WASHINGTON – Guest writer Luca Zocche takes a trip from Washington to Nashville with Napaway – a premium sleeper coach service that offers comfortable and convenient overnight coach journeys between US cities across the country.
The experience
As I got off the Red Line at NoMa, I walked 10 minutes to the Napaway pickup point.
The bus was scheduled to depart at 10:00pm from Washington D.C and arrive at 08:00 am in Nashville, Tennessee.
After arriving I sat down in seat 12 as the bus has 18 seats. The bus was half full on today’s trip.
The seat is made by start-up seat maker Butterfly Flexible Seating Solutions, which was founded in 2016 by James Lee and Lars Rinne with a focus on airline seating.
In the end they decided to select Napaway as their launch customer, bringing airline styled luxury to bus travel for the first time.
Dan believes in the concept and will show that passengers like it and operators can generate extra profit over standard seating. If the latter two points are emphasized, it may help to convince especially small and medium sized aviation operators (airlines and wet leasing companies), that Butterfly can also help them.
They operate nothing else than “Air” buses, right?”
Napaway’s Butterfly seats make its product competitive towards airlines in this regard as it is an airline-like product.
Currently there are 19-20 direct flights a day between Washington D.C and Nashville with Allegiant, American, United and Southwest.
None of them offer a luxurious airline product nor comfort as Napaway does on the sector nor the timesaving and money that taking an overnight bus can offer you.
A complimentary mattress, pillow and blanket are left at the seat for when you recline the seat.
A complimentary bottle of water was given to each passenger in addition to an amenity kit was also given to each passenger.
A QR code was also given out to connect to the onboard Wifi and entertainment.
2 tables to use to work or eat.
A view of how the table in an upright position can be used as a phone holder.
The seat shown in full recline position.
As we departed I decided to brush my teeth. Upon entering the bathroom I wasn’t impressed as it was small, not easy to use the faucet and brush my teeth. It also didn’t smell so good.
View of the bathroom.
At around 11:00 pm I started to doze off and fell asleep. I couldn’t believe how comfortable it was as I slept until 08:00 am.
Other than some hard stops by the bus which caused me to wake up sometimes the trip was great as I was able to save 1 night in the hotel by sleeping on an overnight bus journey.
Conclusion
Napaway offers a competitive product. Aimed at leisure customers the company offers a strong alternative to taking a late flight the previous day and staying in a hotel overnight.
Shaving off a stay at a hotel and the flight by getting to your destination one night is a true saver and better offering.
The company though at the same time does have to improve on the quality of its bathroom and add additional sensors to the seat which would make the seats shake less.
I would highly recommend using Napaway over an airline and will make sure to use the company again for travel between Washington D.C and Nashville.
Coming Up:
In Part 2 we speak to Napaway’s Founder, Dan Aronov about how he came to start the venture.
At time of publishing the company now also offers more frequencies a week and travel from Knoxville to Washington D.C and Nashville as a thru stop.
AviationSource and the author, Luca Zocche would like to thank Napaway & Dan Aronov for their help in making this article possible.
