The Ultimate Guide to Traveling on Megabus: Tips, Suggestions, and How to Score Cheap Seats (2024)

Note: This is an original post by Quirky Travel Guy. It is not in any way endorsed or approved by Megabus.

ultimate megabus guide

Welcome to the ultimate guide to traveling on Megabus

The “$1 tickets!” advertisements captured my attention years ago. Now, I’m an experienced traveler on Megabus, the low-cost bus system that serves the entire eastern half the country.

You may have seen their giant double-decker buses and eye-catching logo featuring the portly driver wearing his yellow cap.

I’ve managed to score the elusive $1 tickets on several occasions. I’ve also learned the hard way what to bring with you on trips, how much luggage you can take, how to score the best seats, how reliable the onboard wifi is (not so much), and how often the bus shows up on time (usually.)

Where does Megabus travel? Is Megabus safe? How far in advance does Megabus release its tickets? Now’s the time to address these questions, and I’ll also share some of my secrets for getting those cheap bus tickets.

Read on for some Megabus tips and suggestions, and if you have a tip that I haven’t mentioned, please share your comment at the end.

Route Maps and Schedules: Where Does Megabus Travel?

This Megabus review focuses primarily on the U.S. network. Megabus does also offer bus trips in Canada (to cities like Toronto, Montreal, and London Ontario) and Europe (to cities like Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, and London England.) In Europe, Megabus was bought out by Flixbus.

Here’s the current Megabus map of routes in the U.S.:

megabus route map 2024
Here’s the current Megabus route map as of the 2024 season.

This company began with routes in the northeast, and gradually expanded to the south and west. Megabus regularly changes its routes based on supply and demand, so check their website for the latest info.

In recent years, the Megabus route network has changed a lot. At one point, Megabus pulled out of major Midwest cities like Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland, and Indianapolis.

However, as of this writing, the U.S. Megabus network is now bigger than ever. Service is back in Chicago. Megabus now has routes in states they had previously never serviced, including Washington, Oregon, Florida, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska.

Megabus returned to California last year, serving 7 cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco. But just five months later, those routes had all been eliminated. The website currently shows no bus routes available anywhere in California.

Megabus schedules vary by day and destination. Check their website for the current information for the date of your travel. Obviously, huge cities like New York City will have many more routes scheduled than smaller places like Virginia Beach or Columbia, South Carolina.

Among the popular routes are Houston to Austin, Washington DC to Philadelphia, and Boston to New York City.

Atlanta is one of the main hubs for Megabus. From there, you can travel to places as far away as NYC, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Orlando, and Miami.

Some of the new Pacific Northwest Megabus routes are pretty expensive. Seattle to Leavenworth, Washington, for instance, is more than $60 for a one-way ticket. So compare prices with Greyhound or Flixbus to see which bus offers the best value for you.

Is Megabus reliable?

The short answer is yes, absolutely. More so than Greyhound, that’s for sure.

I’ve had to suffer through a couple of minor delays where the bus showed up 15-20 minutes late. There was one instance in Minneapolis where the bus was more than an hour late. But those have been rare cases.

Almost always, the bus shows up on time and, even more amazingly, arrives on time. I’m always surprised how an 8-hour ride from Chicago to Memphis can arrive at precisely the minute it’s scheduled to show up.

You’d think it would be hard to nail down the exact time on a trip of that length, but usually Megabus pulls it off.

Megabus now offers a bus tracker so you can see exactly where your ride is.

To sum up, Megabus riders will sometimes have to put up with delays, but I’ve had far worse delays on Greyhound (I will never get over the nightmarish 16-hour Greyhound ride from Pittsburgh to Chicago in which we arrived late in Indianapolis, missed our connection and had to wait all night until 5 am for the next one…)

Some trips are crowded, others aren’t. I’ve been on rides where every last seat was taken, and others where there were fewer than five of us on the entire bus.

Pro Tip: How to score $1 Megabus tickets!

Every couple of months, Megabus releases the next batch of tickets for the next few months. They typically release new tickets about 3-4 months in advance.

A very small number of seats on each bus are set to cost $1, and then prices gradually go up from there as the bus fills up. Note there is an additional $3.99 service charge per purchase, so those $1 tickets are actually $5. Still a great deal!

The best way to score $1 tickets is to purchase them immediately after they go on sale. The best way to know exactly when they go on sale is to sign up for the Megabus email list. They will email you the minute that new tickets are released.

How do you join the email list? You’ll be added to the email list automatically whenever you purchase a ticket. Or you can create your own account on the Megabus website.

