# Greyhound to go to reserved tickets effective 11/1/12



## calwatch

This was forwarded to me by a friend who is a Greyhound agent in his small town. Remember that Greyhound used to be open ticketing, meaning that you could board any schedule for the given day, and often board on the wrong day. Amtrak used to be similar on the corridors until they started reserving tickets, but even then until implementation of e-Ticketing, verification of train number and dates were inconsistent (now the scanner will beep if it is the wrong date or train).

_Good Afternoon Agents,_

_Attached are TRIPS/MAX instructions on how to book seats for passengers with a wheelchair. Since we are moving towards __*planned capacity*__ it will be essential to book these seats this way. Below is an announcement which will give you more background on __*planned capacity, *__which is why you have to book these extra tickets. _

_Also, be sure when you book a child's ticket you only use the C5 box. The C2 box should only be used for the seat slide tickets._

_*Effective November 1, 2012, Greyhound will move to a planned capacity system that will allow us to have better control creating extra sections or planned set-in schedules. *_

_*This new system will be similar to what customers currently experience when traveling on Greyhound Express. Therefore, customers will no longer be able to walk up and use an outdated ticket to travel. It will be extremely important for drivers and ticket agents to ensure customers are on the correct schedule and on the correct date of travel that is showing on their ticket. If we discover a customer is trying to travel with the incorrect travel information, we must reissue their ticket with the applicable change fees. *_

_*Additionally, any customer traveling with a ticket that does not interface with our Greyhound ticketing system will have to be reissued a ticket through our system. *_

_*If you have any questions regarding this change, please talk with your Area Manager.*_

_Also if you have any problems opening the attached document please let us or your Area Manager know. _

_Thank you for your attention._


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## Amtrak Cajun

Well, I will say this, it will be a better way of managing capacity on their buses, but its still Greyhound and they will still book the bus solid, making for one heck of an uncomfortable trip.

On the more negative side, this will lead to more fees being charged when they have to reissue tickets due to missed connections and weather related incidents. Unless they will still be rebooking passengers at no expense when those situations arise. Only time will tell though.


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## the_traveler

[Moderator note - The thread's title was edited to reflect the date of the change]


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## Swadian Hardcore

BTW, what's the booking fee that's charged when you book online? Just taxes or what?


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## guest

Greyhound Express has always been reserved. I've seen drivers turn people away who had wrong date/time tickets, and I've seen drivers and gate agents allow passengers with same date/different time tickets board buses on standby.

Greyhound offered fee-waived reissues in the northeast if a passenger's trip had been cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy.

For the past couple of months, Greyhound buses Richmond-Washington-New York have been less than half filled. A very comfortable ride: your own seat pair, extra leg room

Megabuses Washington-New York -- very crowded.

Greyhound buses, at least in the northeast, are not as crowded as they used to be. Nor are the stations.


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## the_traveler

guest said:


> Greyhound buses, at least in the northeast, are not as crowded as they used to be. Nor are the stations.


thats because people got smart and started taking Amtrak!


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## Nathanael

The good side of this is that people will now be guaranteed a seat.

Unfortunately, this reserved ticket policy only applies to Greyhound proper. The buses which really need guaranteed seats and don't have 'em are mostly independent partners with joint ticketing.


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## Amtrak Cajun

The buses may not be crowded in the Northeast because they have more frequent scheduling between major cities there. Come down south and board a GLI bus and see the difference. Also, you have Peter Pan, Megabus, and so on, so you can spread out the passenger load a bit easier.

Dave, its funny you should say that, because once I discovered Amtrak, and how much more comfortable it was, I pretty much ditched GLI except for short runs, The longest bus ride Ive taken lately was the 4 hour trip from New Orleans back to Lafayette. *SL wasnt running so I had no choice" Also, Greyhound has now moved into our local city bus/Amtrak facility, thereby making transfers between all 3 easier. Before, you had to walk about a block to get to the bus station.

I dont think the ticket change is going to be that big of a deal, it just means that you can only travel on the date/time that your ticket states. Most passengers adhere to that anyway.


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## fairviewroad

Swadian Hardcore said:


> BTW, what's the booking fee that's charged when you book online? Just taxes or what?


