Greyhound Buses

I was curious too, so I googled it to find out more. Someone from another forum explains it here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/13120721-post15.html

I have a hard time believing that Amtrak hasn't caught on yet and fixed it, however, the dates on that forum appear to be from within the last month, so it seems plausible.

EDIT: Someone else beat me to the punch.

As I see it, the "Slidell Loophole" is a way for train aficionados to see the country without paying for it. Typically it is used for going to New Orleans. When you book the ticket on Amtrak from the West Coast (San Francisco and northwards), the routing takes you through Chicago and Washington, DC, then down to Slidell (which is one stop east of New Orleans). If you book straight to New Orleans, you go to Chicago and south to New Orleans (missing Washington, DC).

If you are using rewards, normally, a trip to Washington DC is a 3 Zone trip while a trip to New Orleans is a two zone trip. A roomette for a two zone trip costs 20,000 points while a roomette for a three zone trip costs 35,000 points (bedroom is 30,000 vs 50,000). So for a lot less points, you get to spend much more time on the train and see a lot more of the country. That's because Amtrak only cares about your origin and destination. If you happen to travel way out of the way to get there, Amtrak doesn't care.

So the "loophole" is that you get to see alot more of the country using a minimal amount of points (or dollars).

Quote: pacomartin

It is unfortunate. Mexico has a highly developed bus system. The best class of bus has only 25 seats. Many middle class people take buses, but then tolls are very high there.

You're right about that.

However bus service leaves a lot to be desired. Here are some lowlights in reverse chronological order:

The Mexico-Puebla freeway was closed due to flooding (not the bus company's fault), but buses to Puebla were still running. I booked one by phone, asking specifically for an ADO GL bus. I was advised it was best to leave from the East terminal and that the trip wold take 2:40 rather than the usual 2:00. I nearly missed the bus because the ticket was for an Estrella Roja Executive (Estrella and ADO are part of the same corporation), plus the trip took 4:00, plus it went past the North terminal on its way out of town.

Coming back from that fiasco the highway was still closed. This time I was advised to go to the North terminal, which I intended to do anyway. Upon boarding the driver informs us we'd be entering through the East, sigh.

So-called First Class buses in all companies have TVs that show movies. That's fine, but they carry the sound in the PA system rather than via headphones. So if you want to sleep rather than see the movie, you're out of luck.

Of course you can take ear plugs along, right? Right, but they may not do you any good. Once with ADO the volume was so loud even with foam ear plugs it was still too loud. The driver claimed he couldn't control the volume. PLus on that trip the rest room smelled worse than a gas station rest room which hasn't been cleaned for two years. The stench whenever it was used was pretty bad. In a 4.5 hour trip, it got used a lot.

I've had better luck with ETN. That's a deluxe line with wide seats, foot rests, headphones, and the left side has single seats. Even then, though, I've had problems. On a trip leaving at 5 am to Queretaro, the driver had the radio on in the PA. I asked him to shut it off because I wanted to sleep, he claimed it was stuck.

Bus travel is boring and tedious, so on board movies make sense. I never watch them because 1) they're usually pretty bad movies and 2) they are dubbed into Spanish. I loath dubbing passionately. What I can't understand is the sound over the PA. Do the bus lines assume everyone wants to watch the movie? Some of us may prefer to sleep or read. If you want to avoid such auditory abuse, you have to take the deluxe buses which do carry headphones for sound.

Overall I'd rather fly or drive, but the options are not always available.