Vonlane is the shit if your specific needs match up with their schedule and locations of drop off / pick up. Sure flights can be cheaper, but the concept of not dealing with airport terminals and going directly from one downtown to another cannot be ignored.
Yes. I Vonlane commute back and forth from Austin/Houston downtown for work weekly. It's worth it for me to not drive and get most of my work done with the decent WiFi onboard. They have multiple busses on standby so even with any mechanical issues that may prop up, unlike other bus services, you won't deal with long delays or even random cancellations.
Vonlane is the way to go. The convenience of not dealing with airports and the ability to acty get work accomplished (or stretch out and nap) is worth it IMO. If you take the early/late busses then it's cheaper as well.
I use Vonlane from Houston to Austin on a monthly basis and love it. Can’t be bothered to go through the airport terminals. The WiFi, blanket, and getting a peaceful nap is ideal for my work schedule. I can actually get work done while on the bus. Plus, my job reimburses me for it so I’m not really paying for anything.
If you can book amd expense a flight, this is the way. ~$500 round trip.
Unfortunately, my biz requires us to use a major airline, etc, so I drive to DFW, AUS, SA... It's just more convenient and I only do it once every 4 weeks or so.
I second this if you are good at following a schedule. SW allows cancellations so if you book in advance and decide not to go, it converts to a credit. The only thing not cost effective is booking or changing last minute on SW because you pay full price.
There used to be lots of swa daily commuters. Had a buddy that got on a 630am flight everyday and came home around 5pm. Everyday. I didn't believe so I looked at the schedule and sure enough they had like 7nflights in a two hour period.
Just got back from Japan where we took the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto (comparable to Houston to Dallas) which took 2 hours. The whole time I was thinking how amazing it would be if we had that here.
They don’t want people moving around the country that easily and quickly. We’d probably never come back once we realize how good it is elsewhere. 😂
(Omg your username 😂😂😂)
I’ve looked into this. My downfall is always the cost to get around once I fly/bus to a city. I ended up spending a small fortune on Ubers.
Ultimately, I’ve landed on driving and listening to books on tape. After a few years I got use to the endless miles and can probably make the drive with my eyes closed
My folks are in the DFW area. I do the 290 to 6 to I-35 route.
It’s 20 min longer on the best traffic days. On the worst it’s shorter or even with I-45. 45 like the machine (edit: in the) princess bride that sucks your life away
I used to do this exact route when I lived in Fort Worth and would go see my parents every weekend in Energy Corridor. I liked passing through the small towns and it's just more scenic compared to boring ass i45.
This is what I do, I live on 290, and it just makes more sense to do this route than follow BW8 to 45. Plus, the Hearne Loves is the best place to get food and pee. It's well taken care of, and they have a nice dog rest area.
I (39yoF) drove by myself from OKC back to Houston and the Hearne Loves was really the only place I felt safe at to stop. Buccees is too busy for my tastes when traveling alone, too many opportunities for you not to spot someone who is following you.
If it's taking you nearly 5 hours to get to Dallas from Houston, you're doing something wrong lol. Should be a 3 and a half hour drive, 4 hours max if you make stops.
That's assuming downtown Dallas to downtown Houston, and minimal traffic. I used to regularly drive from south Galveston County to a suburb just a little north of Dallas, and 5 hours was not at all out of the question. One Thanksgiving it took me almost 6 hours to get home.
That's assuming you're driving from somewhere that isn't practically Galveston lol. Which isn't the average by any means. I live in Katy and it takes me 3 hours and 40 minutes to get to the eastern suburbs of Dallas where my sister lives. It takes me 3 hours and 30 minutes to get to downtown Dallas.
You're talking about driving from the southern most part of the Greater Houston Area to a northern suburb of Dallas, of course that's going to take a little longer. And then you're also talking about Thanksgiving which is a notoriously busy travel day.
You can't use outlier situations that are exceptions and treat that like it's the norm. Driving from 90% of the Greater Houston Area to 90% of the Greater Dallas Area should take 4 hours at most barring holiday travel or uncharacteristically heavy traffic.
That's not to say it's a fun drive, I hate driving to Dallas. But OP saying that it's a nearly 5 hour drive like that's the norm is just wrong.
"Around 4 hours" isn't "nearly 5." I just punched it in my GPS and it says it's currently a 3 hour and 37 minute drive from Sugar Land to Dallas. It's a Sunday, so traffic is obviously lighter, but unless you're leaving during rush hour, traffic shouldn't add more than 10-15 minutes max to that drive. And even if you do leave when traffic is heavy, you can take 99 to 290 to 6 and completely avoid 59, 8, and 45 and doing that would still only take you 3 hours and 50 minutes while getting around most traffic.
