On the Chinatown Bus, Rules are Meant to Be Broken
I’ve heard plenty of horror stories about riding the Chinatown buses. From smelly toilets to breakdowns to firey bus crashes to general unreliability, I was extremely skeptical and cautious in taking my very first trip this year.
The trip up to Boston on Saturday morning was a joy. I had an entire row of seats to myself. There were only 15 other people on the entire bus. I slept most of the way, and instead of a stop for smelly Chinese food (another turn-off for many of my friends who had ridden before), we stopped for smelly fast food at a Burger King in Connecticut. The trip to Boston took almost exactly four hours, including the 15-minute rest stop. That’s almost as fast as Amtrak’s Acela Express (3 hours, 40 minutes) for about a tenth of the cost. Sure, there’s always the risk of spontaneous combustion, but you pay for what you get.
On the way back, I realized that I had booked my return trip online at a time far later than I really wanted to leave Boston (goal: spend as little time in Boston as possible, recover from my buddy’s bachelor party on bus ride back). I thought about trying to change my ticket ahead of time, but there was no means of doing that, as far as I could tell. I decided I’d head to South Station, take a gamble at the ticket counter, and hope for the best.
The fine print on the ticket and the web site made me think that my efforts would be fruitless. The rules were pretty clear:
I walk up to the ticket counter, expecting to shovel out another $15 to get out of Boston when I wanted to.
“Hi,” I say, smiling. “I have a ticket for the 4pm bus, but I was wondering if I could use it on the 2pm.” I hand the boarding pass to the woman at the ticket counter, panicked. It’s 1:55. I think I’m really pushing my luck at this point.
The woman examines the sheet of paper for about two seconds. “Yes, yes,” she says. She takes a pen, crosses out the 4pm departure time on the pass, and scribbles “2 PM” on the sheet. She hands it back to me and points me to the gate, where I just make it onto the bus.
They may be fluent in Chinese at the Chinatown bus counter, but I guess their grasp of Legalese is a bit looser.
This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 10:45 am and is filed under On the Road. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
StuyGirl says:I think they do it to protect themselves just in case they need to refuse someone for some reason. I mean, if you buy a Greyhound ticket, it’s valid for a year or something. I think that’s nuts.
And I am a HUGE fan of the Chinatown bus. Lucky Star is far superior to Fung Wah in my opinion, but they never let me down.
April 28th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Ralph says:See, I think that Fung Wah is better. There’s slightly more legroom on the Fung Wah bus. While it may not be an issue for most people, I’m 6′3″ and legroom is essential.
You did the trip the right way. Leaving on Saturday morning is the best way to do it. I’ve left on Friday night and had a 7 hour ride to Boston. A ride like that is liable to make you kill someone.
Overall, the chinatown bus is a good way to travel if you don’t feel like spending an arm and leg on the train.
April 28th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
2log says:Amen for Chi-town bus being a tenth the price of the train! That’s a metric I hadn’t considered, but is pretty stunning when you consider what a good deal Chi-town is overall…danger of death aside, of course.
April 28th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Ha Ha Sound says:They’re probably used to people wanting to get the hell out of Boson as fast as possible.
April 29th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
D says:i had the same experience… 9am a saturday morning they waved us on the bus, but we didn’t realise we were getting the wrong bus - our tickets were for the 9:30 one! it was no problem for them.
burger king on the way up, journey took 4 hours, then on the way back on sunday we asked to change ticket - they too just said ‘yes, yes’, scanned the ticket, scribbled something and waved us on. we did pass another lucky star stopped at the side of the road, apparently having broken down, but we had no problems. was a nice and easy journey for a bargain price.
April 29th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Sarah says:Since Greyhound has reduced the price of tickets in response to the Chinatown bus pressure, I’m not sure it’s worth taking the risk of the bus catching fire on the way up. Greyhound is also completely flexible on ticket use; the only time you might have a hard time is if the bus is entirely full. I don’t even think you need to go to the counter, although if it looks super-crowded you might want to confirm you can get on.
December 20th, 2009 at 3:44 am
bus rental nyc says:I normally don’t take the time out to thank people when i read their information but this was really informative.
I look forward to reading more on your blog.
Thank You.