Getting $1 tickets is hard, but it can still be done. As of this writing, tickets are already on sale for dates into early 2024.

How can you nab cheap Megabus tickets if you don’t buy them immediately after they go on sale? When you’re searching for tix, be sure to also search for the day before and the day after your ideal travel dates.

Ticket prices can vary dramatically from one day to the next. Fridays tend to be very popular travel days, for instance, while Saturdays are not, so prices are adjusted accordingly.

Prices also vary by time of day. Here’s a look at an old search I did for tickets from Chicago to Indianapolis.

You can see that the popular 3:40 pm trip costs $25, but the 6:20 pm trip was just $1, while an earlier trip was $10. If you can be flexible with your travel times, you can save quite a bit of money.

megabus one dollar cheap bus tickets
Study the Megabus website to see the different routes and schedules to nab those cheap bus tickets!

Single-dollar tickets are rare because they get snatched up quickly, but you can nab them if you plan ahead. I’ve gotten $1 tickets on each of the following routes (sadly, some of these routes no longer exist): Chicago to Detroit, Chicago to Kansas City, Pittsburgh to Cleveland, Indianapolis to Chicago, Chicago to Louisville.

If plans change, you can change your existing reservation as long as it’s more than 3 hours before your schedule trip.

The change fee is only $3 if your trip is more than 24 hours away. Don’t you wish airlines had a similar policy? The change fee goes up to $7.50 for trips 3-6 hours away.

Boarding the bus: expect a bit of chaos

Unike Greyhound, Megabus does not have bus terminals. That’s why their prices are so low – they don’t have to spend any money on buildings.

The downside of the lack of Megabus stations is that you’ll be waiting outside and exposed to snow and wind and rain. (There are some lucky cities, such as Toronto, where Megabus riders can now utilize indoor waiting areas shared by other companies.)

To find the address of the bus locations in your city, download the Megabus app for your mobile device. There you can find pickup locations, schedules, routes, and more.

IMPORTANT: Megabus has no printed tickets. Your ticket is your confirmation number. You can either print out this number, or fire up your smart phone and show the driver the confirmation number you received via email. You will not be allowed to board without this number.

Be sure to show up early. A 1 pm departure time means just that; boarding often commences 15 minutes early, and, assuming it’s on time, the vehicle will start to pull away at 1 pm. Don’t be the guy running after the bus as it’s pulling away!

When it comes to boarding, lower your expectations. Megabus is not exactly a well-oiled machine. It’s more like unorganized chaos where the driver pulls up, gets out and starts barking instructions like, “IF YOU HAVE BAGS GO TO THE REAR! IF NOT GET IN LINE UP FRONT!”

People are generally considerate, but this is not always an orderly process. Don’t be surprised if someone cuts the line or you end up at the back of the queue because you didn’t realize you were in the wrong place.

If you have luggage to check, you’ll have to wait in the luggage line first before moving to the main boarding line, so don’t expect to get a window seat – you’ll probably be boarding near the end.

Most Megabus travelers tend to be young or young-ish. A huge percentage are college students, 20- and 30-somethings. Not many people over 50 ride the Megabus, although this has been changing in recent years as more seniors discover Megabus.

mega bus faq - interior luggage nyc
The Megabus has a comfortable interior. Your luggage will be stored down below the bus.

As for the interior, Megabus seats are fairly comfortable, with thick padding. There’s ample leg room and space to store your carryon baggage or backpack under the seat.

What should I bring?

Pro Tip: for all Megabus rides, bring a jacket. The a/c can make the bus chilly, even in the middle of a 110 degree Texas summer. I’ve learned this lesson the hard way. Thank me later!

For overnight trips, bring a hoodie, face mask, or knit hat so you can cover your eyes. You won’t get much sleep otherwise. Feel free to bring a travel pillow, light blanket, or whatever else will help you relax.

megabus baggage - travel pillow

If you plan to sleep on Megabus, I recommend bringing a comfortable travel pillow. Your journey will be a lot more relaxing!

GET IT HERE

For trips longer than two hours, bring some snacks and a bottle of water. You can eat on Megabus, and in fact most longer trips include a rest stop where you can pick up fast food or snacks.

I typically bring pretzels or fruit bars to munch on. Plus Chewy Spree, the greatest candy ever invented. You can never go wrong with Chewy Spree.

Wifi and outlets

Bring headphones to listen to music and drown out anybody chattering incessantly. Bring chargers for your phones and other electronic devices; you’ll want to take advantage of the outlets at every seat.

Usually, there are two outlets at every set of two seats, which conveniently leaves one for each person. On some bus models, though, there is only one power outlet to share between every two seats, another reason why you’ll want to board early and snag one.