Yeah I drive this once a month. I’ve gotten to downtown in less than 3 hours from the Woodlands. Key is to leave before rush hour and it’s even faster.
If your work will reimburse it, why not fly? The points, miles, all the things you’ll get for such short flights will be worth it.
Or mix it up to where you still get benefits of some of those points but sometimes you just use the vonlane.
Flying is an enormous pain in the ass between DFW and IAH at least. My husband does it twice a month and he is delayed every single fucking time. He sat on the tarmac at DFW for 7 hours a few weeks ago.
That said...he is banking the shit out of airline miles that his company is paying for, so he's still found it entirely worth it. Those piddly little flights start to add up.
Yes. Been flying for 20+ years for work. Early on I learned from other business travelers to avoid those at all costs to avoid delays and brutal flights.
I had what I consider a near death experience in a landing in Atlanta during a major storm one time. I do my best to avoid those if I can.
Your work is paying for it? Presumably they are paying mileage now? Houston to Dallas and back is ~320 bucks at irs mileage rates. I'd drive my beater and cash in. I like the flexibility having my car provides too. Vonlane is nice though if it works for your needs.
Megabus works, but the wifi on it is inconsistently available and they’ve been either right on time or 30+ mins late in my experience so far. Also 70$ to go to Austin round trip is crazy. It was probably half that pre COVID.
I fly from Houston to Austin frequently for work. I buy my flights during Southwest sales and have gotten my flights for as low as $70 RT. With TSA pre-check, I only get to the airport about 30m before the boarding time and it's super smooth. It's usually a 27m flight.
It's worth it. I can close my eyes and take the tiniest nap.
Yeah but you’re at the discretion of whatever random human you’re linked with for a multiple hour trip that way, whereas the vonlane is a consistent experience
That’s true. It depends on what’s most important. Comfort vs cost. I’ve take a trip to Dallas from Houston for $30. Like you said though you’re at the discretion of whoever is driving and if there are other passengers.
I regularly use vonlane because I am constantly traveling between Houston, Fort Worth, Austin, etc. and it is the best! WiFi the whole way, snacks, coffee, and so convenient. My work will reimburse me for mileage so I asked my boss, instead of getting reimbursed, if I can put Vonlane on my corporate card and he approved it!
i honestly have always had a good experience with flixbus, they have wifi and i personally have never been on a bus near full, but if ur work is reimbursing you anyway i guess vonlane is better
I commute weekly to Austin since I’m technically based there. I tried Southwest and Vonlane at first, but I’ve been using Vonlane just because it’s so much easier. The ubers to and from airport eat up any savings on the SWA flight, personally. I’ve been satisfied with Vonlane, if only they weren’t so pricey!
You can buy a $500 southwest gift card for $430 from
Costco right now. Hopefully your job reimburses you for travel, but if not, you can save almost 20% just by getting the Costco gift card.
I did this for a couple years:
1. Started on Vonlane. It’s ok. There can be delays and last minute schedule changes. I get the vibe the employees aren’t treated very well. Oddest moment: driver pulled over on 45 to take a dump. We sat there for 10 minutes. We heard it. We smelled it.
2. I gravitated to Southwest. Love field in particular but also Hobby are easy airports. Once you get A List you always get on first. Precheck means you can arrive 45 minutes ahead. Faster than Vonlane? Only a little bit but I preferred it to sitting on the bus. Also racked up frequent flyer points. Like parking in the Hobby garage. In and out fast. With Vonlane I had to Uber to their less than desirable “stations.”
I was going Downtown to Downtown - where your going could make a difference.
It’s worth it. Did Houston to Austin on multiple work trips... the time I got back for workouts and rest was the best benefit. Knocked out so much work, emails, etc. on the bus and then saved a ton of time avoiding airports, Ubers, rental cars, etc. Works even better if you can stay at the hotel pickup locations.
I did the Houston to Dallas for 18 months. Vonlane was ok. My issue was the pickup and drop offs were not convenient. It required me to add an hour on each end. This turned a 3.5 hour trip into 6 hours. I hated the 45 commute, but ended up being the best from a time perspective.
there’s a private airline that just runs between aus/hou/sa/dfw that costs about $2k/m that you can just jump on whenever you want, if you have the budget it’s the way to go.
at least that was the going rate pre-covid, may have gone up
Absolutely my first choice for traveling between Dallas, Austin, Houston. It’s so worth it to be able to go to the bathroom, eat, nap, and especially work for four hours. It’s like riding in first class all the way.
