Traveler Says American Airlines ‘Flight’ To Chicago Was Actually A Bus Ride, Sparking Confusion: ‘Imagine Going Through TSA For A Bus’

A Stanford University student says he booked what he thought was a flight from South Bend, Indiana to Chicago, Illinois. Then he looked a little bit closer at his confirmation and realized he was taking a bus instead of a plane. 

Reese, (@reesedunne) a current Ph.D student, posted a video expressing some confusion about his travel itinerary. After booking a trip with American Airlines, he realized that he’d actually be taking a bus for at least one leg on his round trip—South Bend to Chicago.

“POV: Your ‘flight’ is actually a bus,’” he writes in an on-screen caption.

He would later take a flight to San Francisco that thankfully wasn’t actually a bus. 

The situation confused the TikToker, who told his audience that he was “forever traumatized” by seeing “bus” as the aircraft type. As of this writing, his post has over 5.6 million views. Hundreds of commenters agreed that they aren’t fans of a portion of a flight including passage by bus.

American Airlines Passenger Discovers He’s Taking The Bus

In his post, Reese boards the shuttle and even spots his family as the bus drives away from the airport. 

“This was a first,” he notes.

In comments, he said that, at a cost of $290, the route was cheaper than normal. This was a hollow comfort, as he felt a member of his family could have driven him to Chicago for free.

A few people said that they’d be peeved if they thought they were getting on a plane and instead ended up on a two hour bus ride.

“Paying airplane prices for a bus ride is crazy. I’m sure you still had to go [through] security,” one commenter said.

Another agreed, “Imagine going through TSA for a bus.”

Do Airlines Often Use Buses?

To the surprise of Reese and a few other commenters, taking an American Airlines bus isn’t necessarily a new development. They’ve become especially common when airlines need to get passengers to smaller airports that are close to larger, major hubs. If an airline doesn’t fly into a specific airport, for instance, they may opt to create a bus route.

A few carriers like American specifically offer shuttle services from major hubs like Chicago to smaller cities, the service that Reese ended up on. They’re rare; very few airlines operate regular, routine landline routes. United Airlines, for instance, used to have multiple bus connections, but it has reportedly discontinued its routes.

In a few areas of the United States, though, offering a shuttle service for regional connections is cost-effective. Generally, carriers lose money on extremely short flights. There’s also a shortage of pilots, which makes it harder to continue offering such routes over time.

American Airlines has been experimenting with using bus transit routes in recent years. In 2022, American introduced two new bus routes connecting Atlantic City, New Jersey and Allentown, Pennsylvania to its Philadelphia hub.

NPR reported, “You’ll check in and check your bags at the kiosk and counter, go through the security checkpoint, and as you board, you’ll see the American Airlines logo and color scheme. But what you won’t see are wings because this flight is on a bus.”

BoardingArea reached out to American Airlines via press email and Reese via TikTok direct message for more information. We’ll let you know if either party responds.

@reesedunne When your American Airlines “flight” is actually a bus 😅 this was a first #traveltiktok #fyp #foryoupage #americanairlines ♬ original sound – emomarcus96