I don't think this is a new fee, but Greyhound charges a $1.50 "service charge" when you book online. It's not a tax, it's simply

a "charge it because we can" fee. If you buy your ticket in person at a Greyhound station, or if you choose the "pay with cash"

option and pick up the ticket at a 7/11, you can avoid the fee. So the brick-and-mortar option, counterintuitively, costs less.

In the airline world, bottom-scrapers Spirit and Allegiant also use this method of charging people an extra fee for the "convenience"

of buying tickets online when they very well know that if everybody bought directly from an agent, their ticket counters would be

overwhelmed.


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## Swadian Hardcore

fairviewroad said:


> Swadian Hardcore said:
> 
> 
> 
> BTW, what's the booking fee that's charged when you book online? Just taxes or what?
> 
> 
> 
> I don't think this is a new fee, but Greyhound charges a $1.50 "service charge" when you book online. It's not a tax, it's simply
> 
> a "charge it because we can" fee. If you buy your ticket in person at a Greyhound station, or if you choose the "pay with cash"
> 
> option and pick up the ticket at a 7/11, you can avoid the fee. So the brick-and-mortar option, counterintuitively, costs less.
> 
> In the airline world, bottom-scrapers Spirit and Allegiant also use this method of charging people an extra fee for the "convenience"
> 
> of buying tickets online when they very well know that if everybody bought directly from an agent, their ticket counters would be
> 
> overwhelmed.
Click to expand...

Now I Iunderstand why Greyhound always pops up that huge "PAY WITH CASH" ad when you search for tickets!


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## Anderson

Amtrak Cajun said:


> The buses may not be crowded in the Northeast because they have more frequent scheduling between major cities there. Come down south and board a GLI bus and see the difference. Also, you have Peter Pan, Megabus, and so on, so you can spread out the passenger load a bit easier.
> 
> Dave, its funny you should say that, because once I discovered Amtrak, and how much more comfortable it was, I pretty much ditched GLI except for short runs, The longest bus ride Ive taken lately was the 4 hour trip from New Orleans back to Lafayette. *SL wasnt running so I had no choice" Also, Greyhound has now moved into our local city bus/Amtrak facility, thereby making transfers between all 3 easier. Before, you had to walk about a block to get to the bus station.
> 
> I dont think the ticket change is going to be that big of a deal, it just means that you can only travel on the date/time that your ticket states. Most passengers adhere to that anyway.


If anything, I think it'll be an improvement, since I've heard stories of people showing up at "their" bus (i.e. the date/time on their ticket) and being unable to board because there are more people there on what amount to unreserved tickets than there are seats available.


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## Swadian Hardcore

Anderson said:


> Amtrak Cajun said:
> 
> 
> 
> The buses may not be crowded in the Northeast because they have more frequent scheduling between major cities there. Come down south and board a GLI bus and see the difference. Also, you have Peter Pan, Megabus, and so on, so you can spread out the passenger load a bit easier.
> 
> Dave, its funny you should say that, because once I discovered Amtrak, and how much more comfortable it was, I pretty much ditched GLI except for short runs, The longest bus ride Ive taken lately was the 4 hour trip from New Orleans back to Lafayette. *SL wasnt running so I had no choice" Also, Greyhound has now moved into our local city bus/Amtrak facility, thereby making transfers between all 3 easier. Before, you had to walk about a block to get to the bus station.
> 
> I dont think the ticket change is going to be that big of a deal, it just means that you can only travel on the date/time that your ticket states. Most passengers adhere to that anyway.
> 
> 
> 
> If anything, I think it'll be an improvement, since I've heard stories of people showing up at "their" bus (i.e. the date/time on their ticket) and being unable to board because there are more people there on what amount to unreserved tickets than there are seats available.
Click to expand...

I've heard and seen of some serious crowding on the 445 which lacks rail service and useful airline service. Hopefully these sold out buses will encourage GLI to add another bus.


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## Anderson

What's the 445?


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## jebr

Anderson said:


> What's the 445?


TALLAHASSEE - BIRMINGHAM - NASHVILLE

http://extranet.greyhound.com/Revsup/schedules/pdf/445.pdf


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## guest

I use to ride Amtrak more often RVR-WAS-BAL-NYP until prices started going up. Now I'm back to Greyhound/MegaBus.


