When travelling a (US) Greyhound service including a transfer, is it possible to skip the first leg of the journey? For flight tickets we know that this is generally not allowed. But does Greyhound consider it as two distinct bookings or is it one indivisible whole?
asked Jul 3, 2017 at 20:22
-
Do you have a single ticket and travelling a route which has one, or more, stops?– GiorgioCommented Jul 3, 2017 at 21:04
-
@Dorothy I don't have a ticket yet but intend to buy one for a journey with multiple stops and then a transfer to an Express service without stops. The part until the transfer is where I'm not sure if I will take it.– Some wandering yetiCommented Jul 3, 2017 at 21:11
-
If your tickets are separate, the second non-stop bus shouldn't be affected. If you no-show the first part of a continuous ticket, you may not be able to board at a later stop without presenting the unused ticket at a Greyhound depot counter. You would be better to get the advice from Greyound customer service in advance of booking, and ask for the best way and best price to do what you want.– GiorgioCommented Jul 3, 2017 at 21:20
-
@Dorothy But with separate tickets I'm afraid about what happens if the first bus is delayed and I miss the connection.– Some wandering yetiCommented Jul 3, 2017 at 21:39
-
Greyhound will print a racket for each bus. I've never tried this, but if you figured out another way to get to the starting point of the second ticket, I suspect you could show it to the driver and board without showing the unused first ticket. But I could be wrong.– WGroleauCommented Jul 3, 2017 at 22:36
|
Show 1 more comment
1 Answer
Over at Busbud we sell a lot of Greyhound tickets. My understanding is this will maybe work in practice but you shouldn't expect it to or count on it.
It's been hard for Greyhound to have a good idea of which passengers actually show up in real-time because the drivers have validated paper tickets by hand. This is still true in many cases.
However, Greyhound is currently in the process of rolling out electronic ticket scanning. This lets them see who didn't show up to the bus and allows them resell that seat further down the line - it's part of a larger project to be more aggressive on pricing to meet demand similar to airlines.
So especially if your first bus happens to have electronic ticket scanning and the second bus happens to be popular and sold out you might have problems getting them to accept your ticket.
Some tickets are indeed refundable and changeable, these could also serve your purpose. Don't expect your seat to be held if you miss the first section though in case the bus is sold-out. You have your ticket rebooked in this case, so the system doesn't log you as a no-show and allow your seat to be resold.
