Travel deals to MTL

[Turbodick]

If you don't feel like driving there is a great deal from Toronto to Mtl for one dollar...



"CoachCanada: $1 Tickets between Toronto and Montreal (Jan 16 - March 11, 2008)

If you're traveling between Toronto and Montreal in the coming new year, pay attention to this offer from CoachCanada.com. From January 16 to March 11, 2008, there will be a total of 10000 seats available at the price of $1 per seat. The number of $1 seats per departure will vary depending on the day. Your best chance at getting a $1 seat will probably be during midweek travel, but there should be some weekend $1 seats available if you do some looking.

Make your bookings at www.CoachCanada.com, a 14-day advance purchase is required. When you enter your booking information, $1 tickets will appear if they are available. This offer was spotted in the Metro, and you can see a flashing banner of it on the CoachCanada website. "


[URL="http://www.redflagdeals.com/deals/main.php/search/dealsresults/de2bc0a72dbb4d1fc21dafc210111ab7[/URL]

 

[Ben Dover]

right.........

This sounds too good to be true... which means it is most likely a load of crap. Let me guess... It's $1 for the outbound trip, but $200 for the return trip.

Or, it's $1 each way, but the taxes, fees and service charges bring it $185.

Or, perhaps there really is a $1 fare, but there is only one or two seats that can get it and those are already sold out.

Or, you need to purchase a block of tickets, or a "membership" or some other garbage...

It sounds like quite a slick promotion. I would be very interested to hear from someone that was about to do (or at least book) the round trip for $2.30 (I included the GST and PST)...

Last but not least -- if it is true, I would start selling my stock in Coach Canada (if I had any). They would be losing money very fast with this one.

BD

 

[chowhound]

I think it probably is legit, although the number of $1 fares is likely very limited. There is a company doing a similar thing in Chicago... Megabus. Advertises very cheap fares to various cities to and from Chicago, but the number of cheap fares is very limited. The cheap fare offers generate interest, and potential travelers find that the regular fares are very reasonable also. The operation books online, and doesn't have the overhead of bus stations. They basically just pick up the pre-ticketed passengers at designated locations in the cities. It has been going on for a few years now. (Actually after writing the foregoing, I noticed that there actually may be a connection between CoachCanada and MegaBus, as the sites apparently link to one another).

 

[Ben Dover]

Sounds like it is walking the razor edge of bait-and-switch to me... If I was running a bus business I would stay away from offers like that, which are guaranteed to piss off a lot of people.

Imagine the reaction here if one agency was promoting $1/hour with the escort of your choice -- but only two appointments per month could get that rate. They would probably be spending 98% of their phone calls explaining to people why they could not get the rate that was advertised in the promotion.

It's a bad idea and a waste of time for customers and for customer service departments.

I hate gimmicks. This bus company should focus on offering a great, reliable and reasonably priced service and concentrate on value-added innovations instead of hoping to suck people in with a fake offer (and it is fake if nobody other than 2% of customers can really get it) on the hopes that they will decide to book even after they realize they've been had.

Competitive prices and/or consistent good quality always win out in the end.

BD

PS: Anyway, I'm not picking on you Turbodick... I would be happy to hear from anyone that actually gets this offer. And, those of you already trying -- I wish you luck!

 

[Turbodick]

Ben Dover, I too am very cynical when it comes to getting a "free" lunch and resent getting my time wasted by come-ons. Looking at comments on redflagdeals.ca it does look like several people have got the deal without extra fees.
They are only offering a few seats per bus and similar to hotels know when they have extra capacity. I doubt they are running whole busloads of dollar seats.
I see dates like FEb 27 and Mar 5, 6, and 8 offering the deal.

 

[hungry101]

Flying to Montreal from the Detroit costs about 800$ which is expensive. I am looking for a cheaper way to get to Montreal. NWA is just too expensive. Any ideas?

 

[super hiro]

Flying to Montreal from the Detroit costs about 800$ which is expensive. I am looking for a cheaper way to get to Montreal. NWA is just too expensive. Any ideas?

Get to Toronto and fly for about $250 CDN (Air Canada, Westjet).