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Chit Chat
kahluakoala
member
Driving vs. Flying
in Chit Chat
Just a quick question / poll -
I see a lot of people discuss the distance of different wedding-related activities as an "8 hour drive" or a "10 hour drive" or something (when saying how far their family or friends will have to travel).
Personally, if anything was more than a ~4 hour drive (maybe 5 or 6 if it's a difficult location), I wouldn't even consider driving! a 10 hour drive has never been an option for me. I would get my ass a plane ticket as soon as I got the invitation!
So what about you guys? What's the max amount you would drive vs. fly?
I see a lot of people discuss the distance of different wedding-related activities as an "8 hour drive" or a "10 hour drive" or something (when saying how far their family or friends will have to travel).
Personally, if anything was more than a ~4 hour drive (maybe 5 or 6 if it's a difficult location), I wouldn't even consider driving! a 10 hour drive has never been an option for me. I would get my ass a plane ticket as soon as I got the invitation!
So what about you guys? What's the max amount you would drive vs. fly?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Driving vs. Flying
Airports have so much added expense and time. I live about a 8 hour drive/1:15 hr flight from San Diego. If I flew I'd have to get to the airport 2 and a half hours early, pay for parking ($21 a day, usually), take a shuttle from parking to the airport, check my bag (or if I carry on my bag I have to make sure all of my toiletries are 3 oz or less), wait through security, and then with added taxiing time and boarding time, what if anything is delayed? Then when you get to the airport and you have wait for your bag, then you've rented a car or pay for a taxi, or ask someone to pick you up, which no one likes doing and it makes me feel guilty.
Driving is much easier in my opinion. I can have all the snacks I want, pack all the full size shampoo bottles I want, and I can stop when I need to.
I recently had a work trip to Tampa, FL from San Francisco, CA. I was suppose to board a plan at 6 am have a connection in AZ and land in Tampa at 4:00 pm. My 6 am flight was delayed too much for me to make my connection in AZ so I was put on a flight to Las Vegas, however the connection from LV to Tampa was too full for me so I was stuck. I ended up having to take a flight to Akron, OH and then a connection to ORLANDO and had to drive to Tampa. I didn't get to Tampa until 1:30 am. Flying has too many variables, it stresses me out.
it's funny you should mention this because it's pretty much the exact route I'm thinking of! I make this trip (SD to SF) about twice a month for work. It feels easier than my morning commute at this point! I usually only get to the airport 30-45 minutes early, TBH. I also have TSA precheck (necessary for my frequent work travels)
I guess it's just a matter of preference! By the time I get gas, meals on the way, etc. driving doesn't usually feel that much cheaper to me. I'm also usually travelling by myself or with my SO, not a whole family. If I was invited to a wedding a 12 hour drive away, if I couldn't afford the plane ticket (nothing wrong with that), I would be politely declining.
To a PP's point, for a longer vacation, 8 hours is more reasonable, since you'd likely want to pack more stuff and the drive would be a smaller percentage of the trip. 8-12 hours for a weekend would be too strenuous for me! If I'm driving I'm concentrating on the road. If I'm flying, I'm reading a book, catching up on some writing, or watching TV.
These days no one in their right mind needs to arrive at the airport 2.5 hours early. Pack a carry on, check in the day before, arrive an hour before your flight, or 1.5 hr if it's a super busy airport (and even at o'hare I've gotten through in less than 30min on an Friday afternoon), and call it a day. Flying isn't rocket science and people that make a big deal about it mystify me.
Of course, if flying isn't an affordable option I understand, but people who choose to suffer through an 8+ hr drive bc they don't like to fly are nuts in my book. I hate the smell of airplanes, I get motion sick easily, I hate standing in security lines with stupid fucking people who don't understand how to remove their shoes and laptops and jackets, but I'd choose that every time over a long drive.
However, we will definitely drive 10 hours to visit our families in CA, because we like to bring our dog with us, and we like to stock up on liquor at Costco since liquor is pretty expensive in Oregon (and not sold at Costco). We drive down there at least once a year, sometimes up to three times a year.
ETF clarity
And I agree re: having to park and shuttle. Once when H and I got to the airport and parked, one shuttle came after 10 minutes but was full and passed us, and the next one didn't come for another 30 minutes. We almost missed our flight, largely because H refuses to get to the airport more than 45 minutes to an hour before our flight.
