Megabus

You get what you pay for and that’s that. My first bus to get to Chicago from St. Louis was canceled the day of for seemingly no reason leaving me scrambling to find another mode of transportation. Thankfully I was able to get an Amtrak ticket for LESS than my bus ticket on the day of!
My bus back to STL was ok despite the fact that we stayed at a rest stop for an HOUR on a five hour drive. No one needs an entire hour to get a couple snacks and use the restroom! Heck, there’s a restroom on the bus! Also, the driver was insanely rude to me when I was boarding the bus and simply asked him if I was on the correct bus. Sorry I had to inconvenience you by asking a totally legitimate question!
If you can find a cheap Amtrak ticket, I recommend that instead. With how much Megabus tickets have gone up in the past few years you might even save some money.

Terrible experience!!!
3 hours late, paid for a reserved seat that others who didn’t pay for ended up sitting in, threatened by another passenger, wifi didn’t work on one way and sat next to someone that was coughing and itching the whole 9.5 hours.
Yes it is cheap. I paid $ 94 RT b/​w Chicago and Nashville. But the experience was so bad that it is worth paying the extra money in the future.

My trip today 12.23.2015…Nashville TN to Chicago. Departure SCHEDULED 9:55am…I wake up to an email at 7:55 am stating there will be an APPROXIMATE 60 minute delay. Bus arrived in Nashville at 12:10pm.The bus driver spent 30 minutes rearranging luggage before allowing any Nashville passengers to check in or board.. Bus driver switch another 15 minutes delay. .shortly there after, about thirty minute into the ride. Riding along till 8.then. …a flat tire. .call customer service, their reply send an
empathy, sorry for the inconvenience nothing. Asked for a manager. .rep says they do not take these kinds of calls, they cannot help, send an email. .email sent, auto reply said someone will respond with 4 to 5 days.REALLY. .IT IS NOW 11:36PM.I AM STILL IN NOWHERE INDIANA WAITING ON A TIRE CHANGE… CURRENT STATUS. …PISSED DELUXE. BTW my SCHEDULED ARRIVAL TIME WAS ORIGINALLY 730… bus fixed and rolling 1 am in the morning. NO APOLOGIES GIVEN. thank u for riding Megabus… Wow what a day. …BTW did I include on my last ride my phone and wallet was stolen while I slept and the driver said call customer service and they said oh how unfortunate, have a great day. …#amibeingpunked UNREAL

I went to Chicago from Detroit and made a return trip the next day. On the way to Chicago the bus driver kept us informed about where we were stopping and how much time was left between each stop. He was very courteous and helpful. On the way back from Chicago, the driver didn’t talk much but the ride went smoothly and comfortably. I will definitely do it again.

Usually cheaper than Greyhound, rarely cheaper than Amtrak, but almost ALWAYS cheaper than flying. Way safer than hitchhiking and probably a lot faster than walking. If you’re on one of the lesser travelled routes during a non-​peak travel time, you can easily snag your own row of seats. If you’re lucky, you can even nab that luxurious upper level front row, where you can spread out like a king with a panoramic view of that beautiful, sprawling Northwest Indiana interstate.
Only beef is they have a tendency to leave early, even without all their passengers aboard. I missed my bus once, even though I got there 10 minutes before scheduled departure time. I haven’t missed a bus since grade school! WTH, Megabus? I complained but didn’t get a refund, even though I sent them a screenshot of their live update from my phone. Over this holiday weekend, they left 8 minutes early — fortunately I got there super early, but one girl had to chase us down and block the road in front of us to force the driver to let her on. Not cool, Megabus. Cut that out.
B+
Stop leaving early.

First time on Megabus from GR to CHI and back. Both were on time. Made the mistake of sitting on top level on first row. Very bumpy and choppy. Later move to middle part and was much smoother. Going back opted to stay on first level middle part. Learned from first time.
Can’t say if this is typical of all busses but ride quality is not the best unless the road is super smooth. Otherwise you feel the hiway gaps and bumps badly. I would give it 5 stars if not for this.
Overall, taking the bus saves you the hassle of driving, finding parking, parking tickets, etc. And if you time it right the tickets can be really inexpensive.