As for the onboard wifi, it’s available in theory on every ride, but in my experience it tends to only work about 50% of the time. Do not count on having internet service on your journey. Think of it as a nice bonus when it works.

How much luggage can I bring on Megabus?

Here’s the current baggage policy. You can take one large bag, to be stored inside the baggage area, and one additional carry-on.

I’ve seen people take several shopping bags worth of carry-ons on a single trip, but that really is up to the discretion of the driver since it violates the official policy.

The large bag can be no more than 50 pounds and 62 inches when adding length + width + height. I’ve taken one of those big 65L camping bags with a tent and sleeping bag packed inside, so the luggage allowance is pretty generous.

megabus station routes schedule mascot
Is Megabus safe? Yes, it’s pretty reliable and safe.

Don’t try to stretch the Megabus luggage allowance. If you have too many checked bags, you may be asked to buy another seat.

And if it’s sold out, you may be out of luck. Cheap bus travel is not like airline travel, where you can simply pay extra for an extra checked bag.

cheap luggage megabus carryon

Looking for cheap luggage? Here’s a carry-on sized bag that we think is the best balance between affordability and quality.

GET IT HERE

Is Megabus safe? The best and worst places to sit on the bus

The most popular seats on the bus are the front seats on the upper deck, because of the awesome view they provide. These seats have proven to be the most dangerous.

Megabus accidents are rare, but they do happen, just as Greyhound and Amtrak have their share of accidents. In the few major mishaps that have occurred, those sitting in the front upper-deck seats were the ones who took most of the impact.

Reserved seats are available on some (but not all) routes. In those cases, you can pay a few dollars extra to reserve the front upper deck seats. Here’s a common seat map, though they will vary by route:

megabus seat map - seating chart - front seat surcharge
A typical Megabus seating chart, showing which seats come with a surcharge.

For safety reasons, I usually try to sit on the bottom deck, but probably 80% of the seats are on the second deck, so often there’s no choice.

If you do end up on the top level, for crying out loud, wear your seat belt! Virtually no one buckles up on the bus, but if something unforeseen were to happen, the seat belt could save your life.

Pro Tip: Travel overnight to save on hotel

Penny pinchers unite! Taking the bus overnight is the best way to travel cheaply since you avoid paying for a night of lodging.

A few years back, I took a three-week Megabus trip around the east coast (Pittsburgh > Philadelphia > Washington DC > Charlotte > Atlanta) and saved on four nights of lodging by scheduling overnight bus trips between cities.

The only drawback of the overnight trip? It’s not the most restful night you’ll ever get. For some reason, sleeping while sitting upright in a moving vehicle doesn’t provide the same level of relaxation that an entire night in a comfortable bed does. Imagine that!

I always wonder how the bus driver stays awake all night at the wheel, but inevitably they get us to the destination safely without fail.

How to change or cancel a Megabus reservation

Unfortunately, you cannot cancel a Megabus reservation for a full refund. However, you can trade in your ticket for a different ticket. Go to megabus.com and click “Change Trip.”

After entering your reservation number and the last name used for the order, you’ll be able to remove your reservation and receive credit for use on a future ride. You will be hit with a small fee, between $3-7, depending on how far ahead of time you make the change.

Note that the company website says, “Megabus is not responsible for delays or cancellations caused by traffic, road conditions, weather or other causes over which it has no control.”

If you need to contact Megabus by phone to speak with someone about your trip, it’s pretty easy. The Megabus contact number in the United States is 877-462-6342. If you are in Canada, the Megabus contact number is 866-488-4452.

Can you track a Megabus?

Megabus has a “Track My Bus” page that you can use to see the status of your upcoming rides. This page lists all current Megabus trips that are in progress, and confirms whether the bus is on track to arrive on time or whether it will be late.

You can click on the “Delayed” or “On Time” link to see the projected time that the bus will arrive at its destination.

track a megabus

In this example, you can see that the bus was supposed to depart New York City at 10:15 but actually departed at 10:29.

And you can see the scheduled arrival time is 12:25, but the expected arrival is now 1:06. If you have someone coming to pick you up, have them track the bus using this feature.

megabus tracker late

You can click “See Map” to view a GPS map showing the exact location of the bus. That’s extremely helpful. 

This tracking system helps you understand when your bus will reach its destination.

The official Megabus welcome video mentions wifi, scoring cheap bus tickets, Megabus routes and schedule, luggage and carryon info, and the seat map showing which seats come with a surcharge:

That’s it for my Ultimate Guide to Traveling by Megabus. What Megabus tips do you have?

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