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I know right? People talk about driving because of possible delays when flying, but one bad wreck or poor timing with construction and you've got big delays driving too.
With driving nowadays, you have Google Maps and Waze that can help avoid (most of) that. With flying, you are SOL on delays. The minor ones aren't a big deal, but the delays of multiple hours or flat-out cancellations put a huge damper on plans, considering a lot of us have small allotments of vacation time.
Distance, time and comfort for me.
For some other drivers, the tipping point could be also their driving skills, ability to deal with the traffic, or fear of driving/flying.
- If I have time and the car is reliable and comfortable - the distance doesn't matter. I will drive. I like to drive and don't fear traffic.
- If I am in a hurry and the distance is big I will fly.
- If I am in time pressure and the distance is doable, I will drive, because I might beat the travel delays and the inconvenience of being early at the airport, and the transportation time to and from the airport.
- If I wouldn't have a reliable car, trust my driving skills, fear traffic, or need to sleep or have work done during my travel - I will fly.
I frequently fly between Phoenix and Denver and my tipping point for my last trip was almost $280 for a ticket. I drove. With gas and a motel each way I still saved money. And I didn't have to rent a car.
I checked the distance for Denver CO to Phoenix AZ, and it said 1390 km, or 12h 45m driving time.
I then checked Expedia for flight prices, an example was, round trip, out June 4th, return June 11th, £113, which equates today to $156.72.
This seemed very cheap to me for a round trip of almost 2800 km, so I doubled it to $313.44 just in case I’d missed something, or omitted a lot of unseen extras.
These things are all subjective, a one man’s meat is another man’s poison kind of thing, but having spent my entire working life with a steering wheel in my hands, these days I avoid driving like the plague, unless I absolutely can’t avoid it, so for me, it would be a no-brainer, I’d be in a taxi to the airport in a flash.
Driving for 12h.45m each way, or $300+ for sitting in a plane relaxing, would be no contest, but that’s me.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jean-Francois
I checked the distance for Denver CO to Phoenix AZ, and it said 1390 km, or 12h 45m driving time.
I then checked Expedia for flight prices, an example was, round trip, out June 4th, return June 11th, £113, which equates today to $156.72.
This seemed very cheap to me for a round trip of almost 2800 km, so I doubled it to $313.44 just in case I’d missed something, or omitted a lot of unseen extras.
....
Driving for 12h.45m each way, or $300+ for sitting in a plane relaxing, would be no contest, but that’s me.
Do check other flight options (google flights and direct with carrier)
SWA is not always listed on Expedia or Google Flights. (Iflyswa.com)
Free bags, changes, cancellations, and very liberal use of credits makes SWA my usual choice within their service area. Use their 'low-fare-calender' to find least costly days of travel.
I go to college in Worcester MA and live in Washington DC.
If I'm going down for something urgent (like when I went to get my vaccine a few weeks ago), I take a plane. Total travel time is about 5-6 hours because I didn't need to check any luggage and used Lyft to the airport to avoid having to deal with parking and Boston drivers.
If I'm going for an extended period of time (like Winter or Summer break), I drive. Total travel time is about 8 hours including stops.
NOTE: Both travel times are during the pandemic, and would probably be slightly longer if there was no Covid.
Plus, if there were a Shinkansen-style train from DC to Boston that actually went fast at all times, I would probably take that on the way back.
Disregarding pandemic issues, I'd say it's when it's longer than a 6 hour drive.
The two airports I'm in and out of the most are Logan and DFW. In either case there's around an hour travel time to the A/P, then you need to be there an hour early because you never know what kind of snafu will exist at security; then when you land there's a half hour to rent a car and another hour to get to your destination. That's three and a half hours non-flying time. In most cases I can travel 200+ miles in three hours in the car. I'd gladly sit in my own car, listening to my own stereo, stopping to use the bathroom or eat or stretch my legs anytime I want to, for three more hours to avoid those three hours to-from-at the airport.
In present pandemic conditions it's going to be driving unless I have to cross an ocean.
Disregarding pandemic issues, I'd say it's when it's longer than a 6 hour drive.
I could agree. My 5 hour answer was kinda clouded with the current pandemic, as Covid has made air travel faster.
Still, under 5-6 and I'll drive always, 5-6 to 10-12 I'll fly if I'm limited in time, and over 10-12 I'll fly (or take the train if I'm going to Florida).
Do check other flight options (google flights and direct with carrier)
SWA is not always listed on Expedia or Google Flights. (Iflyswa.com)
Free bags, changes, cancellations, and very liberal use of credits makes SWA my usual choice within their service area. Use their 'low-fare-calender' to find least costly days of travel.
I often get DEN>PHX for $49-$79 each way.
Much cheaper than driving!
I guess that SWA is South West Airlines, (the first Google result was Scotch Whisky Association!).
$50, $80, or even $100 each way sounds good, I’d certainly go for that rather than drive that distance.
It may be the different mind set of you guys compared to an English guy who just prefers a lazy life.
It appears that 5, 6, 7, or more hours driving doesn’t faze you bunch one bit, whereas an hour or more of driving would have me slashing my wrists.
My wife likes to visit her old dad once per fortnight, and he lives some 60 miles from our London home.
I’ll go with her providing I can sit in back reading the paper, otherwise I’ll stay at home, or as on one occasion, I took a round trip by train while she drove there and back.
Our nephew married a Scots girl from just outside Glasgow, around 400 miles from London, all my in-laws drove up, my brother-in-law taking my wife, although I naturally would have bought her plane ticket, as I took the easy route from London City Airport to Glasgow then a $90 taxi ride to Ayr.
I don’t care how much the flight costs, to me, forking out for a plane ticket is better than driving for hours, but as I said, that’s me and my idiosyncratic ways.
For me it comes down to how much time I have ... if it's just a week, maybe fly. If it's 2 weeks, maybe drive.
I don't want to eat up all the time driving.
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