Month: April 2016

Houston Hyatt Regency Downtown                         18:00

Austin Hyatt Regency                                               21:00

Cost $99.00 (Discounts Available)

Booking is seamless on both Vonlane’s normal and mobile website. During the booking process you can select your seat.  There are no tickets or boarding passes to show you just give the attendant your name upon boarding.  Your space on the manifest is then checked on a tablet and you are directed to your pre assigned seat.  Waiting at each seat was a cold bottle of water and a menu.  Beverage selection is typical of what you would find on an airplane.  It included beer, wine, spirits and soft drinks. In addition there is a snack basket filled with pre packaged goodies as well as sandwiches and salads during meal times.

After departure the on board attendant came by for drink selections and then with the snack basket.  She passed through at least every 30 minutes to make sure everyone had what they needed.  There was also a call button in case you didn’t want to flag her down.  An announcement prior to departure encouraged passengers to only get up if they needed to use the restroom.  Speaking of the restroom this isn’t your ordinary bus affair.  This one was larger than a typical lavatory on an airplane, it was clean and smelled perfectly pleasant throughout the journey.

Unfortunately Vonlane has some cons. Notably the seat is not very comfortable.  This is a three hour trip so seat comfort is high on my list of priorities.  The overall design is poor.  The foot rest is configured in a way which completely blocks your ability to place your feet under the seat in front.  This severely limits foot room and should have been obvious during the testing phase of the interior design.  The actual seat padding and width are excellent, but do not make up for the lack of legroom.

The arrival was on time, any jackets that had been collected returned and goodbye mints available.