I haven’t flown in 12 years and I hated it then, hated it before then, and never want to again.
I’m not scared, I get queasy and I don’t like airports, and crowds, and standing in line and everything that goes with it.
My company offered me an all expense paid trip to Virginia Beach. Kind of a working vacation, I didn’t have to accept but it’s kind of cool to be chosen. I accepted.
They want to fly me down, I’m about 30 minutes from BWI and we are flying into Norfolk and then I guess by car? to Va Beach. Since we are coming from all over the US I doubt we will be on the same flight, so I’m not sure how we get from the airport to the beach.
I would rather drive,and they will reimburse me for my gas. I think driving probably wouldn’t be much longer than flying, by the time you consider driving to the airport and all the crap you have to do there, and then repeating all the crap after landing. I’m sure getting on the plane is going to take longer than actual flight.
Do you think driving makes more sense?
I really really hate to fly.
Well some people are telling me I’m crazy to drive, that it’s a horrible drive and flying is so much easier.
I’m not experienced in this stuff, my idea of a perfect vacation is for everybody else to go and leave me home.
So I’m hoping somebody familiar with the area will tell me how horrible it will or won’t be.
Easy to tell by checking flight schedules. I suspect there aren’t going to be that many flights from BWI to Norfolk a day. If you fly you have to get to the airport early, probably pay to check a bag, or be limited to what you can carry on board, wait for the flight, wait for luggage, and wait for transportation. If you drive you have your car there, and so can leave at any time and not be stuck with arranged transportation. Plus, you can drive around the town.
A paper compared flying from San Jose to Santa Barbara with driving. I think they were roughly equal - and the Santa Barbara airport is close to where you want to be. I usually drove myself because flying is such a pain.
BTW, in the past 12 years flying has gotten far more obnoxious as the airlines for the most part have decided that screwing their customers out of every nickel and dime they can is an excellent business model.
I’m even driving to Anaheim from the Bay Area to avoid flying. I have a Prius and can do it on one tank of gas.
On preview - anyone telling you that flying is easier must not have flown lately. I used to love to fly back before the airlines decided that their passengers were not really customers but objects with pockets they can siphon money from.
It’s about a 4.5 hour drive from Ottawa to Toronto. When I went there last summer on business I drove.
I’m 45 minutes from the airport.
I’d have to be there an hour before the flight.
The flight itself would be about an hour, from boarding to de-boarding.
I’d then need to get a rental car and drive to my destination, about another hour.
So, flying may have been a bit shorter (3:45 versus 4:30) but the lack of hassle was worth it for me. I’d rather spend the time alone in a car listening to whatever I want. I don’t really mind flying. But when it comes down to a matter of a half hour or so, I’d rather just drive.
ETA: I needed a rental car anyway, so I saved the company the cost of an airline ticket. Which I think is good optics.
Would you like an “Amen”? I’m going to give you one, just in case. A-MEN. Administer as needed.
I loathe flying. Even if I weren’t afraid of flying, it would be a piss-poor, miserable way to travel. Crammed into a too-small tin can with too many other people, subjected the arbitrary intrusions of security theater, wasting inordinate amounts of time in lines…it has no redeeming qualities except speed, in my opinion, and that only applies if you’re going far enough for it to cancel out all the ridiculous hoop-jumping before takeoff and after landing.
Which brings me to the meat of the matter: if you can drive somewhere in about five hours or less, flying doesn’t even save you time. You have drive time to and from the airports, anyway, plus all the time spent futzing around in the airports–getting there early so you can be thoroughly groped/pornoscanned, checking baggage, picking up baggage, and waiting, waiting, waiting–none of which actually moves you toward your destination.
Google maps puts the drive from Baltimore to Virginia Beach at 5 hours in current (Friday evening) traffic. Spend that time sitting in a nice, roomy seat, singing along with your own music, stretching out your legs, stopping whenever you feel like it to have a snack or meal of your choice. Taking a moment to pity the sheep bleating their way through the airports is entirely optional.
I love flying. Although it does add some overhead, anyone that thinks it take an extra 4 hours just isn’t doing it efficiently (unless they’re really far from the airport or whatever).
Pack light and only use a carry-on. Bring noise cancelling headphones to block the other passengers. Read a book or play a game or use a laptop–whatever. Get a window seat and enjoy the view.
Above all else, remember how awesome it is that you’re flying at all. Quoting Louis CK: you’re sitting in a chair in the sky. Listen to the hum of the engines that keep you moving. Think of the few millimeters of aluminum between you and unbreathably thin atmosphere. Appreciate that the entire weight of the craft is supported by this thin air moving across those stubby bits poking out the sides. You aren’t just in a metal tube they lock you into on one side and unlock on the other; you’re in a metal tube moving about 8 times faster than you’ve ever gone in a car. In a sense, you are in a machine that’s much closer to a spacecraft than you are anything on the ground (you even weigh a couple ounces less than you do on the ground).
Ok, maybe this last part wasn’t all that convincing…
Yes! Airports are great for people-watching! Lots and lots of drama!
And…yes! I love to drive and I like to fly too. It’s great! An embarrassment of riches!
I once drove through “Skull Rock Pass” (Utah/Nevada) at midnight, under a full moon, listening to “The Lone Ranger” on a distant radio station. Best midnight ever!
I travel quite a bit on business. I don’t mind flying on business at all. I would never fly anywhere I could drive to in less than five hours.
One hour at the airport before the flight (those security lines are long), one hour on the ground taking off and landing, half an hour to get to baggage claim or ground transport, and an hour driving each way (even if you live ten minutes from the airport, it takes that long to get through traffic and find a parking space).
