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Comment by jayski | Hacker News Reader

Am I the only one that finds it odd bus travel offers a 10x better customer service and overall experience?

If you go anywhere by bus, it leaves on time, they don't lose your stuff, if there's an issue there's someone to talk to. shouldn't flying be a bit of a step up?

This is going to sound crazy, but I think air travel has become too cheap. The price wars between airlines has made the margins so thin they have to cut every single corner and pay terrible wages to employees that have no interest in helping you.

Maybe it should be a little more expensive and better quality. Its gotten so bad I think I'd rather take two normal flights per year instead of 3 cheap but traumatic ones.

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I can fly from Vancouver to Toronto in about 5 hours.

The same trip via bus would take about four days via the USA, or a week if you take the longer route through Canada. All day, every day, sitting on a fucking bus watching the telephone poles go by, hoping you never get a flat tire or a fender bender.

That is not a "10x overall better experience".

Yes, it might be just you.

Buses are frequently hours late and break down mid-journey. And not only is customer service on the phone often non-existent (what do you expect for your $23 ticket?), but the bus station itself doesn't even have any employees to talk to -- the only actual person involved is the driver, whenever they show up.

Obviously it depends on the company/country, but this is the case for budget long-distance buses in the US. Obviously if you're booking an expensive luxury overnight sleeper in a city that has those, it's different.

FlixBus in Europe has been great IME

I took an overnight bus through Finland as a student. Never again. Less leg space than the cheapest airline, no awesome view like you get from flying, no toilet as I recall (so no reason to get up and stretch legs either), and didn't sleep for a moment. Six hours of boredom while being dead tired and needing to stay seated upright. After arriving, the day consisted of bone-chilling cold strolling through a city while dead on my feet.

Flying is approximately 850km/h as the crow flies compared to the 100 that a bus does across defined roads. If the bus ride is more than three hours and there are no other options like a train, all else being equal, probably I'd opt for wasting more time with airport stuff (getting there and back, waiting an hour on the airport and 30 minutes in the boarding line because they require you to be unnecessarily early) and cause more greenhouse emissions to avoid the disaster that is overnight busses

> no toilet as I recall (so no reason to get up and stretch legs either)

Uh people definitely just pace on flights. As long as you slowly and calmly walk up and down an aisle nobody is going to bat an eye.

I meant in the bus

I used to catch the bus instead of flights, but it’s just not worth the few dollars saved.

People stink. People eat hot stinky food. Oh, and there’s only one toilet here and we’re only stopping for a few minutes. Oh and this stop doesn’t have food options suitable for my dietary needs.

A 12 hour bus trip vs a 1 hour flight?

I’ll always take the flight now.

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