Can You Reserve A Seat On The Greyhound Bus?

Unfortunately, Greyhound no longer offers the option to reserve a seat when you are buying your ticket.

In the past you could reserve a seat with certain options like Greyhound Express and Priority boarding, but now all seats are first come - first serve.

This means that everybody lines up to board the bus and as passengers get on the bus they pick an empty seat and sit down. So you need to get to the Greyhound bus station that you will be leaving from early enough to get a good place in the boarding line.

Getting to the station 30 to 45 minutes before your bus is scheduled to leave will usually be early enough to ensure that you are near the front of the line.  Being first in the boarding line allows you to get on the bus first and therefore gives you a better choice of seats.

So while the option to reserve a seat would be nice since you would know for certain that you have a seat, there is something to be said for being able to choose your seat. We've all gotten on a plane and groaned silently when we saw who was assigned to the seats next to us. At least on Greyhound you have options when it comes to your seating.

This doesn't mean that I agree with Greyhound's decision to suspend reserved seating.

I think they should follow the example of Megabus and at least have limited reserved seating on each bus. The reserved tickets would cost a little more but they would guarantee that you have a seat on a specific bus departing at a specific time.

This would ease the worry that many people have about their bus being overbooked and their having to wait and take a later bus. I'd say maybe like the first 6 rows of each bus should be reserved seating and all the passengers with those tickets get to board first and are guaranteed their seats. I personally would gladly pay an extra $10-15 for that peace of mind.

Perhaps one day Greyhound will bring back reserved seating. But until then the best we can do is get to the station early and hope there are some good seats left on the bus when we board.

Do They Search For Drugs on the Greyhound Bus?

Do they search for drugs on the Greyhound bus? This is a question that I get asked quite frequently when people find out that I make videos about the Greyhound bus. And I always give the same answer: Yes and no.

The reason I say 'yes and no' is because while there is a chance that your bag may be searched while you are riding on the Greyhound bus, it's not Greyhound's policy to search passenger's bags.

In fact I think Greyhound as a company could care less what you have in your bags as long as you hand over the money for your ticket and you don't cause trouble.

That being said law enforcement has a totally different attitude towards drugs and they know that there is always a good chance that someone is using the Greyhound bus to transport them.

So in certain areas and cities the authorities do routine searching of Greyhound passenger's bags either before they board the bus or during their trip.

I've heard that this happens a lot in major cities and along bus routes near the U.S./Mexican border. Basically the more known the area is for drug trafficking the more likely that your bags will be searched.

If you are traveling in areas where drugs aren't really an issue then you probably won't have to worry about having you bags searched.

For instance, I've made countless cross country Greyhound bus trips from Florida to the Northwest and I've only had one incident where my bags were at risk of being searched and that was in Atlanta, GA.

Homeland Security  was at the station with the drug dogs and all and they were searching the bags of all passengers headed to California. I never travel with any contraband and I wasn't heading to California so I wasn't worried but I saw quite a few people that were.

My point is that you can ride Greyhound for years and never have your bags searched. It kind of just depends on what cities you are leaving and arriving from and the routes you are traveling on.

Even then a lot of the time when law enforcement searches a Greyhound bus they are acting on a tip they received. I don't really think they are ever out to catch the guy or girl who has a little marijuana stashed in their carry on bag. They are more out for people who are using Greyhound to move some serious weight.

Basically I'd say that 90% of the time there is no danger of your bag being searched while you are traveling on the Greyhound bus. But it's that other 10% that should have you worried if you are thinking of traveling with drugs or anything else that could get you into trouble.

I'm pretty sure that since the Greyhound bus crosses state lines you would up with federal charges if you got caught with anything illegal in your bags and that's just a risk I don't advise anyone to take.

Why not just leave the drugs or whatever else you are thinking about taking on the bus at home and then you don't have to worry. Trust me, it's not worth it.