Skybus an expensive mistake.
Anyone out there considering using the budget airline Skybus should consider this cautionary experience. We booked tickets from LA to Ohio on Skybus a long time ahead. The flight out was OK, cramped, very little oxygen, expensive food and drinks, but OK.
24 hours before our return flight we got our confirmation e-mail as expected. We did online check-in and turned up dutifully two hours before our flight at Columbus airport. An hour before the flight they announce the flight is cancelled. Within minutes the few spare seats on the next flight (tommorow, i.e. in 24 hours) are gone, then the few spares the next day...
So there we are in the middle of Ohio we've already checked our rental car back in, our friends and relatives are 3 hours drive away, we need to be at work tommorow and Skybus says maybe we can get you on a flight in a couple of days or we can refund you.
So we had to book another flight last minute -- $800 for us both. We were refunded $170 from Skybus (they kept all taxes etc.). Add into this the rental car cost, a hotel for the night, dinner, an extra days parking at the airport in LA ...
In short, flying Skybus cost us at least $800 dollars.
Consider now that the plan was to fly Skybus to save money (about $300) rather than flying direct to Cleveland. Had we had the foresight to not try this cheap, dangerous and unreliable option we would have saved $800 for the new last minute tickets, $180 for car rental, $50 for gas, about $200 for food and lodging (I wont even add in the lost time and productivity).
So flying Skybus cost us $1,230!!!
Please learn from our mistakes, don't fly Skybus.
As I type we sit in CMH (Columbus International Airport) about 200 very angry Los Angeleans mill around venting and trying desperately to make alternative plans to get around the failures and lack of support from Skybus. In one case a guy had to get Amtrak to Oakland then Oakland to LA. People are talking flying to LAX then getting cabs across town to Burbank to pick up their cars. Others paid the greatly advertised $10 for their tickets and have jobs they'll lose if they're not back in LA by tommorow. The woman next to us is being charged for her rental car at the other end. We the consumer loses, and Skybus seems to get off scott free.
And Skybus? No help at all. I never even recieved the flight cancellation e-mail they promise on their website. The few employees they have at the airport here just act dumb and shrug.
We'll never fly skybus again and I hope you won't either.
UPDATE: So all the while the Skybus employees at CMH insisted that this was their first cancellation ever -- what a lie !!! The link will take you to a story about a cancellation from Columbus in July!