I want to start this review with saying that I have used Megabus in the past with no issues. The staff was pleasant and for bus travel, they are by far the best. With that said, the experience on the bus that I took from Chicago to Indianapolis was far from pleasant.
I started my day very early in Vancouver on a flight to Chicago. Due to the very long layovers on a flight into Indianapolis, I thought I would try Megabus for the last leg of my journey. I now know this was a mistake. I travel regularly and can say that I have been treated better on the worst airline than I was on this bus.
It all started when I arrived at Union Station for my pick up. I took my suitcase to the back of the bus to be loaded and was told that my bad weighed too much. I looked at the baggage handler with a puzzled face because I had just flown from Vancouver and upon check in my bag was just under 45 pounds. I was told that it was too heavy and he would go get a scale to prove it. When he came back, he hooked it up and it read 57 pounds. I understand fluctuation can exist between scales, but this is crazy!
I then had to open my bag and pull out items in the middle of the street in Chicago with the baggage handler just staring at me. To top things off, I am currently in an air cast due to an ankle injury so you can imagine how long this process took.
I have contacted Megabus in hopes of an apology, but I am not going to hold my breath. I understand this is a discount mode of transportation, however it is not one I will repeat. Luckily, a new daily train service has began from Chicago to Indy. If I ever find myself in a similar situation, maybe I will try his. Or on second thought, I’ll just take the longer layovers and fly. At least then I have a better chance of being treated with respect.

PLEASE READ IF YOU’RE EXPERIENCING CUSTOMER SERVICE ISSUES:
I hate doing this, but I must. I once witnessed a narcotic bust while riding megabus. I also detest dishonest businesses.
The company attempted to trick me out of my money while attempting to exchange one round trip for another. Its website fools you into thinking that your trade in value is 50%, when the truth it is not. They tricked my mother like this before, and almost got me too. So, you actually have to manually trade in both reservations and of course pay the exchange/​trade in fee both times.
You also will not receive your full 100% trade in value. You will get no more than the max value of the ticket you trade in for, eg, exchanging a $ 200 trip for a $ 20 trip will be an even exchange.
Smh…megabus. Dishonest thieves…

Impressively, Megabus managed to not have a bus, nor any idea where a replacement bus might be, on a recent trip. When a bus did show up, the driver had to ask the passengers where we were going and how to get there. NEVER AGAIN.
(and we won’t even get into the fact that someone was smoking on the bus)

The only company out there that tells their customer service this script
1) if the bus doesn’t show up to a location at the scheduled time tell the customer that the driver hasn’t turned on the GPS and we have no clue where the bus is
2) put the customer on long hold periods and then tell them to call back in an hour
3) tell the customer that unless they want to buy s second ticket that you must terminate the call
4) tell the customer that megabus regrets that they can’t pick you up but feel free to email us

I used to be a fan but it has gone down hill big time just take the train and save yourself the agony. I used to take this bus back and forth to St Louis and Chicago when I went to school near St Louis. It was constantly late sometimes up to 3 hours, which sucked during the winter and the workers can be rude and unprofessional. And one time in St Louis one of the workers told me to wait in the station and that the bus driver would come get me. Only he didn’t and the bus left me! This is only good for cheap tickets, but I guess this is what you get for cheap. Ooh and the Wi-​Fi is basically nonexistent.

½ star rating not 1 maybe it was just that particular bus
I have three words for you! Take The Train!!! This is by far the absolute worst travel experience I have ever had And I travel A LOT.
The ONLY two things good about this stupid service is it left on time, we arrived safely and it was actually early. That’s all!!! With ZERO comfort the whole way
Where do I begin?
I have one word to describe this experience.
GHETTO!!!
This entire bus slightly smells like a combo of bad breath, body odor and cigarettes
Bus is very very stuffy
Employees incredibly rude
The woman next to me was totally obnoxious, loud and I almost told her to watch her mouth since she was soooo casually swearing
kids next to me were listen to their headphones sooooo loud in the dead of the night you could hear the song and it’s was the same techno house music song for like 7 hours of a 9.5 hour commute It sounded like someone’s cell phone alarm clock going off for all that time
None of the electrical outlets conveniently located right in front of you to charge your mobile device worked
The damn bus was leaking water from the windows from the travel in the rain
Trust me on this!!! Pay the extra $ 35 and take the train!

