[atomwaffel]

I’m not sufficiently familiar with the geography of SF or LA – how does the door-to-door time and cost compare when you account for the fact that most trips don’t actually start and end at an airport? I’d much rather catch a sleeper bus/train in the city centre in the evening, sleep for 7–8 hours (something I’d be doing anyway) and wake up in another city centre the next morning with a full day ahead of me than deal with the hassle of travelling to an airport, going through security, killing time at the gate, and travelling back to the city centre at my destination.

[eternalny1]

To be fair, most trips don't actually start and end at a bus, either.

[garmaine]

Most trips don’t actually start and end at the bus depot either.

[atomwaffel]

Exactly, that’s why I’m wondering about the door-to-door times for a typical trip, and I don’t know enough about American cities to give a qualified answer myself.

My expectation would be that they’re more central and less time-consuming than most airports. Then again, my experience with bus stations so far has also been that they’re even less inviting places than most airports and not usually as well connected either.

[ghaff]

In the case of LA specifically there are several airports scattered around the area. Also 3 in the Bay. So flying gives you some choice of start-end destinations. I assume not all the combos are common routes.