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## Swadian Hardcore

guest said:


> I use to ride Amtrak more often RVR-WAS-BAL-NYP until prices started going up. Now I'm back to Greyhound/MegaBus.


Yeah, I do that sometimes, too, because RHD (the Greyhound code) has a great station and a huge yard right around the corner!


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## jebr

Is Greyhound actually doing much of anything with this new policy? It seems, based on comments on their Facebook page, that buses are still overbooked on a regular basis (and at no small amount, either.)

I'm starting to suspect this is just a way for Greyhound to get some extra cash on change fees.


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## Swadian Hardcore

jebr said:


> Is Greyhound actually doing much of anything with this new policy? It seems, based on comments on their Facebook page, that buses are still overbooked on a regular basis (and at no small amount, either.)
> 
> I'm starting to suspect this is just a way for Greyhound to get some extra cash on change fees.


The buses in the northeast are still not reserved. But Greyhound gets lots of passengers over there, so that's probably where the complaints are coming from. Many people only comment about bad things, it's human nature. Long-distance runs don't get overbooked anyway, so it's hardly "a regular basis".


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## Mgee

I'm in Boston. I notice now that Greyhound is charging $2.50 "convenience fee" for purchasing tickets online (for "will call" at the ticket machine, or from an agent) as well as for print at home tickets. Trying to avoid these fees I purchased my ticket from an agent last week -- and found out they add $1 even for that!

I am trying to figure out the logic of charging customers $2.50 when they print their own tickets at home, and at a kiosk. But, why a fee of $1 for standing in a long line and getting one of the typically overworked and grumpy ticket agents to sell it to me?

Imagine how much better Greyhound could be if it had sane and intelligent people managing it.


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## Amtrak Cajun

Swadian, I've been on LD runs that had people standing because there were no seats left.

Of course, any run heading westbound from NOL, Baton Rouge, etc will be like that. Houston/San Antonio/El Paso is a very popular bus run here.


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## jebr

Mgee said:


> I'm in Boston. I notice now that Greyhound is charging $2.50 "convenience fee" for purchasing tickets online (for "will call" at the ticket machine, or from an agent) as well as for print at home tickets. Trying to avoid these fees I purchased my ticket from an agent last week -- and found out they add $1 even for that!
> I am trying to figure out the logic of charging customers $2.50 when they print their own tickets at home, and at a kiosk. But, why a fee of $1 for standing in a long line and getting one of the typically overworked and grumpy ticket agents to sell it to me?
> 
> Imagine how much better Greyhound could be if it had sane and intelligent people managing it.


Usually if it's an Express route where they're competing against Megabus, they'll drop that fee to 50 cents. However, they got me once with a "facility fee" of $2.50, even though there was no cost to print the ticket at home.

There's sadly no real good bus company that's generally competent, in my experience. All of them have their idiosyncrasies. The one I've had the best luck with is Jefferson Lines, but they're Midwest-only. (I've actually had better luck with Megabus than Greyhound, but YMMV.)


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## railiner

All of this online ticketing, and other alternatives such as the 7-Eleven ticketing, is a royal PITA to employees....

I wish we could go back to the regulated days, when the government determined what a fair fare was, and protected franchised carrier's from cut-throat competition, allowing a much higher level of service, and employees making a decent living wage. And carrier's were required to "cross-subsidize" themself....they were given choice lucrative routes, that allowed them to still operate lightly patronized, but socially necessary money losing routes. Just look at a Russell's Guide from the sixties that was as thick with schedules as a Manhattan phone directory.

Currently, customer's show up with either improperly printed at home tickets--sometimes missing segments, or wrong date and time, or no ticket at all--just their smartphone, which cannot currently be used at all boarding points....

It used to be simple. Straight-forward mileage based fares, with one-ways good for two month's, and discounted roundtrips good for a year. On easy to read, not to mention, easy to collect and envelope ticket stock.

And as far as reservations systems go....we used to do a pretty good job of guesstimating ridership, by using simple historic ridership records, weighted by current trends, and any special current circumstances that could effect it.

And we used to: "....if the bus is full when you arrive, we'll put another in service just for you". And we actually did just that......