I would give 0 stars if I could.
I used Megabus for the first time to get my daughter to/​from college (Missouri/​Chicago). Cost: $ 200. Reservation fee: additional $!5 each way. I didn’t care about working outlets. I didn’t care about quality wi-​fi. I just wanted to get my daughter from Point A to Point B without a whole lot of fuss.
We paid extra for a reserved/​guaranteed seat and met the Megabus requirements of being there 15 minutes early (she was there 30 minutes early). When she got to the bus stop, the bus was full and the driver had already shut the doors. There was a huge line of people still waiting. The driver indicated that other busses would come, but that they would be on a first come, first serve basis — no reservations honored. People pushed and shoved to get on a second bus, and my daughter was not successful at getting a seat. 1.5 hours after her scheduled boarding time, she finally got onto a third Megabus.
It’s not a great feeling to realize that your child is potentially stranded 8 hours away. Customer service was completely apathetic, and told me that this wasn’t the way that they do business, but in browsing the internet, this is actually a fairly common occurrence. In fact, the fine print on their reservations indicates that they will not honor reservations when they are busy. (Shame on me for not reading it.) They also refused to refund the fee that I paid for a reserved seat.
We showed up an hour and a half early for the return trip and her reservation was honored. The bus also left on time, but from a different corner than designated on the website. However, at one of the stops, passengers were told that they had to wait several hours to pick up travelers on another bus.
Delays and frustrations happen in travel, but when they occur due to mismanagement of routes or rude employees, it’s really unacceptable. Since there is a complete lack of customer service with Megabus, you can be sure that they *won’t* have your back if something goes wrong. Never again!

Pros: 1) price. 2) availability (got seats 2 days before the trip), choice of doing one-​way fares (some companies force you to buy round trip tickets even if you only want one-​way). 3) you can sleep/​relax the entire way, no worries about paying attention to the road like you do if you’re driving yourself.
Cons: 1) wifi is a joke — it lets you log in but the speed was so painful that everyone switched to cell data. And even with no one on the wifi it still was slow. 2) we were only able to get those seats with the table. So they directly face another pair of people. That was really awkward and it was a fight for leg room. And it was people looking directly at you for literally hours. 3) it’s a limited number of stations. So we took a trip into Detroit. It was 45 mins away for my ride to come get us. 4) the pickup area in Chicago is kind of random so just ask and make sure you’re at the right spot. It was raining on the day we went so we took shelter at the dunkin donuts across the street so we had to pay extra attention.
I’ll probably use them again but only for medium trips where the station isn’t too far from the final destination. I’m prepared for lack of wifi and I’ll try to reserve seats. And I know where the pickup spot is.

The bus broke down and we were stranded on the side the highway near the Ohio boarder for 6 hours without A/​C or water. The company did not request a new bus to be sent until we had already been waiting for 2 hours, then it took another 3 for it to arrive. Communication from the company was very weak throughout the ordeal. Our 6.5 hour trip took 13 hours.
Funny thing is– of the passengers that I spoke with that have travelled with Megabus in the past, many had similar stories of breakdowns in the middle of the highway. Sounds like this is just a normal, common part of doing business. Be warned.

I’ve taken my fair share of Megabus trips, some great, some frustrating, but have continued to happily use the service. However, today’s experience was by far unacceptable.
There were a myriad of problems that led me to missing my 6am bus, but the true issue that really warrants this 1 star rating is that when I called the customer service line to try and understand how I can get on the next one, the representative HUNG UP ON ME. I am confident it wasn’t an accident, an issue of cell connection on my end, or any other potential «mistake.» I was obviously a flustered customer, but by no means yelling, berating, or anything aggressive on the phone. Rather, I was repeating what she told me to make sure I was understanding the situation properly since I was obviously scattered, and more than once she was impatient with me on the phone. Apparently that warrants her to hang up on me. Unacceptable.

