I just got back from New York via Skybus and maybe it’s time to re-evaluate Skybus as a legitimate flying alternative. My Sunday night flight was cancelled and thus I took the Monday morning flight in today. All in all, it was fine to spend another day in New York but it did up our bill with an extra night at a hotel. When we got on the plane, my wife asked why the flight had been cancelled the night before. The stewardess told us that a bird flew into the windshield and shattered it. Is this the equivalent of “the dog ate my homework” excuse. She said that this was a common occurrence.

photo credit: NCBrian

I’ve heard of a bird being sucked into a jet engine but not sure I’ve heard of a bird shattering the cockpit windshield. I think Skybus was putting us on. I bet they cancelled the flight because not enough people were on it to make it worthwhile.

This brings me to the question of whether Skybus is really that great a deal. Well here’s my tab:

Round trip fare for 2 - $251.16 (to Newburgh, New York)
baggage checked - $40
upgrade to priority boarding - $25
taxes and fees - 106.84

total price = $423.00

Well almost the total price. We also had the following extras as a result:

$46 in bus, train and cab fees to get from Newburgh to New York City
$71 in extra hotel costs for additional unplanned night in Newburgh

Luckily, we had some family take us back up to Newburgh and avoided further train/bus fees. All told, we were well over $500 in travel costs using Skybus. Because Skybus flies into out of the way airports, you usually end up spending your savings on additional transportation to your final destination. Next time, I fly into New York, I’ll try another airline that lands in one of the major airports and compare the total cost.

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