Melançon Enterprises • a multidivision multinational since 1980

Open Letter to Greyhound / Peter Pan Bus Lines
AKA More travel adventures with Ben!

I'm ordering bus tickets online to go to New York City. I usually take the train into Boston and leave from Chinatown– or now, South Station on the Chinatown bus.

I didn't feel like going into the city for no reason, so I thought I'd give Greyhound a try.

When I typed in Framingham I got an eight hour trip each way costing more than $100.

Using the travel deals section for NYC-Boston / Boston-NYC I could find a $38 round trip ticket

The bus stops in Framingham. Can I get on?

"No."

I "escalated" once (or at least got another online service representative, or maybe the first one disguised her voice, how would I know).

"Discounted fair is only good for the city pair it offers."

"Anything else I can do for you?"

"Yes. You can convey that with these options I will probably go into Boston and take the Chinatown bus."

This is unfair competition, essentially-- they are artificially lowering the price only where they compete with the Chinatown bus, whereas a ticket for the very same route, the same bus, the same schedule, doubles in price if you leave from a non-competing destination.

And they wonder why this might tick people off a little bit?

They're still going to get some of my money though, the jerks. I'm probably going to buy my return ticket through Greyhound with the New York to Boston $20 deal. They can't stop me from getting off in Framingham!

Every corporation is a little fascist state at heart.

Departing: Feb 12, 2008

From: Boston, MA
To: New York, NY

Miles: 217

Schedule: 1859
At: 06:00pm

Returning: Feb 15, 2008

Schedule: 1856
At: 05:00pm

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