Driving versus Flying - A REAL Comparison

[BillSears]

So everything else being equal, then, if I had to replace my car two months earlier, I should be able to divide the cost of flying by two to get the value per month of the flights in terms of my cars' life. Let's say five RT flights at the best price I've seen from my area is about $1,000 then "saving" those two months of my car's life cost about $500 each.

Yep, it's not that big a difference for you. There is no way those 2 months are worth $1,000. My airfare runs about $350 if 2 of us are going and just $175 when I do a solo tip. Two months of my cars life is worth more then $175 for me especially when you add in the hotel room coming and going and the gas, food on the road and the extra vacation day on each side.

But please understand that I'm not really arguing about this, and I'm enoying everyone's perspectives.

Yep we're all just having a fun debate.

 

[consultant]

I see your point. And agree with it. If you are going to put 120K+ miles on the car anyway, then depreciation would not be a big consideration. Having a break-down and having to spend time in a motel while the car is fixed at the repair shop WOULD be a consideration though -- would really put a damper on the trip. Sort of like showing up to the gate with tickets bougt off E-bay that don't work and having to pay the full price anyway (or not go at all.)

Isn't depreciation a factor only if one intends to sell the car at some point? My thought on the subject is that depreciation isn't worth the time it took me to type the word if one intends to drive one's car into the ground, rendering it completely inelligble for anything other than a few spare parts (go ahead, ask me about my circa-1990 and -1992 automobiles!).

 

[consultant]

This is a good poin regarding WDW because you can't stay really close in less you stay at a high-priced Disney property. I would guess the vast majority of people that can afford $250+ a night for a hotel room probably fly if they live far away. The other properties you would need to pay for a shuttle or rental car.

Being on the West Coast, Disneyland has many low-cost options within walking distance of the front gate or that have a free shuttle or very low cost shuttle at the least.

We always stay in Condo's offsite, so flying (4 people @ $200ish a ticket) would also have the additional cost of renting a car for the week.

We can make the drive in about 15 hours (counting stops) and use rewards points to stay overnight in SC for free (hence breaking the trip up into two 7 - 8 hour drives). Flying would be nice, but like others have mentioned when you figure the time to drive to the airport, wait at least an hour there, perhaps have a layover someplace, getting the airport, getting your luggage and rent a car and such and getting to the condo could easily take 7-8 hours.

Driving isn't a big deal for us....we can stop at the ocean if we want on our way home or do other things we can't usually do. The time in the car can be a challenge (especially on the way home when we usually are ready for a break from each other), but I've run the #'s and in our case it is cheaper to drive. If we were a couple of 2 people, I'm sure I'd be flying!!

 

[consultant]

So the two major factors in the comparison are family size and airfare at the particular time you check. Right now airfare is at a low. What is a $200 ticket now, was $350 two months ago. If you use www.kayak.com you can put a watch on airfare and they will show you the trend for the last 90 days so you can assess whether the current fares are high or not. If you plan far enough in advance you can just wait a month or two to see if they come down before booking.

In our case - on our upcoming trip to HHI SC, We tried to check airfare school vacation week - into atlanta and Jacksonville Fl,

Jacksonville Fl was the cheapest - on southwest air, for just about 400.00 (actually their price is about 440.00 pp) per person, and we are 3 people traveling! Now, that would be over 1200.00.. Plus, flying into Jacksonville, then paying about 300.00 for a week or so to rent a car, then drive 3 hrs North to SC...

We decided to take my moms car - a honda accord (4cyl) and just break it up to two days and drive.. There is no way we are going to spend anywhere near what it would cost us to fly.. even staying overnight in a hotel and food.

 

[mouseketeer_mom]

It's more and more clear to me that the thead title promising a REAL comparison hasn't really delivered on that promise!

You've hit the nail on the head. Because, the comparison was based on one persons idea of how they travel and all of us are different. The only REAL comparison can be based on YOU and YOUR family and how YOU travel and what YOU are looking for in a vacation.

We had a taste of RV travel several years ago. We absolutely loved it! It is NOT the least expensive way to travel. If you add what our monthly motorhome payments are to what we pay per night in a campsite, we could easily stay at a very swanky hotel. Even if you divide our monthly payment by thirty and add the campsite, we spend about the same per night as a preferred night at a mod. But, that's not how we enjoy a vacation as a family.

