Like a college freshman trying to bluff through a philosophy midterm, American Airlines seems to have gotten tripped up in a category error.
The carrier has classified some bus rides as "flights," and the results have been as confusing as a claim that the number 4 is yellow. (Our apologies if we have inadequately defined a category error. We didn't do so great on that midterm, either.)
Via a partnership with the Landline Company, the airline now offers "premium motorcoach" (i.e., bus) service between Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) and five smaller airports in Pennsylvania, New Jersey (including Atlantic City), and Delaware, as well as between Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) and regional facilities in Rockford, Illinois, and South Bend, Indiana.
How is it possible to mix up bus and plane tickets?
Up until you get on the bus, the service is just like a flight.
You buy tickets via American Airline's website or app or a third-party platform (such as Expedia or a credit card portal or corporate booking tool). Search results appear labeled as "Operated by the Landline Company as American Eagle." You get a flight number and catch your ride at the airport, after going through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint and having the chance to check your luggage.
As a matter of fact, the trip is presented as a flight so convincingly that some passengers are evidently shocked to discover they'll be making the journey at an altitude of a few feet rather than 30,000.
A viral social media post documents that very experience.
The video's creator, Kennedy Woodard-Jones, thought she had purchased a flight from South Bend to O'Hare. When she boarded the bus, she assumed it would take her to the plane.
“It wasn’t until we were on the highway that I realized this is my ride to O’Hare," she told the Washington Post.
Reached by phone and email, an American Airlines rep told us that "across American’s digital channels, Landline-operated segments are clearly presented and marketed as premium motorcoach services throughout the booking path.”
The implication is that confusion arises when customers book their trips via third-party platforms, over which the airline has little control with regard to how search results are displayed. And it's true that Woodard-Jones booked her trip "through a work tool," as she told the Washington Post.
She's not the only passenger, though, who missed any notification about the mode of transport ahead of time, as illustrated by other social media posts evincing varying degrees of outrage.
In a post objecting to being sold a "FIRST CLASS FLIGHT" and then put on a "BUS for a THREE HOUR RIDE for the first leg," one dissatisfied customer wrote, "I own a roofing company. Can I sell someone a roof, and instead install a new driveway [f]or them??? What a JOKE."
How American Airlines recommends using the bus service
American, for its part, describes the bus service as an effort to improve connectivity for regional airports that otherwise have limited access to American's hubs.
The feature is intended to supply an alternative to short connecting flights—say, for someone trying to get from South Bend to Las Vegas. You could take the Landline bus from the South Bend airport to O'Hare and then catch a connecting flight (on a plane, we should point out) to Las Vegas.
Choosing such a route gives customers the "convenience of traveling through a local airport, with baggage checked through to their final destination, eligibility to earn AAdvantage miles and Loyalty Points on qualifying fares, and a seamless connection into American’s global network," per an American Airlines statement shared with Frommer's.
Using the bus service without a connecting flight certainly doesn't make sense from a budgeting standpoint.
We searched for a round-trip itinerary between South Bend and O'Hare in late May, and American's Landline bus would cost an astronomical $1,035.
That's about $1,000 more than you'd pay via Greyhound for the same trip.
Looking for a round-trip journey between South Bend and Vegas, however, with a bus ride to O'Hare before catching the flight, would cost a far more reasonable $444 for our imaginary late spring trip, per American's website.
We'll leave it to you and your eyesight to decide whether the way American's online booking platform lays out the itinerary, with its little bus icon and notice about "travel on a luxury bus," is sufficient to avoid confusion.
If you want to get philosophical about it again, it's smart to remember that travel with American Airlines might involve a ghost in the machine. And by "a ghost" we mean "you," and by "the machine" we mean "a bus."