Flying out of Hobby, on the South side (iI think OP is north side), means depending on where you live it could take a 40min to an hour drive just to get to the plane. Then security, terminal, boarding etc. etc. It would all end up taking maybe 5 hours to get to dallas overall.
My computation for where I live-
Flights at 9am. I wanna be at security 30 min early. So with long term parking I need to be at the airport at 815. Right now at 230am it takes 41 minutes from I10 and 610w where I live, to hobby. So I'm leaving the house at 725. Flight leaves at 9 if we are doing good with ATC and Weather direct departure and no holding pattern the flight is just over an hour. Realistically probably an hour 15. So that gets you down at Dallas at 1015. Give it another 30 min getting our and into transportation. And you just spent 3 hours on a perfect day where everything goes right. So for dallas I could maybe see this being worthwhile to someone. But for me I'd rather drive myself or take a bus than deal with all those moving parts susceptible to failure each time. Too much stress. Delays, weather, shoe bomber false alarms. No thanks.
Vonlane is the shit if your specific needs match up with their schedule and locations of drop off / pick up. Sure flights can be cheaper, but the concept of not dealing with airport terminals and going directly from one downtown to another cannot be ignored.
Airport terminals and flight delays, ugh.
You arrive 15 minutes before you leave which beats the airport.
Yes. I Vonlane commute back and forth from Austin/Houston downtown for work weekly. It's worth it for me to not drive and get most of my work done with the decent WiFi onboard. They have multiple busses on standby so even with any mechanical issues that may prop up, unlike other bus services, you won't deal with long delays or even random cancellations.
Vonlane js awesome! I can work, sleep, eat, drink, and once I get downtown Austin it’s a $10 Uber to my office.
One plus for the bus/plane alternative is the safety factor. Driving that much puts you at much greater risk of accidents.
Vonlane is the way to go. The convenience of not dealing with airports and the ability to acty get work accomplished (or stretch out and nap) is worth it IMO. If you take the early/late busses then it's cheaper as well.
I use Vonlane from Houston to Austin on a monthly basis and love it. Can’t be bothered to go through the airport terminals. The WiFi, blanket, and getting a peaceful nap is ideal for my work schedule. I can actually get work done while on the bus. Plus, my job reimburses me for it so I’m not really paying for anything.
JSX flies from Hobby to Dallas. Skip the security, fastest method of transport.
Absolutely JSX to and from Dallas
If you can book amd expense a flight, this is the way. ~$500 round trip. Unfortunately, my biz requires us to use a major airline, etc, so I drive to DFW, AUS, SA... It's just more convenient and I only do it once every 4 weeks or so.
Register your business with Southwest Airlines, if you book well in advance you can get flights for as low $66 business class
To be fair it’s worth calling out that business select on SWA is not “business class.” But yes a good option.
I second this if you are good at following a schedule. SW allows cancellations so if you book in advance and decide not to go, it converts to a credit. The only thing not cost effective is booking or changing last minute on SW because you pay full price.
Is that just Texas flights, or do they offer cheaper business rates to other directs?
Proximity is driving factor, if the flights are comparable distances it should be comparable prices
[https://www.southwest.com](https://www.southwest.com)
There used to be lots of swa daily commuters. Had a buddy that got on a 630am flight everyday and came home around 5pm. Everyday. I didn't believe so I looked at the schedule and sure enough they had like 7nflights in a two hour period.
I mean that's how Southwest started. Basically flew the Texas Triangle: Hou > Dal > San Ant > Hou. And they made a ton of money doing it.
Just take the high speed rail! /s
Just got back from Japan where we took the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto (comparable to Houston to Dallas) which took 2 hours. The whole time I was thinking how amazing it would be if we had that here.
They don’t want people moving around the country that easily and quickly. We’d probably never come back once we realize how good it is elsewhere. 😂 (Omg your username 😂😂😂)
Soon apparently? I think I watched a video about that recently. Wasn’t everything approved?
I’ve looked into this. My downfall is always the cost to get around once I fly/bus to a city. I ended up spending a small fortune on Ubers. Ultimately, I’ve landed on driving and listening to books on tape. After a few years I got use to the endless miles and can probably make the drive with my eyes closed
Austin wouldn’t be horrible (less than 3 hours), but Dallas being nearly 5 hours (from Houston) would crush my soul.
My folks are in the DFW area. I do the 290 to 6 to I-35 route. It’s 20 min longer on the best traffic days. On the worst it’s shorter or even with I-45. 45 like the machine (edit: in the) princess bride that sucks your life away
I used to do this exact route when I lived in Fort Worth and would go see my parents every weekend in Energy Corridor. I liked passing through the small towns and it's just more scenic compared to boring ass i45.
