5 Reasons Traveling by Charter Bus Beats Traveling by Airplane
With increased awareness about greenhouse gas emissions, along with a perfect storm of airlines and the TSA increasing the time, effort, and cost to fly, charter buses seem like a viable alternative to airplanes in many situations. In fact, if you think about those aspects of air travel that you find most annoying, you will realize that none of those exist in chartered bus rentals. Here are just five of the reasons charter bus travel beats air travel:
Cost
Whether it is a school class, sports team, church group, scout troop, or just a bunch of high school buddies, one big distinction between airplane travel and bus travel is that airplane tickets cost the same no matter how big the group is, while the per person cost of a charter bus gets cheaper as you add passengers. That is, the cost to charter a bus is fixed. The more passengers you invite, the more people there are to share that cost.
Moreover, airlines have done an excellent job of nickel-and-diming passengers. However, you will never see a baggage fee on a charter bus. Once the bus is chartered, the bus is paid up.
Door to Door Service
Keep in mind that the time and expense of flying is not limited to the duration of the flight and the cost of the airplane ticket. A flight to Philadelphia only carries you from your home airport to the Philadelphia airport. Once you land, you still need an airport shuttle in Philadelphia to take you to your hotel. Charter buses, on the other hand, will deliver you right to your hotel without ever having to transfer from an airplane to an airport shuttle in Philadelphia.
Control
A charter bus is just that – chartered. If you want to stop in Philadelpha on a trip from Wilmington to New York, you can schedule your charter to do that. If you want to leave Delaware at 4 a.m., you can schedule your charter to do that. If you want to stop at your favorite restaurant in Trenton, you just need to let the driver know. You cannot do any of those things when you fly.
Time
It may seem counter-intuitive, but under many circumstances, particularly trips less than 300 miles, ground travel is faster than air travel. Consider the total time to travel by air from LaGuardia Airport to Philadelphia International Airport. You drive to LaGuardia, stand in line to check your baggage, stand in line to go through security, stand in line to board the flight, fly to Philadelphia, stand in line to debark the plane, wait at baggage claim for your checked bags, and ride the airport shuttle in Philadelphia to your hotel. The flight time is approximately one hour. Arriving 90 minutes before the departure time to check bags and clear security and taking one hour to debark, claim bags, and catch the airport shuttle in Philadelphia, means that the total travel time is about three and a half hours.
The driving time from LaGuardia to Philadelphia is about two hours. Unless there is crazy bad traffic, a charter bus will likely be faster than an airplane on this short trip.
Carbon Emissions
Buses are excellent when it comes to carbon emissions; airplanes, not so much. In fact, according to one study, charter buses emit less carbon than trains, airplanes, or single passenger cars on a per passenger basis. This is true regardless of the length of the trip.
Even within city limits, charter buses are three times more efficient in reducing carbon emissions than commuter rail, and five times more efficient than transit buses. So even if you choose to fly rather than charter a bus, that airport shuttle in Philadelphia is a better choice than rail or city bus.
There are many intangible ways that bus travel might beat airline travel, particularly for those who experience stress and anxiety due to a fear of flying. But more significantly, bus travel beats airplane travel in measurable ways. Specifically, the cost, travel time, and carbon emissions are lower with a charter bus than airplane. Add in the control over the itinerary and door to door service and charter bus travel becomes an even better choice over air travel.