The OP was really looking at things from his/her own perspective (how much they would spend on food, how long they would drive without stopping, family size, how much they would enjoy flying vs. driving, how much they value their time spent at home vs. on the road, lots of things...) Those are all things that are subjective.

The only REAL comparison is the one YOU make based on YOUR family.

 

[mjbaby]

I see your point. And agree with it. If you are going to put 120K+ miles on the car anyway, then depreciation would not be a big consideration. Having a break-down and having to spend time in a motel while the car is fixed at the repair shop WOULD be a consideration though -- would really put a damper on the trip. Sort of like showing up to the gate with tickets bougt off E-bay that don't work and having to pay the full price anyway (or not go at all.)

Ahhh...now we're getting into fear-based and what-if decisions.

The only times I've had breakdowns (uh, knocking wood here!) have been with two nearly-new cars. So that's one of the reasons we drive rock-solid German and Swedish cars preferably made pre-1995 (when they started to get a little iffy).

But we all mitigate our hopes and fears regarding "what might happen" in different ways. We were actually in Orlando on 9/11 - scheduled to fly out that morning and whatever arguments you want to make about safety in a macro sense I really, really like the sense of control I have over my own mobility that I get by taking my very own well-engineered and well-cared for vehicle.

And, Denny's? Really? My husband calles it the Hades Diner and we avoid it rather compulsively.

 

[azgal81]

I don't care if it is more expensive to fly I can't imagine driving when I could fly!

 

[DaisyD]

We spend more to drive then fly! It usually only costs us around $175 a person to fly. That is $525 round trip for all of us. To drive, we take 2 nights getting there and two nights getting home. That alone is over $500! Add food and gas and we are way over the amount it would have taken to fly. We prefer driving though as we love making stops on the way and it has become a favorite part of our Disney trips.

 

[Caitsmama]

So the two major factors in the comparison are family size and airfare at the particular time you check. Right now airfare is at a low. What is a $200 ticket now, was $350 two months ago. If you use www.kayak.com you can put a watch on airfare and they will show you the trend for the last 90 days so you can assess whether the current fares are high or not. If you plan far enough in advance you can just wait a month or two to see if they come down before booking.

I don't really understand what you mean here?? We have been watching fares for months........ and can't break a good deal for this trip.. and have now decided to drive..

 

[consultant]

This has been a great discussion. Really good perspectives and input. It has shows me that one of the reason I brought up the subject is not as ubquitous as I assumed. That is that virtually everyone who drives either does it because they live close enough so it is a no-brainer, or they do it to save money. I should realize from my own childhood experience that although driving in some cases is not cheaper and sometimes more expensive, and flying is more convenient or efficent, sometimes the experience of the drive is good and important part of the trip. I remember the build-up of excitement getting there. (Unfortunately the trip always seemed to take longer going home.) It is still probably safe to say the definite majority of the people that drive do it because of the cost savings.

The other reason this subject came to mind was that in reading these boards I got a real sense of penny pinching to stretch the Disney experience as far as possible (or as oftern as possible. ) And I got to thinking, I wonder how many average size families out there (3-4 people) don't actually realize they can fly instead of drive and it doesn't add any real signficant cost to the trip in relation to the overall trip cost? Add unless the drive is a big positive highlight of the trip, they could save valuable time, reduce risk, bla bla bla. How many out there just assume it is cheaper because the airfare is a lot more than the gas? It just can't be assumed. I doubt there are many on this board that fall into this category but maybe some of these people will stumble across this thread and get to thinking and analyze things a little deeper.

 

[Caitsmama]

I don't care if it is more expensive to fly I can't imagine driving when I could fly!

Well, if you have unlimited funds, i agree.......... However, when you are watching your spending, to spend upwards of hundreds more.. it's not worth it.
Again, great for you if you don't have to care about money.. but, not all of us are that lucky.

