$1 Megabus Fares Do Exist: Know the System

It is not hard to miss the huge advertisements on Megabuses claiming that they sell $1 seats. What can you even do with one dollar today? Buy a candy bar or a can of coke? Apparently, you can also take a trip the 5 hour trip from Washington D.C. to New York City for $1 with Megabus. These fares are hard to come by, but there are ways for you to have an advantage.

Megabus was originally founded in the United Kingdom and continues to be a major company there. It started in the United States in 2006 and has been expanding ever since, now serving over 30 cities. These cities reach from coast to coast and create a bus network that competes with Greyhound.

So, where are these $1 fares? Well to clarify, there are very few $1 bus fares. Each bus service will have maybe one or two $1 bus tickets. These tickets will be the first ones sold online. For example, if you want to travel from Philadelphia to Baltimore on any given day, you need to be one of the first people to buy a ticket for that particular service. Additionally, the tickets still are not $1 because Megabus charges a $0.50 fee, so really the cheapest Megabus ticket is $1.50.

This means that in order to pay the cheap fare, you need to buy bus tickets right when they become available. A good way to tell is to check what the furthest ticket available currently is. If you see that the tickets are sold a month in advance, then you need to log on a month before you want to travel and keep an eye on the availability.

The point is that these low advertised fares are very hard to come by, especially if you are looking at popular routes. This is because Megabus could not function if everyone was paying the low fare. Pricing for tickets actually increases according to how many people have booked tickets. For example, the fourth or fifth person is going to pay less than the tenth person. This is true with many transportation companies.

Megabus is a great company and if you plan your trips in advance, you could be paying very little for your journey. Just keep in mind, the longer you wait the more the ticket prices will increase. You can also buy a ticket and change the ticket for a $1 fee, so there is no real harm in buying tickets early and changing your mind.