Maybe I'm just showing my age, and nostalgia for the 'good old days', but I honestly believe service overall was better for not just the employee's, but the travelling public as well......


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## chakk

The Greyhound route between Denver and Grand Junction is also very popular and buses are often completely full. I was even denied boarding once at Frisco, CO enroute to Denver by the driver, even though I had my own printed ticket which showed that it was the very first reserved for that scheduled departure. This meant I would miss my airline flight home that evening to California. So with quick thinking, I boarded a westbound Greyhound an hour later -- explaining my situation to the driver -- who then carried me free to Glenwood Springs, where I overnighted in a motel and took the CZ the next afternoon to California.


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## railiner

Just goes to show my point....years ago, when we knew ridership was likely to be heavy, we ran a second bus on that route out of Grand Junction, anticipating overloading enroute to Denver. And in some instances where we did not due to our ridership projection, and an extra heavy load developed, we would run an empty bus out of Denver to meet the overload and then double it back into Denver. Passenger's were given the choice of standing for a while, or waiting for the next schedule...no one was turned away or left stranded....


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## Amtrak Cajun

Well, i will say this, both schedules, 1299 out of New Orleans, and 1249 out of Baton Rouge, that I rode on this morning were full. Both drivers were courteous and got me home safely, so thanks to Gabriel (1299) and the second driver on 1249, whose name I didnt get due to being tired.


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## Nathanael

Mgee said:


> I'm in Boston. I notice now that Greyhound is charging $2.50 "convenience fee" for purchasing tickets online (for "will call" at the ticket machine, or from an agent) as well as for print at home tickets. Trying to avoid these fees I purchased my ticket from an agent last week -- and found out they add $1 even for that!


This seems borderline fraudulent. If there's an added fee of at least $1 for purchasing a ticket by ANY means whatsoever, then really, they're just advertising prices which are $1 cheaper than their actual prices. Unless of course they allow you to travel without purchasing a ticket and avoid the fee that way


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## railiner

I agree....this quoting a fare, and then adding 'convenience fees, handling fees, facility fees, etc. should be stopped. Only a government tax, if applicable, should be separated from the actual price charged for passage. All kinds of businesses do this practice. Cruiselines advertises a fare, then add port charges, service charges, and government fees. And don't get me started on the phone company...the small print in their confusing bills even admit that some of the fees are not taxes, but are additional profit to the company...


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## Anderson

Well, it's no different than Megabus charging their $.50 "reservation fee".


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## railiner

Yup.....more of the same......


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## jebr

Anderson said:


> Well, it's no different than Megabus charging their $.50 "reservation fee".





railiner said:


> Yup.....more of the same......


To me that's slightly different, as it's a per-order fee, not a per-ticket or per-trip fee. That 50 cents applies once even if I buy numerous tickets for different trips, or multiple people on a trip, or multiple people on multiple trips. So long as it's run as one transaction, there's only one 50 cent fee.

It's also relatively widely advertised - many of their promotional items note the 50 cent fee relatively prominently. In my experience, it's not buried but is listed separately.


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## Trogdor

Is it different?

I just did a couple of sample reservations on Greyhound. One was a single, one-way ticket. The other was a two-passenger round-trip (four tickets total).

The "facility charge" for both was a total of $2.50.

So, no, it's not slightly different (except in the amount that the two charge). The concept is exactly the same.


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## railiner

Diiferent, or the same.....either way it's an extra charge added on to the fare for the 'convenience' of buying online. I thought that buying online saved the carrier money...the costs of terminal ticketing facilities and employees, as well as the ink and paper itself. So why charge the customer more, when it is the carrier that seemingly gets the most benefit of customers providing their own ticketing?

Just because they can?

Sad....


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## Anderson

Well, given that there's no need to "encourage" folks to use online stuff anymore (they gravitate that way naturally), this is likely a "because they can" fee of sorts.

With that said, I rather do wish there were some sort of general rule that there needs to be a (non-arcane) way to purchase something for only the "headline price" plus tax (i.e. you can surcharge a given method of purchase or payment, but you can't surcharge _all_ payment methods...if you do that, you just need to raise the base price).