 

[java]

We keep trying to get a cheap flight but for the 6 of us it is running $3000!! roundtrip so YES for us it is WAY cheaper to drive. We are trying to fly from NJ to Orlando during easter week. So at this point we are driving. Oh and for us if you take into account the trip to and from the airport that adds $130 to the trip- and don't forget about the liquor it would take to get me on the plane.......

 

[Caitsmama]

The other reason this subject came to mind was that in reading these boards I got a real sense of penny pinching to stretch the Disney experience as far as possible (or as oftern as possible. ) And I got to thinking, I wonder how many average size families out there (3-4 people) don't actually realize they can fly instead of drive and it doesn't add any real signficant cost to the trip in relation to the overall trip cost? Add unless the drive is a big positive highlight of the trip, they could save valuable time, reduce risk, bla bla bla. How many out there just assume it is cheaper because the airfare is a lot more than the gas? It just can't be assumed. I doubt there are many on this board that fall into this category but maybe some of these people will stumble across this thread and get to thinking and analyze things a little deeper.

I agree.. and normally we wouldn't be the type just to drive to save a hundred or two....... but, when you talk about 500+ dollars, then it's worth it to us.

 

[MyGoofy26]

DC to Orlando is 852 miles or 13 hours. That's about 1-1/2 days of driving when you consider bathroom breaks, meals, occasional traffic congestion, etc. Here's the estimated costs of the drive, one-way:

I must be a hard core driver if this is the case . . . I do about 19 hours (including all stops) in one day. I'm sure people do, but I can't imagine breaking up a 13 hour drive. . By the time I got that "day" through, I'd be saying "to heck with it! we're just a few hours away!" and finishing the trip.

I've done that trip 3 times over the past few years, to Orlando and back and have never spent more than $100 in gas each way, no more than $20 on food (for my part), and obviously no hotels.

Typically I do fly (especially when I have time to watch fare sales and can regularly get there and back for under $100 nonstop) but in those last minute pinches when airfare is $200 and up, it really is cheaper to drive. Actually a few years ago my friend and I went to Orlando for the Florida Music Festival and I didn't spend more than $100 for the whole trip. No way I could have managed that one after deciding to go a week and a half before the event if it wasn't so cheap to drive.

 

[MrsPete]

I think your comparison is badly skewed:

You've done everything possible to make driving appear more expensive -- you've included an unnecessary stop for the night, you've calculated food as if it is ONLY consumed during a driving trip, and you've assumed that your car is going to take a pretty big depreciation hit because of one vacation (almost $400 depreciation from one trip? A new car'd be worth nothing in no time!).

At the same time, you've under-valued the "costs" of flying -- you didn't include the hassel of getting-to-the-airport several hours early. You made the assumption that you wouldn't have to pay to park at the airport, and you ignored the fact that you'd be limited in what luggage you could bring.

For me, driving to Disney is definitely much less expensive.

It's a 9-10 hour drive for me, and the gas for my economy car (40 MPG) is just a tad over $100 (figured with my Microsoft Streets & Maps software). When we go to Florida, we tend to grab breakfast at a McDonald's drive-through and a mid-afternoon meal usually at Cracker Barrel -- once we're there, we'll "snack heavy", but probably won't have another meal -- we tend to have two meals a day plus snacks on vacation. We bring water bottles and sodas from home. We taught our children to behave in the car when they were very small, so bickering isn't a part of our trips -- literally never. Even if we figure high on everything, $300 is plenty to get us to Florida and back. So unless I can buy four round-trip tickets for $75/each, driving is much less expensive than flying.

I would give my car a good once-over before making any long drive, and if I needed it, I'd get an oil change, tires, whatever; however, I wouldn't consider that a part of the trip expenses -- those are things that I have to do to my car anyway.

 

[MrsPete]

The only REAL comparison can be based on YOU and YOUR family and how YOU travel and what YOU are looking for in a vacation . . .

We had a taste of RV travel several years ago. We absolutely loved it!

You're absolutely right -- it depends upon your family's circumstances. My girls will ride happily in the car all day long; they just want a day's notice to get all their goodies together. We have a safe, new, economical car. And we live by one of the most expensive airports in the country.

As for RVs, we looked into them a couple years ago and decided that it just wouldn't be a good deal for us. The cost is high, I don't mind searching for cheap hotel rooms, and we didn't like the idea of driving that big thing. Does that mean it's a bad choice for YOUR FAMILY? Not for one minute.

