Syracuse, New York (WSYR-TV) - Two new bus services in Syracuse are offering trips to New York City, for as low as one dollar each way.
Not all seats are a dollar, there’s a trick to finding dollar seats, but the two services leave from the Regional Transportation Center in Syracuse and take you down to New York's Penn Station.
One is Neon Bus, run by Greyhound, and the other is Megabus, which is a branch of Coach USA. Megabus launches here next month and Neon began running trips last month.
It's hard to miss the new Neon buses, and if you ask Heidi Huttner it’s harder still to believe their ticket prices.
“It's pretty awesome. This is my second time to do it because the first trip was so good.”
Heidi paid a buck down to New York City and a buck back to Syracuse.
We logged on to
neonbus.com, chose a post-New Year's trip to New York, leaving Syracuse on January 6 and returning on the January 10. The price: $2 round trip plus a 50 cent booking fee.
Eric Wesley, Greyhound Spokesman, “It's all based on market demand, so the day doesn't matter. It depends on the number of people that may book at that time, but the days don't fluctuate, the price is based on market demand and how many people have already gotten tickets.
We also headed to
megabus.com. Remember Megabus trips don't start running here until December 4, but you can book them now.
Again, we chose to leave for NYC on January 6 and head back to Syracuse on the January 10.
No more seats were left at the $1 price. The best we found was $9 down to New York and $9 back.
Megabus' President, Dale Moser, says the key to finding the dollar fares is to book very early in advance.
“People are looking for value, they're looking to stretch their dollar, they still want and need to travel and we're trying to reinvent motor coach travel.”
The dollar fares are first-come, first-served. There is at least one $1 fare on each bus.
Megabus.com says the earlier you book the trip, or if you book the trip before anyone else does, the better your chances of getting that fare. Even if you book three days out and no one else has booked that specific trip, then you may get the $1 fare. Megabus.com says their online booking software uses a specific algorithm, very similar to what the airlines use when booking trips.
Neon says once the dollar trips are gone, they're gone. Again, the further out you purchase, the less expensive the trip will be. If you are the first person to book a trip, you will get the $1 fare. They have a certain number of tickets at certain prices. Once one price bracket sells up, you move up to the next.
So the key is to book early and be one of the first to request a trip. We did catch up with some people getting on the Neon who had paid $25 and $35 roundtrip, so it's not all two bucks.
Both companies said these are curbside services. They don't need to rent space in terminals for customer service reps so that keeps their overhead down. Trips are booked online and both are divisions of much larger companies.
