t reaching the right people.
I’ve been thinking about taking a trip to Vegas on Megabus. Guess that won’t be happening.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
I was planning a trip from LA to SF on Megabus for the end of June. Then I read today’s paper and found out they were discontinuing service. Flying a certain low-cost carrier will cost me 45% more than the Megabus. I am considering cancelling my trip. Thank you.
May 13th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Hey Kim,
Before you cancel your trip - check out Craigslist rideshare.
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/rid/
LA to SF and SF to LA is a popular route, if you’re open to riding to strangers. I’ve found that when I seek rides, I’ll write female travel writer looking for ride etc (in my ad). - and that usually attracts other women drivers who would prefer to take a female passenger.
Of course, it will also bring the odd perverted or questionable reply - but those are easy enough to ignore. I don’t put my phone number in my ad.
Most of the time, drivers just want to carpool to share the cost of gas. So transportation can easily cost less than Greyhound or a flight.
Good luck,
— Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times Travel Deal Blogger
May 15th, 2008 at 6:25 am
There are other discount bus operators in California, for example, listed at
http://www.gotobus.com
May 18th, 2008 at 7:22 am
Took 2 rt’s to Las Vegas, @ $15, $8, $8, and $1, each way. About 15 people on a 56 person bus each time. Most of them paying about $30-$35 because they reserved at the last moment. A week or two earlier & they could have gotten fantastic prices, but they didn’t even want to risk $8, even though there are cancellations/rerouting allowed 24 hrs. beforehand. That was the problem; even megabus travelers (in Los Angeles) didn’t get it, although the east coast people do.
Also got 6 $2 round trips to San Franscisco; it was actually easy, if u don’t worry about losing $1 if ur plans change. Have one $1 trip to Oakland on June 22, but no megabus to return on June 23 or after. (They have essentially left me stranded, despite their announcement that they would not.)
(And I resent their not telling anyone for weeks about not listing any LV trips beyond June 7, and SF trips beyond June 22. I kept checking for dates. Even customer service had no clue when I called them up, until the press release was carried in the L.A. Times on May 13.)
No good alternative buses to San Francisco. However, Greyhound has a $49 rt LV/LA trip special online, with no advance reservations other than 2 hrs beforehand, and a 7 day open return ticket, and lots of hours to choose from. They even offered 10% discount for joining their club (free) and 1/2 off to boot if you filled out a survey about the trip. Yet I saw 50 people lined up at a small bus carrier near me yesterday to go to L.V. for $70 rt., with limited schedules. People just don’t get it; do a little research before you book.
Note, the buses listed on gotobus.com were lousey. High prices and limited schedules.
Finally, I e-mailed megabus before their final decision date (May 16) with my comments and requests to continue the service. (Received no reply.) I hope others do as well. And I see they released no further info whether the cancellation is a done deal. It is this kind of poor managment techniques/attitude, which may have also led to their downfall in L.A. in failing to take proper advertisment steps.
May 18th, 2008 at 7:25 am
Had quite an informative comment, which took me quite a while to compose, but when I clicked submit, it directed me to a page to enter a code number, except there was no code, and all my comments were lost. I won’t do it again. I think u should check this site for problems.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:47 am
Megabus is a really good service. The concept is good and the practical applications are good. The biggest problem the company has is understanding their demographic.
I’m glad they do very well on the east coast and in middle America. The thing the Megabus company must understand is that California is a multi-cultural state. We could almost be a country all to ourselves.
My aunt saw the bus at the bus stop, was curious and wanted to use the service. She approached one of the drivers and tried to ask him how the service works. The only answer the driver could give her was to check online. She’s a 78 year old woman who doesn’t own a computer and whose english is very basic.
I would recommend the company does come back with this service. Given a little more time the service will see more riders. The LA Times articles has helped to spread the word about Megabus. There are now many comments on popular online review sites that highly praise this service.
The key demographic to approach in San Francisco and Los Angeles is the multi-cultural communities. They’ll all want to use this service, if they knew how to get tickets to use the service.
I believe Gotobus.com has a ticket person who helps people at each bus stop who purchases tickets for people online. It’s not a terminal or a station it’s just a person sitting at a computer. All this person is doing is what some people can’t or don’t know how to; use a computer. The other aspect of Gotobus.com is their site can convert to chinese, which makes them more accessible to the chinese community. That’s why Gotobus.com is so successful in California.