Greyhound used to do their thing without too much fuss or competition, but once new options like BoltBus and MegaBus arrived on the scene things certainly started to change. About a year ago the old standby introduced their “Greyhound Express” service, and things must have gone pretty well—they’re now expanding things into the Sunshine State.

Utilizing their hub in Atlanta, the $1 fares and free on board WiFi is heading down to Florida. Cities like Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Miami, and Fort Lauderdale will all be getting the Greyhound Express treatment, plus there’s even a new option heading to and from Fayetteville, North Carolina. The power outlets and extra legroom start rolling as early as this week, and the tickets are already available for purchase. Sure it’s not as quick as flying, but it’s certainly less of a hassle and the savings might just boost your Spring Break budget. ]]> kjb 2012-01-18T09:08:58-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2012/1/6/142218/4826

Since the rest of this post is going to be a mix of straight news and borderline paranoia revolving around the increasing creepiness of TSA VIPR teams, let's start with some balance. Here are the TSA's top 10 good catches of 2011 and here is how they tried to help holiday travelers with medical conditions. Fair's fair. We also want it noted that we decline to create separate posts for each and every negative TSA story that crosses our desk (e.g. this annual holiday nonsense about hostility to pastries or this brutal Vanity Fair article on the uselessness of security theater). That would be obsessive.

Now that that's out of the way, let's proceed with the unpleasantness. Last November we told you about the increased tempo with which TSA has been deploying its so-called VIPR teams, which conduct anti-terror monitoring outside of airports. The program's actual scope is vague and arguably designed to expand, with different government sources and politicians having "differing descriptions of VIPR's exact mission." Critics ranging from mainstream civil liberties groups to batshit crazy conspiracy theorists have specifically picked out VIPR teams—which do their work at highways, ports, bus stations, tunnels, rest areas, etc—for violating the Constitution's Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches.]]> Omri 2012-01-06T14:22:18-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/11/7/111051/743

You missed it if you blinked, but there was an incident over the summer where TSA agents entered an Iowa Greyhound bus station and conducted a security sweep. For this they were roundly derided, which is what you'd expect given that many people, much of the time, don't particularly enjoy their encounters with the nation's airport security organization.

Now TSA is expanding its surveillance efforts beyond airports and bus terminals, and onto the nation's highways. The agency held an exercise recently, deploying teams to 5 weigh stations and 2 bus stations in the state. Because if there's one thing Americans have been clamoring for, it's more TSA.]]> Omri 2011-11-07T12:12:39-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/10/25/93432/406

Big news for travelers in the south! Budget traveler favorite Megabus has just expanded their US route network to include a new hub in Atlanta, Georgia. From the ATL, Megabus will run to 11 cities, of course with all routes and all seats starting from their usual $1 (plus 50 cents reservation fee).

The 11 cities from Atlanta are: Birmingham, AL; Mobile, AL; Montgomery, AL; Charlotte, NC; Chattanooga, TN; Knoxville, TN; Memphis, TN; Nashville, TN; Gainesville, FL; Jacksonville, FL; and Orlando, FL.

That's a lot of Alabama and Florida! With the news comes a giveaway, naturally. Megabus has 10,000 free seats on the new routes, for travel from November 16 to December 16. Enter promo code ATL10K to knock the cheap fares down to FREE. ]]> JetSetCD 2011-10-25T11:14:16-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/8/4/82758/78321

Sitting in one place for 8 hours, traveling from city to city—when you think of that, you're probably imagining a transcontinental flight, right? Well of course that can also be by train or bus, and increasingly it's the latter as MegaBus continues to go crazy in expanding its route network. The newest city to be tapped by the big blue bus is Omaha, Nebraska, an 8-hour and 40-minute journey from downtown Chicago, where Megabus' US operations regularly tie up rush-hour traffic.

As usual when Megabus announces new routes, they've put a whole slew of seats on sale for $1.00. Right now, that's 1,000 seats, and we double-checked some random August travel dates and the $1 fares are truly plentiful. Enter promo code OMA1K to knock the fares down to FREE. The only catch is that travel needs to happen before September 17, although Megabus' famous seats-for-$1 deal extends across all routes for the first few seats booked on each bus.

What we're trying to say is, that if you have to travel this new route (or any route) later this fall and still want the sweet $1 seat, you've got to get at it early, very early, as pricing goes up as the bus fills and as the departure date nears. Now the difficult decision: are you willing to endure a 9-hour bus trip if it costs less than even a Dunkin Donuts coffee?

[Photo: Jaunted]]]> JetSetCD 2011-08-04T13:28:05-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/5/27/112858/079

How are you getting where you're going this Memorial Day weekend? Chances are, a great variety of you will be hitting the road, both by car and bus (and pick-up truck hauling beer to a summer house). For the moment, we'd just like to focus on the bus, as Megabus has spent the early spring expanding their network to offer up more destinations starting from $1.

We love-love opening up the "where we travel" portion of a bus, train or airline company's website to have it explode with new lines. This is what just went down with Megabus; they made Pittsburgh, PA a hub only two weeks ago, and immediately opened up routes to Akron, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Toledo, and Toronto. Yes—from Pittsburgh. We can't hardly believe it either.

Prior to the hub announcement, Pittsburgh only had some meh routes to Camden, Harrisburg, New York, Philadelphia, State College and Washington D.C.

As usual, all tickets for Megabus begin at $1 (book early to score those seats), and the buses come equipped with free WiFi and power outlets. You'll need all that if you choose a route like Pittsburgh-Toronto, trust us.

[Photo: Jaunted]]]> JetSetCD 2011-05-27T11:28:58-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/4/5/23259/32553

We love a good budget bus sale, especially when the starting price is $0.01. Sadly this isn't one of those practically-free blowouts, but Megabus has cut rates on their international routes to Canada and routes in Canada down to $10.

Want to head north when the weather warms up? Here's the deal: Megabus has 10,000 seats for $10 on each of its routes between Toronto and Montreal, and between Toronto and Niagara Falls, Ontario and Buffalo, NY. The dates for the discounted seats are between April 20 and June 23—perfect for a little weekend trip to keep things interesting before summer vacation hits. ]]> JetSetCD 2011-04-06T14:19:09-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/