May 25, 2015 10:30 PM
14778 Views
(Updated May 25, 2015 10:36 PM)
Generally I prefer to travel by night buses for overnight travel and trains for day time. I travel by night buses for 1000kms, almost once in a month.
Few days back I was to go to Delhi from Jaipur. Its about 270kms by road and not a long journey. I looked for the buses online booking. And stumbled upon Mahalaxmibus, in. I have to mention that their fare was significantly lower than most other travel agencies. It was just INR 200/- for seat and INR 350/- for sleeper(non A/c bus). And this was the main reason for me to stop and go through all their terms n conditions, and procedures.(generally I do spend my time to go through all this while getting any service online to avoid any unexpected, nightmare like experience.)
I was to book seats for the next day and when I saw the available seats I was surprised that only one seat had been booked at that time and that too in this summer holiday season! I thought it might not have been updated status.
I called up the local Mahalaxmi travel agent and enquired about charges and seats. There were no hidden charges at all. Then I decided to book the seats. Booking process was very easy. After selectin the route, there were options to select the seats(lower seat/upper sleeper among all available options).
When I selected seats, there was a mandatory dropdown option where I had to indicate that who will be travelling on that particular seats Male/Female. They have a note on the website-
" Important Note:
Kindly, Note that if male passenger seat suppose to BOOKED or SELECTED besides the LADIES seat booked, Company has rights to CHANGE or CANCEL your seat no. No further arguments will be taken into consideration from customer."
I think its a good option if a lay is travelling alone coz it ill prevent any male passenger from seating beside. And thus a good safety precaution.
Ok, then I proceeded to payment gateway and this was a new one for me. I paid through Netbanking and had no issues. I got the confirmation email for my booking. Fixed departure time from Jaipur was 11:00PM and the arrival in Delhi was 05:00AM.
The next day. I arrived boarding point which was Hotel Archana and asked the Agent over there about my online booked seats. He verified the same on his system and gave me the tickets. We got on the Bus which was already there at about 10:30 PM.
The had mentioned on the website that the passenger will have to show the photo ID at the boarding time. but the agent didn't ask for any such thing. IMO such verification should be one for better security.
Some common things I noticed there-
The seats n sleepers were clean.
Seats were adjusable back and forth.
Sleeper had the nightlamp(though broken), headrest and the bottle holder.
The bus departed at the fixed time. Afterwards the conductor checked the tickets. The bus did not take any halt for refreshment etc. and arrived before time in Delhi.
Pros-
Reasonale fare
Quick and easy online booking
Quick response by agents on calls
Fast and punctual service
Availability in many cities
Cons-
They should have at least one halt for refreshment.(I always enjoy this session in nightbuses)
