Friday, June 8, 2012

BUYING BUS TICKETS

This morning's walk was broken into three legs due to a trip to the bus station to pickup/buy tickets for an upcoming trip to McAllen.  Total distance 1.65mi.

I'm in Mexico and it's still Mexico.
The way you buy bus tickets on the Internet changed about 3 months ago making it almost silly trying to do so.
You still can't buy tickets, even on the same company, where you change busses.  Each leg has to be a separate purchase.  And of course, you have to buy from each company's website separately.  You can't even print you boarding passes online, you have to go down to the bus station with the originalo and copy of you voter's credential if you are Mexican or you passport if you are a foreigner to pick up your ticket.  You can wait till 30 minute before departure to do so, but I like to have my tickets in hand well before the date even though there has never been a problem.  The only reason to buy online is to save time at the ticket counter which can be considerable.

Two bus companies are involved because I take a bus to Reynosa on ODM, take a taxi to Mexican Immigration and walk across the bridge because the jitney from Reynosa to McAllen won't stop and wait for me while I got through Mexican Immigration.  The ODM bus, if it runs at all, gets to Reynosa and the taxi to Mexican Immigration early enough that there's not much of a line at US Customs and Immigration.  Coming home, I get a Grupo Senda bus in McAllen that does wait for me at the border where I have to go through Mexican Immigration again but connects with another ODM bus in Reynosa that gets me to Zacatecas.  Checking out and checking in with Mexican Immigration is a condition of my permit.

This morning I was able to buy my ODM ticket from Zacatecas to Reynosa, but I had to call an 800 number to get the code numbers I needed to be able to pick up the ticket.  I was then able to buy my Grupo Senda ticket from McAllen to Reynosa and print out a confirmation to take to the bus station.  When it came to buying the ticket Reynosa to Zacatecas, the transaction rejected for no logical reason.

OK, confirmation and code numbers in hand I headed out for the bus station.  The bus pulled into a gas station about 300 yards short of the bus station and a bunch of us got out there to walk.  

Between the 2 bus companies, it took less than a half hour in line and at the counter picking up and/or buying my tickets.

On the way back, I got off at the nearest stop to my bank, went to the ATM and walked home.


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