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## jebr

Trogdor said:


> Is it different?
> I just did a couple of sample reservations on Greyhound. One was a single, one-way ticket. The other was a two-passenger round-trip (four tickets total).
> 
> The "facility charge" for both was a total of $2.50.
> 
> So, no, it's not slightly different (except in the amount that the two charge). The concept is exactly the same.


Fair enough. I've never bought multiple tickets online through Greyhound.

My only "worry" would be that they would raise prices more than the fee, since they'd want to make up that fee on every purchase (so multiple orders may get the shaft.) It definitely should be clearer on both websites, though, that the charge is applied, and the price quoted on the website should make clear that there is a 50 cent (or $2.50) processing fee when quoting the prices at first.


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## railiner

I wish businesses would be required to only advertise the 'bottom line prices', to make it easier to comparison shop. They don't want that. They want to make it more difficult.

Or they try to be deceptive, by giving a lowball price with a small disclaimer of 'plus fees...'.


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## MrFSS

railiner said:


> I wish businesses would be required to only advertise the 'bottom line prices', to make it easier to comparison shop. They don't want that. They want to make it more difficult.Or they try to be deceptive, by giving a lowball price with a small disclaimer of 'plus fees...'.


Airline web sites now do that. The price you see is the price you pay.


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## Trogdor

MrFSS said:


> railiner said:
> 
> 
> 
> I wish businesses would be required to only advertise the 'bottom line prices', to make it easier to comparison shop. They don't want that. They want to make it more difficult.
> 
> Or they try to be deceptive, by giving a lowball price with a small disclaimer of 'plus fees...'.
> 
> 
> 
> Airline web sites now do that. The price you see is the price you pay.
Click to expand...

And it took a DOT directive to get them all to do that, and some (such as Spirit) complained to no end about it.


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## railiner

I'm waiting for the day when some airline will match every other lines fares, as they almost have to do now, but will then heavily promote an 'all-inclusive' (you know, the way airlines used to be in the good old days) new policy that will include a couple of free checked bags, a free meal, free pre-selection of favorite seats on a first come - first served basis, etc. I think a lot of people would give them their business. That's the way carrier's competed in the regulated days....not by lower fares, as they were identical, but by better service...

I'm sure I'm in for a very long wait.....


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## jis

Except for the meal bit, most legacies already have the rest. All that you have to get is one of their affinity credit cards and use it to book your trip, or have some sort of status in their FF program.

The most popular airline in India IndiGo actually allows you to buy upto even a meal on board when booking your ticket. Haven't seen that done in the US by anyone yet in economy.

It looks like it is the infrequent flyers that get screwed the worst. The frequent flyers basically have lost nothing except for the lousy food they used to serve. You just get to buy something on board instead if you so choose. Or you can take along your favorite Whopper or whatever along with you to consume on the flight using the free soda to chug it down.


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## DET63

> Currently, customer's show up with either improperly printed at home tickets--sometimes missing segments, or wrong date and time, or no ticket at all--just their smartphone, which cannot currently be used at all boarding points....



It's probably because of these situations that Greyhound feels the various and sundry added fees (which will typically be a small part of all but the cheapest ticket) are necessary.


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## railiner

jis said:


> Except for the meal bit, most legacies already have the rest. All that you have to get is one of their affinity credit cards and use it to book your trip, or have some sort of status in their FF program.
> The most popular airline in India IndiGo actually allows you to buy upto even a meal on board when booking your ticket. Haven't seen that done in the US by anyone yet in economy.
> 
> It looks like it is the infrequent flyers that get screwed the worst. The frequent flyers basically have lost nothing except for the lousy food they used to serve. You just get to buy something on board instead if you so choose. Or you can take along your favorite Whopper or whatever along with you to consume on the flight using the free soda to chug it down.


All true. But I liked it better when meals were included, and you didn't have to be enrolled in any loyalty program to get well treated--back then it was first come-first served as far as seat selection. Nowadays, I would sure not want to be a gate agent, as they have tremendous pressure to board a flight and get it out on time, while dealing with an ever increasingly complicated boarding priority protocol (proprietary info for the individual carriers).

Sure....they know which traveler's 'butter their bread', and treat them accordingly, but as an infrequent traveler, I prefer first come, first served. Oh well, that's the way it is....


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