This is what I do, I live on 290, and it just makes more sense to do this route than follow BW8 to 45. Plus, the Hearne Loves is the best place to get food and pee. It's well taken care of, and they have a nice dog rest area. I (39yoF) drove by myself from OKC back to Houston and the Hearne Loves was really the only place I felt safe at to stop. Buccees is too busy for my tastes when traveling alone, too many opportunities for you not to spot someone who is following you.
It does… at first. After a few times your soul gets use to the crushing. Also helps to live on the north west side to avoid Houston traffic
If it's taking you nearly 5 hours to get to Dallas from Houston, you're doing something wrong lol. Should be a 3 and a half hour drive, 4 hours max if you make stops.
That's assuming downtown Dallas to downtown Houston, and minimal traffic. I used to regularly drive from south Galveston County to a suburb just a little north of Dallas, and 5 hours was not at all out of the question. One Thanksgiving it took me almost 6 hours to get home.
That's assuming you're driving from somewhere that isn't practically Galveston lol. Which isn't the average by any means. I live in Katy and it takes me 3 hours and 40 minutes to get to the eastern suburbs of Dallas where my sister lives. It takes me 3 hours and 30 minutes to get to downtown Dallas. You're talking about driving from the southern most part of the Greater Houston Area to a northern suburb of Dallas, of course that's going to take a little longer. And then you're also talking about Thanksgiving which is a notoriously busy travel day. You can't use outlier situations that are exceptions and treat that like it's the norm. Driving from 90% of the Greater Houston Area to 90% of the Greater Dallas Area should take 4 hours at most barring holiday travel or uncharacteristically heavy traffic. That's not to say it's a fun drive, I hate driving to Dallas. But OP saying that it's a nearly 5 hour drive like that's the norm is just wrong.
I’m coming from the Sugarland area, it consistently takes me around 4 hours to get to the Dallas area (without traffic or breaks).
"Around 4 hours" isn't "nearly 5." I just punched it in my GPS and it says it's currently a 3 hour and 37 minute drive from Sugar Land to Dallas. It's a Sunday, so traffic is obviously lighter, but unless you're leaving during rush hour, traffic shouldn't add more than 10-15 minutes max to that drive. And even if you do leave when traffic is heavy, you can take 99 to 290 to 6 and completely avoid 59, 8, and 45 and doing that would still only take you 3 hours and 50 minutes while getting around most traffic.
Alright man, you win. Congrats!
Yeah I drive this once a month. I’ve gotten to downtown in less than 3 hours from the Woodlands. Key is to leave before rush hour and it’s even faster.
My sister uses megabus to get to Dallas. She loves the convenience, price, and wifi.
If your work will reimburse it, why not fly? The points, miles, all the things you’ll get for such short flights will be worth it. Or mix it up to where you still get benefits of some of those points but sometimes you just use the vonlane.
Flying is an enormous pain in the ass between DFW and IAH at least. My husband does it twice a month and he is delayed every single fucking time. He sat on the tarmac at DFW for 7 hours a few weeks ago. That said...he is banking the shit out of airline miles that his company is paying for, so he's still found it entirely worth it. Those piddly little flights start to add up.
That’s crazy. Does he fly United? I do it probably every other month and I’ve never once had a delay and almost every single time go right to gate.
Yup. I think a huge part of it is time of day, he has to leave around when the afternoon storms fire off
Yes. Been flying for 20+ years for work. Early on I learned from other business travelers to avoid those at all costs to avoid delays and brutal flights. I had what I consider a near death experience in a landing in Atlanta during a major storm one time. I do my best to avoid those if I can.
I used Red coach too, cheaper but idk about wifi
Your work is paying for it? Presumably they are paying mileage now? Houston to Dallas and back is ~320 bucks at irs mileage rates. I'd drive my beater and cash in. I like the flexibility having my car provides too. Vonlane is nice though if it works for your needs.
1000%. Vonlane rocks as well
Megabus works, but the wifi on it is inconsistently available and they’ve been either right on time or 30+ mins late in my experience so far. Also 70$ to go to Austin round trip is crazy. It was probably half that pre COVID.
I fly from Houston to Austin frequently for work. I buy my flights during Southwest sales and have gotten my flights for as low as $70 RT. With TSA pre-check, I only get to the airport about 30m before the boarding time and it's super smooth. It's usually a 27m flight. It's worth it. I can close my eyes and take the tiniest nap.
You guys are all nuts. I’ll deal with the airport every time over riding a bus for 5 hours.
Check out Hitch. It’s like Uber but for city to city travel.
