In this first installment, my friend Andrew B will be sharing his experience on the trip. Yes, this is the same Andrewwho won the trip to Helsinki several years back — we’ve been friends ever since. He flew to the Middle East for the weekend, redeeming miles for Etihad business class on the outbound, and…
Continue reading: From Airbus To Megabus: A Trip Of Contrasts
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Bravo! It's not often I literally laugh out loud reading an article but this hit the spot - and thank you for sharing the wonders of the Parking Lot of Sadness 😉
Thoroughly enjoyed--thanks for sharing.
You got a genuine lol out of me regarding those 8 Ultimate Rewards points. Don't spend em all in one place!
As a fellow cheapskate, your hotel and bus choices seemed perfectly reasonable to me: despite the inevitable outcome with the bus.
Love the self-depreciating humour. Great post!
Thanks to your Judi Dench line, I now got coffee splattered all over my desk, monitors and wall. And thanks very much for reviewing a not-so-luxurious-but-still-great hotel on this blog 🙂
Interesting! I had a navigation system issue while flying a KLM 787 yesterday too... At least we didn't have to be offloaded, but they did turn off and turn on the plane too 😀
Stereotypes are OK if made by people that get angry that stereotypes are made about them. Anybody else making them is cause for drama. Examples of hypocrites abound in life and politics.
Loved the review, however, you left one big question unanswered; what was your total mileage haul off this $1,700 fare?
Great report, Lucky should regularly use his multimillion miles savings to send you flying and write TRs back.
I couldn't help but L'ing very much OL - one of the funniest reports I've read. I wonder how you plan to redeem the 8 points earned from the Megabus ticket? I'm also curious to find out what you learned from the ex-con.
I've noticed OMAAT aren't a fan of the Concorde Room. As a UK-based regular at LHR T5 it would be good to get some recommendations for improving it. After all, it's supposed to be the haven through Heathrow's "millionaire door".
Excellent report Andrew!! Lucky, you gotta make Andrew a regular on your blog.....just sayin'....
Your article was definitely entertaining! I've stayed at the Ibis Deira a few times in the past when I used to fly EK a lot just to collect enough miles for EK F (before EK was a partner of AS) and found it perfectly sufficient.
As for your EY flight, I had the same exact experience when I flew AUH-BNE two weeks ago. we were delayed by 1.5 hours as a result.
Andrew B lived up to his reputation as someone with hilarious observations. Bonus points for including a selfie. (Or was that just a random cute passenger?) 😉
"a woman who looked about 14 or 15 months pregnant" - a monster woman on the plane? wow 🙂
This was really good.
It's only $3.75 to get to Dallas from Austin? I didn't know what a MegasBus was.
Definitely would stay at this hotel, $60 per night is a steal.
"It’s not very confidence-inspiring that the solution for troubleshooting one of the most sophisticated machines in the world is the same as for the $59 Lexmark printer I got at Best Buy."
That's one of the funniest things I've ever read on this site. Actually, the entire trip report was brilliant - and a breath of fresh air, since, regrettably, Lucky's observations are sounding increasingly jaded; the inevitable result of his sacrificing a *Real Life* for a nonstop, stultifying merry-go-round of first class airplane cabins, departure lounges and hotels.
Loved the cereal with the chicken! But Megabus wouldn't have seemed nearly so bad if you hadn't taken those first class flights right before, and you can't beat $4.
Haha, great report. Tough to go from int. first class to the bus.
I always try to put the "economy" part of the travel to the beginning of the journey and the comfortable part to the end.
The situation where you have to explain this trip to your friends..haha...I think many people hear can relate to this.
I would have also stayed at the IBIS 😉
MORE ANDREW! What a great contributor! Witty & dry; a unique voice and great addition to OMAAT! (and thanks for including a photo to put the face behind the voice).
Great article. Very entertaining! Thank you Tiffany and Ben for sharing new voices! I would love to take a trip with you both.
Did you consider just getting off at JFK and taking the train/plane/bus down to DC from there (or did you not want to risk forfeiting miles for doing a hidden-city ticket)?
OMG someone on OMAAT says something nice about BA!!! Well done for breaking the mould.
Hilarious. And the shitty Megabus journeys keep you grounded so you can appreciate the A380 F rides. It's all worth it in the end.
More posts from Andrew!
As someone who usee to happily take a combination of the train, bus and oneway rental cars in order to keep trip costs down, I appreciate this trip report for reminding me how I used to travel. Sadly, now the only bus that Mrs. Stannis will tolerate is a shuttle bus.
Andrew's original post wins my rarely given Best Post of the Week prize. Well done, indeed.
Short shrift for the short hospitality at the Concorde Room -- clever match of style and substance. Nice anti-review review of the food, too, in the form of the cereal picture. Also, very funny double somersault dismount at the end, the ex-con and then the points.
