OT: Technology hates me example #4358

[RS_Express]

OK, I'm going to the NCAA tournament 1st/2nd round games in St. Louis in March. By bus.  Had the basketball tickets and hotel booked weeks ago.  Time to get the bus tickets.  Have to get them online because although the bus stops in Worthington, there is no ticket seller here.  So it's Greyhound.com at 1AM.

Booking the trip down to St. Louis: 17 hours, transfers in Albert Lea and Kansas City, click, click, boom, we're good.
Booking the return... oh boy.  First the Greyhound site refused to give me the same return route as the departure.  Kept routing me a 27 hour trip through Indianapolis   

So I broke the return trip into parts.  St. Louis up to Albert Lea, transfer in KC, click, click, fine.

Albert Lea to Worthington.  Click, click... card declined.  WTF?? Try again, again, same thing.   So now my return is virtually stuck in Albert Lea until morning when I can call the bank and ask what's up.  Seems that by booking 2 trips and trying to book a 3rd in one session, I triggered my accounts' fraud alert flag    So I confirmed it was me and got the flag removed.  Back to Greyhound.com.  Albert Lea>Worthington, click, click, finally!  Hooray!  Except that by having to book the return in 2 segments instead of 1, I ended up paying an extra $40 

God I miss just walking up to a counter and buying a hard ticket.

[pikvikes]

God I miss just walking up to a counter and buying a hard ticket. DITTO!!!!!

[comet52]

Haven't ridden the pale hound in a long time but I sure had some rough experiences in my younger days including a trip to and from St. Louis around 40 years ago. The stopover in KC was like something out of a horror movie. I can look back and laugh now but.. .   Hope it goes ok for you.

[BigAl99]

Been trying to get out of Boston since Sunday using apps and chat bots. Getting to a place like DSM is near impossible. Got a feeling face to face is going to be a fond memory of when things were great.

[StickierBuns]

Haven't ridden the pale hound in a long time but I sure had some rough experiences in my younger days including a trip to and from St. Louis around 40 years ago. The stopover in KC was like something out of a horror movie.  I can look back and laugh now but.. .   Hope it goes ok for you.

I took it once.....ONCE....when I was in college go from Mt. Pleasant, Michigan to Escanaba, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula. That is a just under 7 hour drive by car. It took 13 and a half hours. And some of my bus companions where....um....interesting to say the least. Never again. And for me, it was also around 40 years ago.

[MaroonBells]

I took it once.....ONCE....when I was in college go from Mt. Pleasant, Michigan to Escanaba, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula. That is a just under 7 hour drive by car. It took 13 and a half hours. And some of my bus companions where....um....interesting to say the least. Never again. And for me, it was also around 40 years ago.

I took a Greyhound from Great Lakes Naval Station north of Chicago to Billings, MT. That was a 30 hour bus ride. Absolutely brutal. I didn't buy "a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner pies," though you could smoke on buses back then, which seems wild to me now. Instead I bought a Sun-Times, and over 30 hours probably read every word in it. Still remember the headline was about the Tylenol scare.