 

[imsayin]

Wear & Tear on car and depreciation of car due to mileage - The standard mileage rate according to the IRS is $0.445 cents per mile = $379 in wear & tear/depreciation. Let's say the car isn't that new and the people reading this are skeptical about the whole wear & tear/depreciation value (until they go to sell their used car.

Cars are depreciated based on age, not mileage. I can see that if I run up my mileage with long road trips and don't keep my vehicles for more than a few years, the resale value would be less, but I don't think that depreciation is that big of a cost in a road trip.

For example, I'm selling my 7 year old van with 120,000 miles on it. If I drove 10,000 miles for vacations during the last 7 years, the sales price will be similar whether there are 110K or 120K miles on it.

 

[solgent]

I have not seen anyone mention our approach-- drive to an airport with better airfares. We've flown out of 2 airports other than our hometown one. One is 2 hours away & the other is 3 hours away. (We live pretty far from WDW, but I have a couple of friends who have driven down-- driving all the way is not out of the question but not a popular option.)

Our family is 5. Example: Airfares from hometown airport are $300. Airfares from airport 3 hours drive away are $100. We would save $1000 in airfare exchange for 6 hours of driving. Additional costs of this plan would be the gasoline & miles on the car plus our time. We'd park at the airport either way so I'm not counting that. This is just an example. On some trips the gap is even larger, such as $650 from hometown airport vs. $220 from airport 3 hours away.

What makes sense is to consider all options along with your own preferences and constraints.

 

[neatokimmo]

Whew, after reading all that, I had to do caculations of my own.

I am 710 miles from Disney. Airfare rock bottom rate is $296 each. I'd be going with one other person and paying for both flights.

Total airfare - $592
Parking at airport (because I brought the person that could drop me off) - $42
-------------------
$634 time spent - 45 minutes driving to airport & parking & shuttle - 1.5 hours prior to flight for check in - 1.75 hours in air - 1 hour using Disney's bus service to get on property - travel time: - 5 hours

I've gone to Orlando many times and I've been known to stop just once right in the middle of the trip when I need gas. I get 32 MPG. Gas is cheaper now, $2.00 a gallon. So $90-ish in gas. Time spent in car - 11 hours

Sooooo

I "lose" 12 RT hours while driving compared to flying. I save $544. I end up paying myself $45 an hour to drive and to pay for the depreciation of my car which is an inexpensive 2000 model. My passenger is retired so they'd just be hanging out at the house anyway.

So I drive!

 

[consultant]

You didn't mention what city you are flying from (and your profile on the side of the post just says USA.)

I think your comparison is badly skewed:

You've done everything possible to make driving appear more expensive -- you've included an unnecessary stop for the night, you've calculated food as if it is ONLY consumed during a driving trip, and you've assumed that your car is going to take a pretty big depreciation hit because of one vacation (almost $400 depreciation from one trip? A new car'd be worth nothing in no time!).

At the same time, you've under-valued the "costs" of flying -- you didn't include the hassel of getting-to-the-airport several hours early. You made the assumption that you wouldn't have to pay to park at the airport, and you ignored the fact that you'd be limited in what luggage you could bring.

For me, driving to Disney is definitely much less expensive.

It's a 9-10 hour drive for me, and the gas for my economy car (40 MPG) is just a tad over $100 (figured with my Microsoft Streets & Maps software). When we go to Florida, we tend to grab breakfast at a McDonald's drive-through and a mid-afternoon meal usually at Cracker Barrel -- once we're there, we'll "snack heavy", but probably won't have another meal -- we tend to have two meals a day plus snacks on vacation. We bring water bottles and sodas from home. We taught our children to behave in the car when they were very small, so bickering isn't a part of our trips -- literally never. Even if we figure high on everything, $300 is plenty to get us to Florida and back. So unless I can buy four round-trip tickets for $75/each, driving is much less expensive than flying.

I would give my car a good once-over before making any long drive, and if I needed it, I'd get an oil change, tires, whatever; however, I wouldn't consider that a part of the trip expenses -- those are things that I have to do to my car anyway.