American Airlines Bus & Plane Review: Is It Worth the Ride?

In the non-profit work that I do, there are a few times a year when I travel to coach leaders and meet our national leadership team around the country. Whenever I travel for work without my wife and kids, my goal is to maximize my travel time to spend as little time as possible away from my family and my community. I would much rather leave home early in the morning on the day of meetings or arrive home late at night after meetings conclude, rather than spend extra travel days away the day before or after meetings. 

This week, the easiest option to take my trip from three nights away, down to only one night away was to use the American Airlines Bus & Plane combination which is a growing feature that the airline has launched in the Eastern United States. So after traveling on it for the first time, here is my review on whether or not I would do it again to help you decide whether it's worth it for you on a future trip.

What Is the American Airlines Bus & Plane Service?

American Airlines has stopped offering quick flights from certain smaller airports in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware to their hub in Philadelphia. Instead, they now offer trip connections with Landline buses that run from those smaller airports, directly to the terminal in the Philadelphia airport. You go through security and check your bags at your home airport, but instead of boarding a plane, you board an American Landline Bus which drives you from that airport straight to the terminal in Philadelphia.

Pros & Cons of the American Airlines Bus & Plane Service

Pros:

• Use & Earn American Airlines AAdvantage Points on your bus/plane trip.
• Ride and recline in comfortable seats with extra legroom instead of driving.
• Clear security and check bags faster at your home airport, and skip security and have your bags automatically transferred to your plane.
• Free wifi and power at every seat.
• A bathroom is included on the bus.

Cons:

• Buses are a rougher ride than planes. The starting/stopping of driving, switching lanes, and overall vibration of the bus/road aren't great.
• Traffic risk greatly impacts your travel time. Depending on rush hour, construction, and/or accidents, there are plenty of factors that can impede you.
• Slow check-in and departure process at the airport. It can take a little while for your bus driver to clear check-in at the airport gate and be cleared for parking. Then, passengers must wait for all bags to be unloaded before departing the bus.
• Single-gate drop-off. You are dropped off at an airport gate, just as you would be with a flight, but that may or may not be the terminal you are flying from.

My Experience: From Bus to Plane

I live just fifteen minutes from my small home airport. So I was glad that I was able to quickly drive to the airport, quickly & cheaply park my car, get through security in five minutes, and walk right to the bus. It was a comfortable reclining seat, offered plenty of legroom, and had power and complimentary wifi for me to do work on the ride to Philadelphia. 

I also live about 1 hour and 45 minutes from Philadelphia (With good traffic). I left my house at 5:30am, drove to my home airport, cleared security, checked my bag, and hopped on a bus, but I did not arrive at the Philadelphia airport until 9:45am (Over four hours after I left my house). It turned out to be over a three-hour drive because of traffic & construction, and buses drive much slower than cars in those start/stop conditions. We were dropped off in Terminal F and I had to get to Terminal C within 30 minutes or I would've missed my flight to Raleigh. 

Is the American Airlines Bus & Plane Service Worth It?

Ultimately, you have to weigh the factors of time, money, and stress. I gained three hours of extra work time by not having to drive myself to Philadelphia, which was really helpful for studying and writing. I saved my organization money by them not having to pay my mileage to and from Philadelphia and pay more for parking at the Philly airport. Although those two factors were true, if I had it to do over again, I would sacrifice the time and pay more money to cancel out the stress of rushing and wondering whether I was going to make it to my plane in time to arrive for national leadership meetings that started at 1pm. I texted my wife when I was starting to get nervous with the time and said, "We could never do the bus to plane option with our kids" - They wouldn't have been able to rush like I did, and I barely made it to my gate on time.

If I had it to do over again, I would've skipped the bus, driven myself to Philadelphia or Newark (Equal distance from my house), and booked a direct flight to my meetings in Raleigh, North Carolina from there. If you live closer to one of the smaller airports in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, or Delaware that offer American's bus-to-plane options, I wouldn't tell you not to do it, but you need to consider the time, money, and stress factors to decide whether or not you gain more than you lose and whether the convenience ultimately outweighs the concerns.