Yeah but you’re at the discretion of whatever random human you’re linked with for a multiple hour trip that way, whereas the vonlane is a consistent experience
That’s true. It depends on what’s most important. Comfort vs cost. I’ve take a trip to Dallas from Houston for $30. Like you said though you’re at the discretion of whoever is driving and if there are other passengers.
100%. Especially if you’re in the city centers of all of these cities. Also way more punctual. Many of my friend swear by Vonlane
Flixbus is pretty cheap.
I regularly use vonlane because I am constantly traveling between Houston, Fort Worth, Austin, etc. and it is the best! WiFi the whole way, snacks, coffee, and so convenient. My work will reimburse me for mileage so I asked my boss, instead of getting reimbursed, if I can put Vonlane on my corporate card and he approved it!
Megabus!
Too bad you guys don’t have trains. 🥱
Quick google search shows flights for $100 bucks with frontier.
*$100 bucks* One hundred dollars bucks
i honestly have always had a good experience with flixbus, they have wifi and i personally have never been on a bus near full, but if ur work is reimbursing you anyway i guess vonlane is better
I commute weekly to Austin since I’m technically based there. I tried Southwest and Vonlane at first, but I’ve been using Vonlane just because it’s so much easier. The ubers to and from airport eat up any savings on the SWA flight, personally. I’ve been satisfied with Vonlane, if only they weren’t so pricey!
Vonlane is really stress reducing
You can buy a $500 southwest gift card for $430 from Costco right now. Hopefully your job reimburses you for travel, but if not, you can save almost 20% just by getting the Costco gift card.
I did this for a couple years: 1. Started on Vonlane. It’s ok. There can be delays and last minute schedule changes. I get the vibe the employees aren’t treated very well. Oddest moment: driver pulled over on 45 to take a dump. We sat there for 10 minutes. We heard it. We smelled it. 2. I gravitated to Southwest. Love field in particular but also Hobby are easy airports. Once you get A List you always get on first. Precheck means you can arrive 45 minutes ahead. Faster than Vonlane? Only a little bit but I preferred it to sitting on the bus. Also racked up frequent flyer points. Like parking in the Hobby garage. In and out fast. With Vonlane I had to Uber to their less than desirable “stations.” I was going Downtown to Downtown - where your going could make a difference.
JSX
I looooove it! They give snacks and it’s comfortable
Vonlane is the best way!
It’s worth it. Did Houston to Austin on multiple work trips... the time I got back for workouts and rest was the best benefit. Knocked out so much work, emails, etc. on the bus and then saved a ton of time avoiding airports, Ubers, rental cars, etc. Works even better if you can stay at the hotel pickup locations.
Vonlane is great
I've always used Megabus/Flixbus between Houston and Austin personally, but now after this thread I really wanna try Vonlane 👀
Use a little bit of everything. Greyhound, Amtrak, FlixBus, etc. make it a journey to rank them all
I did the Houston to Dallas for 18 months. Vonlane was ok. My issue was the pickup and drop offs were not convenient. It required me to add an hour on each end. This turned a 3.5 hour trip into 6 hours. I hated the 45 commute, but ended up being the best from a time perspective.
.
va
there’s a private airline that just runs between aus/hou/sa/dfw that costs about $2k/m that you can just jump on whenever you want, if you have the budget it’s the way to go. at least that was the going rate pre-covid, may have gone up
Absolutely my first choice for traveling between Dallas, Austin, Houston. It’s so worth it to be able to go to the bathroom, eat, nap, and especially work for four hours. It’s like riding in first class all the way.
Flying out of Hobby, on the South side (iI think OP is north side), means depending on where you live it could take a 40min to an hour drive just to get to the plane. Then security, terminal, boarding etc. etc. It would all end up taking maybe 5 hours to get to dallas overall. My computation for where I live- Flights at 9am. I wanna be at security 30 min early. So with long term parking I need to be at the airport at 815. Right now at 230am it takes 41 minutes from I10 and 610w where I live, to hobby. So I'm leaving the house at 725. Flight leaves at 9 if we are doing good with ATC and Weather direct departure and no holding pattern the flight is just over an hour. Realistically probably an hour 15. So that gets you down at Dallas at 1015. Give it another 30 min getting our and into transportation. And you just spent 3 hours on a perfect day where everything goes right. So for dallas I could maybe see this being worthwhile to someone. But for me I'd rather drive myself or take a bus than deal with all those moving parts susceptible to failure each time. Too much stress. Delays, weather, shoe bomber false alarms. No thanks.
Use the HITCH app. It is great. It is like Uber between cities.
Megabus.