If you really look at this thing, there's a lot going on on several levels all at once.
So, again, well done.
Well done, Ben. I don't think I've ever seen Krug and Megabus mentioned in that same post ever.
Far better post than the crap Ford puts up.
Also, why spend $1700 on a flight that you basically just slept through and was hung over through? Seems like a big waste to me - I like how you try and convince yourself it's work the money at the start of the post though. You could have just used that money on a nice hotel room for three nights if you wanted to spend three days from home that badly
@Tommy Trash: Good question. It actually took FOREVER for the Qatar segments to post to my AA account, so I couldn't calculate my mileage total until a few weeks ago, even though I took this trip back in October. I think I earned about 43,649 miles, including my flights back from Dallas to DC. It also includes a 12,500-mile bonus for a promotion AA had for flying transatlantic in a premium cabin, as well as bonus miles for AA Gold status.
@James: Not sure what I'll do with the 8 Ultimate Rewards points! Maybe they'll make Megabus a transfer partner and I can redeem for more bus tickets. 😉 The phone convo with the ex-con was actually a little sad, and I would've been more emotionally affected by the whole thing if I wasn't trying to get some sleep. I think the thrust of what I learned was, stay in school and say no to drugs.
@Ever: Megabus fares increase depending on how full the bus is, but tickets are as low as $1 one-way! One time I went round trip from DC to NYC over Thanksgiving weekend for $11. (By the way, don't ever do that.)
@eliteflyer: I really wanted to qualify for Executive Platinum this year, and so I needed to fly those segments from JFK-AUS and DFW-CLT-DCA. I barely qualified.
@ Everyone else: Thanks for the awesome comments. You all made my day.
I loved it. Reminded me of 25 year old me who took the bus from Amherst, MA to Austin, TX three days after getting to the US for the first time (because who wouldn't ride the bus ~42 hours each way to see my brother for a couple of days :). On the plus side, I saw a ton of the country go past my windows and some interesting coversations.
Andrew, Holy HYSTERICAL, Batman. Loved your style of writing. I really hope you're able to contribute more often on OMAAT.
"I learned about the difficulties a recent ex-con was facing in during his transition into society."
Yes, ex-cons have a lot of trouble transiting into the new United crew.
Can we all just step back from a minute and appreciate how gorgeous Andrew's hands are?! Those are some well manicured digits too.
The Ibis, huh?? You should at least get some Accor points for that, since everyone and their dog is an Accor Platinum elite 🙂
Andrew, This is great stuff! You definitely have comedic chops. I was laughing out loud. I have taken Megabus tons of times on the DC-NYC route, as well as Vamoose, Bolt, Greyhound. You name it. They build character. 😉 Your trip sounds exhausting, exhilarating and expensive all at once. More posts, please.
I don`t how I can read Lucky`s reviews again. This guy is much better. "Jon Stewart" of the milage run.
Awesome trip report!! I love the humor and down-to-earthness. Thanks a lot for sharing this, Andrew!
Judi Dench and Angela Lansbury serving in first! Too funny. I'm now imagining Diana Rigg and Maggie Smith pushing a cart through economy.
Great writing, Andrew. Very entertaining.
I, too, zoomed in on Andrew's gorgeous hands.
OMG - Loved reading this hilarious report, literally laughing out loud! Andrew, next time start with Megabus, don't end a trip with it.
We had tears rolling down our cheeks! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
BTW, what is a nice Jewish boy doing in Dubai?
@Andrew B: Got a few weird looks at work for giggling to myself while reading this. We need some more second hand trip reports from you!
I laughed out loud about the great conversation you got to hear on the bus. I also recognized many of my own travel choices to minimize expenses and get really creative, such as your choice to take the Megabus in the middle of the night.
Speaking of which, actually my experiences with Megabus have been almost entirely very positive -- much cleaner and more pleasant buses than Greyhound and usually on time.
Andrew! Andrew! Andrew!
I really wish you got the luck of reversed itinerary i.e. started with megabus and finished the chequered flag in Qatar first class. If only!
By the time you finished the bus ride, you must be hating your life, the whole world, maybe even stopped believing in God.
If you do not already have a career in comedy writing, I'd seriously urged you to consider. Really enjoy every bit in your article, man.
Ben, instead of enjoying Judi Dench and Angela Lansbury (
Great job Andrew!
Looks like readers here know if the work is a gem or not easily.
Keep it up, hope to have more reviews from you!
Awesome post, Andrew! Good thing I can (barely) keep my laughter from trolling the office. You better go on trips and be a regular at OMAAT!
I almost pee on my bed reading this article. I certainly woke up my husband who was sleeping beside me with my laughing. Thanks for the awesome reading!