ETA: I would rather sit at the airport bar enjoying a beer for 45 minutes if I arrive early than run through the terminal hoping to make it.
Flying is nice (DH and I do fly when we can), but there is additional time for parking (plus the cost of airport parking!), check in, security, waiting for the flight, and if you need to rent a car to get to/from the airport to wherever you are actually going, that is an additional cost and time.
I have driven (or been in a vehicle) for 10-12 hours to go on a trip. My family also went to Florida when my siblings and I were kids- that was an 18-24 hour drive with overnight stop, but when you consider airfare for 5 people, it makes a big difference.
DH and I lived in Edmonton for some years, so we had many years of trips back home and now we go back to visit our friends. A return flight (3.5 hour flight) costs $1200 for the two of us. Driving is around $600 for gas, hotel + food. But it's also a 36 hour drive. We have driven the route before, and we would continue if it didn't eat up so much of our vacation time, so we usually fly.
We are doing an 8 hour drive this summer to go away to a big city for 4 days. We considered flying, but with the cost of driving to the airport, paying for parking, airfare, then needing to rent a car when we get to our destination anyway- flying was more expensive.
Airfare is just crazy expensive. Plus rental car. I have a gas efficient car and really don't mind road trips.
For a wedding though? That person has to be really special
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Also depends on work for me. For my BFF's wedding, where I was MOH, it was a 5 hour drive away. DH drove out, since he doesn't work Friday afternoons. I flew out after my work ended and he picked me up at the airport. We drove home together. I didn't want to miss the Friday night festivities with her, and I would have it I had left after work to drive out.
In general, I prefer to fly and think becoming TSA pre checked was a great investment ($85.00 for 3 years!). However, there are some destinations that driving is just easier. I have a good friend who lives in the Hershey, PA area. To fly, I'd have to land in Baltimore and then there's an hour/hour and a half drive. The 8 hour drive is easier than the 2 hours at the airport, 2 hour flight, and then subsequent drive. I also know people who fly to Chicago each time. It's a four hour drive, and an easy four hour drive at that.
That's why I've never understood people who drive from here (Indianapolis) to Chicago. It's a 3-3.5 hour drive. If you fly you drive to the airport, wait for the plane, fly, wait to deplane, travel into the city or wherever you're going and it takes just as much time.
With Nexus cards and priority boarding, most airport security lines aren't an issue. FI and I have it down to the minutes and usually walk up to the gate just as they start group 1 boarding.
Airfare is ridiculously expensive, especially if you are flying more than just one person. Our car gets 40 mpg and makes traveling for us very inexpensive
Every other time is flying.
I'm sure a lot has to do with general convenience of the closest airport. O'Hare is an easy public transit trip away, as is Midway. If we lived in another part of Illinois or up somewhere in Wisconsin, sure we'd do a lot more road trips.
Couple things stand out to me-- we had a conversation with close friends and the guy said he hated flying. They do a lot of long haul road trips. They love it; they're teachers so they have long stretches of time off to kill. But we're saying, if we drive away from Chicago for 5 hours, we end up in rural areas, nowhere special (no offense to anyone). If we fly for 5 hours, we're in the Caribbean. Four hours we could be in Cabo or San Fran. Hell yes we're flying.
Also, people complain about connections. I respect that budgets can be issues, but if you could save a little extra money for direct connections it's so worth it. Yes, there are origins and destinations with no direct flights; that's the network for you. But people who have direct options and cheap out with connections, and then complain? No sympathy. (And I'm an airline spouse too, full disclosure.)
Luckily we're not very far from either family so we don't have very many reasons to make long drives. We drove about 4.5 hours for my cousin's wedding, but my parents lived about halfway and we could have stayed there.
I don't really hate anything over about 10 hours. H drives and I don't mind being the passenger. We stop every couple of hours to stretch our legs. It's not bad. But I do hate how much it eats into trips. I'm really antsy over how much extra vacation time I'll have to take if we drive to FL.
But I only do the long drives because of how much I love him and how much flying stresses him out. My BFF was talking about a trip to TX recently and I would have said no if it meant driving. Luckily for me H is the only person who asks for that much car time.