Taiwan-based EVA Air, a member of the Star Alliance, operates a bus route. In Texas. Sadly, the service ends August 31.
Since 2015 they’ve flown from Taipei to Houston, including for a time with one of their famous Hello Kitty planes. Houston service is now daily.
While they regularly operate cargo flights to Dallas, they do not serve DFW airport. So they operate a bus to take passengers ticketed on their Houston flight to and from the North Texas city.
Credit: EVA Air
Credit: EVA Air
Anyone ticketed on that flight can book the bus service for free, and it’s timed to their flight, however they do not guarantee you’ll make the bus if you’re held up in Customs and Houston Intercontinental airport. They even offer an extra baggage allowance for their own Infinity MileageLands elite members and for Star Alliance Gold members.
The termination of this bus service actually makes previously-booked paid travel between Houston and Taipei refundable, because you might have relied on the free bus to and from Dallas.
EVA Air’s Star Alliance partner United – which operates a hub in Houston and helps the Houston route make sense – operates 9 peak daily departures to Dallas – Fort Worth, so the existence of the free bus was a little bit odd to begin with?
(HT: Enilria)
Ci has something similar in jfk. I think it goes down to dc maybe at least Philly though!
Pre-covid they did the same thing to various Chinese shopping centers such as in Edison, NJ, Cherry Hill NJ and into Philadelphia.
EVA Air also has free bus service to several NJ cities and the Philadelphia area but that, after years of service, ends in March 2024.
https://www.evaair.com/en-us/plan-and-book/additional-service/shuttle-bus-service/service-to-connect-pa-and-nj/
OZ and CI have similar things in JFK, not sure if they do it at other airports.
OZ’s shuttle service at JFK has been offered for 15+ years now, as I used to take it myself when I was young
Their paid business class used to transfer pax in DFW & AUS area to Houston on either mini van or passenger car I believe, not on awards.
Only issue with the United service is they dont have departures at midnight to DFW to accommodate connecting traffic.
I’ve seen the EVA Air bus make stops at the Buc-ee’s along I-45.
Probably more money will go to United than the bus cost per passenger once the bus route is eliminated. Timewise, the bus is probably close to competitive with flying and is probably more reliably on time. EVA flights from LAX need to go back to their prepandemic competitiveness. If they do, I’ll be happy to fly EVA again.
Emirates offers a shuttle between Seattle and Vancouver, as Canada still restricts the number of flights Emirates can fly into Canada.
United airlines service is horrible. So travelers rather take EVA air.
EVA air now has enough business and travelers from Houston for Taiwanese going to Taiwan and SE Asians making a layover in Taiwan in their way to other Asian countries.
They don’t need Dallas passengers anymore. However. A stand alone DFW to Taiwan direct flight would also be good business. There are plenty of Taiwanese and other Asian travelers.