A woman who thought she had booked an American Airlines flight from South Bend Airport in Indiana to New York, with a stopover in Chicago, was surprised to find herself boarding a bus instead of a plane.
The Unexpected “Flight”
TikTok user Krista Moats shared her experience after realising she had missed a crucial detail while booking her ticket.
“I booked a work trip to New York and the airport I fly from is really small so I had to connect in Chicago (other options to connect were Atlanta or Minneapolis—so I picked Chicago that time),” she wrote.
On the day of her trip, Moats arrived at South Bend Airport, checked in her bags, and cleared security as usual. But when her boarding announcement came, she and other passengers were directed not to a plane, but to a shuttle bus bound for Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
The journey lasted about 2.5 hours, Moats revealed in her video, adding, “We were driving besides planes taxiing on the runway.”
Why a Bus Instead of a Plane?
The unexpected ride turned out to be part of Landline, American Airlines’ premium motorcoach service that connects certain regional airports to major hubs such as Chicago O’Hare (ORD) and Philadelphia (PHL).
Instead of a short connecting flight, passengers are transported by a high-end bus that is integrated into the airline’s official itinerary. The American Airlines website promotes it as a “new and convenient way to travel.”
“This is a new service previously only available in Philadelphia, so it wasn’t exactly on my radar to look for ‘bus’ while booking. Literally that option didn’t exist previously, so I wasn’t looking out for that,” Moats explained.
Reactions Online
The TikTok post sparked mixed reactions. Some commenters were amused, while others expressed disbelief.
“I still do not understand what happened. You bought a flight, then at the airport they loaded you onto a bus and drove you to Chicago instead of flying you? All these words you used and still don’t know what happened,” one user commented.
Another wrote, “No because if I paid airline prices and had to go through security at an AIRPORT I expect to be getting on a plane. If I wanted to take a bus I’d go with a Greyhound and avoid all of that hassle.”
Others defended the arrangement, pointing out the short distance between the two cities. “I was just thinking how wasteful a plane ride from South Bend to Chicago is,” one viewer said.
