I can see budgeting two hours before the flight (though I think that is quite excessive) but two hours after the flight? Where does that happen? I travelled to Las Vegas last Thanksgiving and my luggage didn’t arrive on the return flight, but I was still in my car 45 minutes after the flight landed. My luggage was sitting on my front porch at 4 AM the next morning.
Two hours? No way. 30 minutes at the outside, and I am in Denver, which is slow.
I flew to Seattle last year and had no hassles. Everything went perfectly smooth.
I’ve waited a full half hour for the damned rental car shuttle alone at Detroit, JFK, and Sacramento.
DIA is a long way from anywhere. The post you are responding to is including the time it takes to get to/from the airport. Can you count on being any place in Denver (Denver, not Aurora) 1/2 hour after you aircraft touches the runway? If you checked luggage, and need to rent a car, the two hour figure is totally reasonable.
Two years ago I flew back and forth from New York to Seattle every week for three months. I do a lot of flying for work and for the most part, I generally don’t experience too many hassles that aren’t related to weather.
In fact, the biggest hassle I experience is in flying to relatively close destinations like Washington, DC or Boston. That’s cured easily enough by the Acela train.
Travelling by air these days is a nightmarish pain in the ass.
The TSA exists to do one thing and one thing only, and that is to piss off the paying passengers. They do that quite well and they don’t accomplish anything else. They sure as hell do not make us safer.
Thank you for all of your responses. Since I didn’t get any email notification I assumed my “flying” thread crashed and burned (pun intentional, of course).
You’ve given many good points deserving of consideration.
Just a few details to add some focus :
I’ve never had a driver in the interstate grab my ass.
Your ass, of course, may vary.
It depends a lot on where you’re going. I drove to move from Spain to Switzerland because you can’t check in a car (even a hatchback Yaris); I flew from Spain to Costa Rica (in an airline that’s now gone bust, thank you God oh thee great and merciful but it truly would have been more great and merciful if that piece of shit hadn’t ever existed) because it’s kind’a hard to get there any other way.
In the US and post-9/11, I drove or took chains of local trains if possible, but sometimes there’s simply no other reasonable option. For example, there was a trip once that was: M, Philly-Kentucky; T, meetings in KY and flight to Houston; W, meetings in Houston; Th, meeting in Houston and flight to SFco; F, meetings in Hayward. Weekend in San Francisco (the company’s plan had been to fly back to Philly on Friday but we counter-proposed). Fly to LA late on Sunday, meetings in LA and flight back to Philly on M. So the options were “fly” and “teleport”.
Okay. I understand the philosophical objection to the TSA busywork, but I have trouble working up a real hate for it. It’s just not that big a deal- if you are realy being actively annoyed by it you are having a different travel experiance than me, or you have a lower threshold for annoyance. Neither would suprise me, I am known to be overly laid-back 
In fact, I sort of welcome the time in the airport and on the plane in which I’m not expected to work or take care of personal chores, and I can just read.
Vegas and Milwaukee.
Now, if you change planes, and your next flight is on the same concourse as you came in on, then you don’t have to re-screen at these airports. But if you must go to a different concourse, you leave one secure area, and need re-screening at another point before entering the next concourse.
I suspect the same situation applies to at least a few airports in your list.
And I’m happy that the heightened security procedures bring you peace of mind. They don’t do that for me.
I should have mentioned something about the airports themselves, as others have done. Of my limited recent flying experience, I can say for sure that LAX is an ugly, inefficient, disorganized place, especially where United is concerned.
This was not the case at SFO, which was the exact opposite. I actually *enjoyed * it there.
Put me in the “air travel isn’t all that bad” group. To me, if you know what you are doing (using the internet as much as possible, checking the airline website and packing right, knowing the best parking lots with the best shuttles, etc.) you just kinda sail through. Getting offended when the security dudes check out my stuff doesn’t even enter my mind. Yes, things suck when things go wrong at the airport, but it also sucks when your altenator starts going out between Del Rio and El Paso.
I am not saying I love hanging out in airports, but it sure beats the hell out of wasting 4 days of my vacation driving to and from LA or NY. However, if it is within 10 hours and there are interesting things to see on the way, I prefer to drive.
I’m sorry they don’t. I have done Vegas twice in the last two years ( rimshot 
) and have to admit, I did not change concourses. In many of those airports on the list I provided, I do need to change concourses in order to connect through. Still have never been re-screened. I agree it’s annoying once in a day, twice would make me unhappy as hell.
I’ve had to do it several times at LAX. I seem to recall having to do it at Houston Bush as well, but I’m not as sure about that one.
I’m sure of LAX - I avoid booking flights through there for exactly that reason.
Amen. It’s just not the huge hassle people say it is.
I get my ticket at the kiosk, drop off my bag, and I’m done that part. It takes me longer to rent a movie. Security’s only slightly more of a hassle - make sure there’s no change in my pockets, take my coat off, take my computer out, and slide all that crap thru and walk through the detector. If I fly to the USA they make me take my shoes off. It all it takes two minutes.
Sometimes there’s lineups. Lining up it’s a huge amount of fun, but it is really that awful an experience?
I don’t hate flying but it sure isn’t very enjoyable anymore either. The security routines don’t bother me, especially since I always build in ample time, but the whole process just seems so time-consuming and tedious. Maybe it’s because the last few times I’ve flown flight delays were common. Very nerve wracking, especially when trying to make a connecting flight.
Obviously mileages (heh) vary a lot but my main break-even considerations are 1. time and 2. transportation needs on the other end. If actual door-to-door times are about even then the tie-breaker might be whether I will need/want a car. Sure, I can usually get around but the relative costs of a rental vs. parking fees, etc. are considerations.
I used to really love flying but gotta say the hassle factor has sapped a lot of the enjoyment for me. Barring really hideous winter driving conditions, I’d usually rather drive than fly, if all things are relatively equal.
OH! How I wish that Nashville had an Amtrak station! But the nearest one is Memphis!
If Nashvegas had a station, I would take more out-of-town vacations!
Flying is too much of a pain!
If you have to go between the new concourse (the one you ride the train to) and the old concouse complex, you have to rescreen. No rescreening needed if going between A and B gates, or between C and D gates. But if you need to go from C to A, or D to B etc. then you rescreen. And if you have to go between terminal 1 and terminal 2 you have to rescreen.
http://www.gofox.com/flights/airportmaps.php?code=LAS
As for Milwaukee, concourses C, D, and E each have their own separate screening. http://www.gofox.com/flights/airportmaps.php?code=MKE
I get bored out of my wits driving for more than half an hour. The four-hour drive from my house to where my wife’s side of the family lives is pure torture for me.
So when I’m vacationing, a 16-hour drive to Florida is simply not in the cards. No matter what the airfare is, I’ll pay it. No matter how bad the airline treats me, I’ll pull my pants down, bend over and take it. I can think of nothing worse than a 16-hour car ride. :eek: I’ll go to whatever means necessary to avoid it.
Yes, flying is worth it.
Well, Enginerd, I am not calling you a liar, honest, just as I’m not calling QTM a liar. I just flew through LAX a week ago coming home. Walked in, got my seat, walked through security, had to wait for security to swipe my CPAP machine ( they always do so ), and went to my gate. I do realize that my start or end point in LAX is always Los Angeles so I have not had to swap flights.
That would take a lot of talent, I grant you.
But I have been in a lot more physical danger from impaired drivers on the interstate… but that’s another thread entirely.