I have mixed feelings on the Megabus. It was super cheap so it was worth it. The first driver on a Saturday taking us from Louisville to Chicago was a complete jerkwad who immediately treated us all like criminals. I understand they probably deal with so much crap, but there’s absolutely no need to yell at people and to make them feel like they’re in prison.
The guys who took us home were a lot nicer, but I was a bit scared because I felt like the speed was way too fast for a double decker bus. And I froze the entire trip.
I’d probably try them out one more time because you can not beat the price.

I’ve ridden the Megabus probably ten or twelve times over the years, once round trip to Indianapolis, the rest to Milwaukee. Let’s set a baseline for the review: it’s a bus. Buses are the lowliest form of intercity transport. (OK, perhaps getting picked-​up by sociopath serial killers is more-​lowly, but those sources of rides just change hands too frequently to review). There will not be railroad crossing lights allowing you priority as you whisk towards your destination. There will be no wide reclining seats. There won’t be carry-​on luggage space.
That having been said, my experience with Megabus has been superb. I’ve nearly always arrived on time, and if I haven’t it’s been an unavoidable traffic– and/​or weather-​related issue. It’s also as fast as a car, because it goes express from city to city. The seats (for a bus) are comfortable, and they even have an electrical outlet for each passenger and Wi-​Fi that is fast-​enough for pretty much everything but video streaming. The Wi-​Fi was unreliable in my experience when they started offering it, but in my last several rides I’ve had no problems.
The Megabus terminal in Chicago is a curb on the sidewalk a half block south of Union Station. When I’m usually only paying $ 10 — $ 12 each way to Milwaukee (half the price of Amtrak), I have no problem with that. Once, when it was very cold and the bus hadn’t yet arrived, they had a warming bus to sit in while we waited. (They do use the very nice Greyhound/​Amtrak terminal in Milwaukee now.)
Megabus makes it very easy to pay and ride – all you need is a payment card to order either on their mobile or regular website, and they immediately text you your confirmation to show to the driver – no chance of losing it (and if you do, you have bigger problems, because you just lost your phone!!!). It’s a MUCH better system than Greyhound (but that would be another story:
), and it’s primarily quiet college kids riding, making it civilized. I also like sitting on top of the double-​decker for the better view.
Unfortunately, there are only two Megabus trips per day from Chicago to Milwaukee now, which forced me to take a Greyhound in one direction. I’m guessing that is because you can get very cheap, express buses from Greyhound too. But the experience is «less than,» as they say.
All in all, I’d much rather sit on a bus than drive; because I never need a car in Milwaukee anyway.

This bus stop is located on Canal & Jackson, near the Union Station. It is outside so if you are traveling in the winter, try to get dropped off when the bus is there so you don’t have to wait in the freezing cold.
There is enough space for you to get dropped off safely and not feel rushed but there will be other buses around so just keep an eye out.

Megabus offers bus transportation from Chicago to Omaha, and I decided to make the 9+ hour journey from Chicago to Omaha overnight. The bus stop is located across from Union Station on S Canal Street. The bus arrived on-​time in Chicago, and there were Megabus employees waiting outside the bus to put travelers’ luggage into the storage compartment. Travelers are allowed to store one piece of luggage (~50 lbs) for free. You can store backpacks and shopping bags under the seat in front of you.
The driver checked me in: When you arrive at the Megabus stop, make sure you have you the first 6 digits of your Megabus confirmation code with you. You don’t need to print out the email confirmation or show it on your phone: the first 6 numbers will do.
For travel to Omaha, you can pay an extra fee to reserve seats on the bus, but most people don’t do that, so the best and worst seats are available on a first come-​first serve basis. You can sit on the top or bottom levels of the bus. The power outlets are located between seats, and both the outlets and the wifi work when the bus is on and running. There is a bathroom on the bottom level, with toilet, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and a mirror.
The bus makes its first stop in Iowa City, then Des Moines. There is a 15-​minute and 30-​minute break during the 9 hour journey. The bus stops at a Love’s convenience store/​gas station attached to a McDonald’s and Subway. You can pick up food and use the bathroom here.
Overall, this was a smooth onboarding and 9+hour red-​eye bus ride to Omaha. I would do it again!