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Your NYC flight is 3 hours air time (Chicago's is a bit over two), but you need to get to the airport an hour earlier than that. The airports of any city are also generally not in downtown or the dense, populated neighborhoods so you need to account for travel time to and from airports in both cities which can cost money depending on if you take a cab or need to pay for overnight parking or some such. Realistically, you're talking more like a three to four hour difference for the one way (six to eight for the round trip) unless you live next to the airport of one and really just wanted to hang out in the airport of the other. Or if you really like planes and it's not really going to NYC so much as enjoying riding in an economy airline back and forth and seeing the renowned beauty of NYC's airports.
I think the difference is that your scenario makes a weekend trip, especially an extended weekend trip, to NYC a reasonable enough idea. For Philadelphia, that threshold can be shortened down to a day trip if one wants and not have to pay for lodging.
I see your point, the day trip vs weekend trip are the real difference. I'm just pointing out that the "closeness" of the east coast in travel times is often over exaggerated. It takes me the same amount of time to get to NYC as my buddies in DC and Boston, if I lived in Chicago it would take less time.
Philadelphia to NYC is about 1.5-2 hours closer than Chicago to NYC.
I live in NYC but a lot of my family and friends live in Philly and surrounding areas. I make the Philly <--> NYC trip very frequently, at least once or twice a month.
You seem to be saying that location doesn't matter because you can fly from other parts of the country. Comparing flight time to driving time is kind of an "apples to oranges" type thing. To add onto what OyCrumbler said, flying takes way longer than just the flight itself, and there are many other things that you have to factor in too. It is way less convienient in so many ways. There's also scheduling and price differences as well.
I get $10 bus tickets that run every hour between Lower Manhattan and Center City from 6am-11pm. The travel time is about 2 hours on weekdays, but closer to 1.5 hours on weeknights and weekends. I'm also talking about from one city core to another. People that make this trip that live in places like Northeast Philly, Staten Island, or NJ have an even shorter travel time.
There's also the train as a possibility. Amtrak between 30th st in Philly and Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan is only 70 minutes. The NJT train from Trenton is ~1 hour.
And then there are things other than cities, like having the ocean nearby. I like to surf, and the beach and the ocean are a huge part of who I am + how I grew up and I could not live without having the ocean nearby.
Anyways, I don't think it's "elitist" at all to mention location. It comes into the discussion for all city vs. city threads. Flying is not anywhere near as easy or convienient at all, nor affordable for many people.
Chicago, Dallas and Atlanta are unique in that they have frequent and inexpensive flights to the major East Coast Cities. One could Fly to NY from Chicago faster than driving to Indianapolis or faster than my friends can drive from Boston or DC.
I think the "Ew, but Chicago is in the Midwest I couldn't POSSIBLY live in the Midwest" attitude is elitist. For every single driveable natural attraction near Philly there is one near Chicago. As for shore line, Chicago without a doubt has the most attractive water front of any American City.
Being only two hours from NYC does not in any way bridge the difference to make Philadelphia better than Chicago. That's no diss at Philly, Dallas (my current home) Houston, Seatle are all in the same boat, Chicago is in a tier above them all.
I see your point, the day trip vs weekend trip are the real difference. I'm just pointing out that the "closeness" of the east coast in travel times is often over exaggerated. It takes me the same amount of time to get to NYC as my buddies in DC and Boston, if I lived in Chicago it would take less time.
Philadelphia to NYC is about 1.5-2 hours closer than Chicago to NYC.
I just counted that out--it's more like 2.5 to 3.5 hours more each way and at least double the cost if not more so. The difference is large and it's how the northeast sort of work as a unit because of the close proximity of several major cities tied by many different modes of transit from one to another. If the question were more like access to New Orleans or Nashville or something else where you'd be taking the plane regardless and the distance disparity isn't very large, then sure.
Your buddies are kind of silly if they are taking planes from DC or Boston to NYC unless they're taking personal or charter planes. Not Philly to NYC kind of silly, but pretty silly.
However, I'm not saying the fact that it's much cheaper and easier to visit some of the US's largest cities/metro should be that huge of a factor because it's not. Only that it is actually much, much easier and cheaper to visit NYC from one than another and your calculations were missing quite a lot of real world factors.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 02-17-2017 at 02:54 PM..
I just counted that out--it's more like 2.5 to 3.5 hours more each way and at least double the cost if not more so. The difference is large and it's how the northeast sort of work as a unit because of the close proximity of several major cities tied by many different modes of transit from one to another. If the question were more like access to New Orleans or Nashville or something else where you'd be taking the plane regardless and the distance disparity isn't very large, then sure.
Your buddies are kind of silly if they are taking planes from DC or Boston to NYC unless they're taking personal or charter planes. Not Philly to NYC kind of silly, but pretty silly.
No, my buddies drive from DC and Boston. I can fly from Dallas to NYC (so defiantly Chicago) quicker then they can drive there. If they were to fly they would probably beat me slightly, but their one hour flight would still take 2-2.5 hours because of the airport process.
Cost wise it is certainly cheaper to drive a couple hours than fly, but if you are going to NYC for a weekend 100-150 is a pretty minimal difference since everything there is so expensive anyway. Now if you regularly travel between the cities to visit family or something I can see how that adds up, but I think that would be the exception, not the norm.
My point is, quick and cheap air travel from Chicago, Dallas, and Atlanta really diminishes the "huge" advantage that Philadelphia has of only being 2 hours away.
Last edited by Treasurevalley92; 02-17-2017 at 03:09 PM..
i give Chicago the nod in summer, give the two a tie in spring and fall...
and Philadelphia the nod in the cooler months. Chicago has more BIG TOWERS. Chicago has just MORE... but Philly just an Acela Express ride away from NYC....
Last edited by odurandina; 02-17-2017 at 03:09 PM..
No, my buddies drive from DC and Boston. I can fly from Dallas to NYC (so defiantly Chicago) quicker then they can drive there. If they were to fly they would probably beat me slightly, but their one hour flight would still take 2-2.5 hours because of the airport process.
Cost wise it is certainly cheaper to drive a couple hours than fly, but if you are going to NYC for a weekend 100-150 is a pretty minimal difference since everything there is so expensive anyway. Now if you regularly travel between the cities to visit family or something I can see how that adds up, but I think that would be the exception, not the norm.
My point is, quick and cheap air travel from Chicago, Dallas, and Atlanta really diminishes the "huge" advantage that Philadelphia has of only being 2 hours away.
I don't think your point stands once you step through an accounting of the actual door to door time and full costs for the trip. There's a reason why travel numbers among east coast city routes by all means combined has such high numbers.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 02-17-2017 at 03:42 PM..
i give Chicago the nod in summer, give the two a tie in spring and fall...
and Philadelphia the nod in the cooler months. Chicago has more BIG TOWERS. Chicago has just MORE... but Philly just an Acela Express ride away from NYC....
Chicago also has beaches with one of the most impressive skylines in the world as a backdrop. That probably counts for something.
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