(And anyone who tells you to not check bags has never waited for the entire plane to disembark to get their bag out of the one empty space at the back of the plane.)
sahirrnee, let’s say you drive and I book a nonstop BWI-ORF on Southwest. We both leave your house at 9 am. I’ll get to BWI at 9:30, get groped and nude-o-scoped by the TSA for a while (my favorite), and then board the airplane around 10. People can’t figure out where they want to sit, and that one loud guy wearing a cheap suit and a Blackberry holster needs to gate check his bag because he doesn’t understand why his 36" suitcase won’t fit under the seat in front of him. The flight attendants patiently deal with him, and we push back from the gate on time at 10:30. I’m sitting between someone who doesn’t understand the concept of personal space and someone who doesn’t understand the concept of personal hygiene. After an uneventful (if uncomfortable) flight, we set the brakes in Norfolk at 11:20. However, I won’t get off the airplane for another 15 minutes because there are 150 people ahead of me who had to immediately stand up and pull their bags out of the overhead bins and onto the heads of the unsuspecting people sitting underneath them. The aisle finally clears, I thank the flight crew for the lift on my way out the door, and I cruise through the terminal to pick up a rental car from a brightly dressed but unenthusiastic rental experience specialist. After making a note of the scratches on the bumper and the boogers on the volume knob, I’m on the road by noon. It’s only a few miles to Virginia Beach, so I get to the hotel around 12:15. Meanwhile, you have about one more hour of driving ahead of you.
Same here, and I’ll do a 6 hour drive, though I’ll stop somewhere on the way and stretch it to 7. I don’t have to stick to someone else’s schedule or put up with crowds. Pre 9/11 I was willing to fly more often, but airline flight quality was already declining. Now it’s not worth the trouble when there’s a practical alternative.
My ideal fantasy way to travel (for the kinds of distances discussed here) would be to go the the General Aviation side of the airport and bum a ride with some private pilot who happens to be going that way in his little 2- or 4-seater Cessna.
ETA: Although, realistically, I would more likely drive, so I could have my car with me while I’m there.
Light GA beats the snot out of the airlines for most trips under 1000 miles, but it’s not really a practical alternative unless you have a friend who lets you use his airplane for just the cost of fuel. It is, however, way more fun.
I love flying, but I loathe airports and will do anything to avoid flying. I am flying to Seattle from Montreal a week before US Thanksgiving. I will have to get to the airport at least 2 1/2 hours before the scheduled flight. Last year, I arrived 2 hours early and had to be taken out of the lineup at customs. The customs line takes an hour. This follows a half hour at security and 15 minutes at check-in. When I go to NY in January, I will sit for 11 hours on a train, rather than go through an airport. And save a pile of money in the process. Possibly as much as $500 for me and my wife.
Still, I don’t fly unless I have to - and then only if it is non-stop, point A to point B and that is it. Don’t even think about putting me on some trip that requires multiple landings and changing planes.
From Las Vegas to Hawaii, or Europe, or NYC - fine. But from LV to LA? I will drive.
As other mentioned, flying also used to be at least convenient…show up last minute, go on the plane, get some real food and drinks at no cost, no luggage fees unless you really went crazy with 10 suitcases, and people were friendly and service was good. Those days ended long ago. Now it is like you are being herded into a cattle car and being sent off to slaughter. Unless you can afford to fly business class or first class, flying is about as much fun as taking a crowded subway in NYC during rush hour.
Plus, with driving you can stop along the way to see some sights, or just to have a nice dinner at that cool local restaurant, and maybe see some great scenery. And if there are any weird smells, they are your own. If you can drive there in about 150% of the actual time it takes to fly, why not drive? More pleasant and relaxing - plus you can get around when you arrive and have some idea of where you are.
Drive if you can. The airports are awful and everyone is frustrated. My daughter and I were booked to be seated together, she at the, window and I on the aisle, but when we got our boarding passes we are both window seats four aisles apart. A woman near me said she wasn’t in the seat she had reserved, and neither was the man next to me. I realize they probably had to change planes for some reason, but they were calling all the stand by passengers and giving them seats, so I know they could have placed us together. We are both adults so it’s not a matter of safety; it’s just nice to be able to talk.
These days if you’re close to a major airport and your destination is close to a major airport, and you can get a direct flight, flying is hard to beat for almost any distance trip.
For every other situation it gets complicated.
I once drove 10 hours to a destination and it was far preferable than the flying option.
This happens when both your origin and destination are significantly far from a major airport. For my trip, the “all flight” option involved a flight out of a small regional airport at 2:00 PM. This flight took me to a slightly larger regional airport no more than a 45 minute drive from the first airport (so in reality most people would have just driven to the second regional airport.) Then it was on to a major airport where I’d have arrived around 4:00 PM.
At that point there was a 2:15 layover at the major airport and a flight leaving around 6:00 and getting to another major airport around 7:30. From that second major airport the flight goes in to the closest regional airport to my destination and gets there around 8:15. At that point I need to acquire transportation (rental car, no bus lines available) to get to my final destination which was still 60 miles away on the road.
So get lucky with the drive and make 60 miles in one hour and you’re looking at 9:15 pm arrival, having left home at probably 1:30 to get to the first airport.
That’s almost 8 hours of travel time, at around $800 cost (before rental car…that’s just the flight) involving five airports and all that this involves (four takes offs, four landings, four boardings and disembarkings etc.) Technically, if you face no delays (and on this agenda a single delayed flight would nuke the entire itinerary if you end up delayed and missing a flight out of one of the small regional airports that might not run anything anywhere you need to go for a few days at a time) you get there faster. Annoyance factor is probably 15x higher than the (not-insubstantial) annoyance with a 10 hour drive.
The only super negative with a 10 hour drive is some people will need to stop halfway and get a hotel (I personally can drive 12-13 hours straight before needing this.) And if you’re by yourself it could be miserable.
