Driving versus Flying - A REAL Comparison

[Caitsmama]

1) Time is money. You bet your bippy we consider lost productivity. DH bills at $260/hr. An extra day off costs him a minimum of $2K. My days are not so expensive, but even so, there is a cost associated with using leave time vs. being at work.

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WOW!!!!!!!!!! I am in the wrong biz!! Would you mind stating what type of work your DH does?? I am very curious! LOL

 

[Nascia]

We're a family of 5 that typically drives from SW PA about twice a year. We generally stay in nicer hotels, and have a fairly generous budget (around 6-7k) per trip. We would much rather drive than fly at this point, especially with the kids and if it saves us money, then all the better. Even though we have the extra funds to fly, we don't see the need to spend the extra money just because we can. Flying is of no value to us, the extra time in Orlando not worth an extra 300 - 400+ hundred dollars (I have a spread sheet for our annual budget in excel; each vacation category is broken down) or the stress of flying.

I absolutely hate the hassles involved with flying. DH and I took a trip to London/ Greece in 2005. We nearly spent the entire thing in DC because of a missed flight. After being told numerous times to wait in the 4-6 hour United service line, I found a helpful gate employee (?) that was able to get us on the next flight. If not, the remaining flights were booked solid and we were told it would be 3-4 days before we could get a seat on a plane to London. Although we were able to get on the flight our luggage did not, and was subsequantly misplaced, end result we spent the first 3 days of our trip without most of our possessions. Coming home was smooth enough until our flight from DC to PIT was delayed from 11:00PM until morning at the earliest. We had enough, went to Enterprise rented a car and were home and in our bed by 3:00AM. It was a horrible experience and one I can not fathom dealing with kids in tow.

Again, each side has obvious benefits/ risks and each family has to be right for them.

 

[ducklite]

I understand where you are coming from....... As i am on a similar schedule - as i get up about 5am.. However, i think there is a big difference b/w day to day performance, and driving for the same period of time straight.. I think that long in the car just does something to ya! But, that is my personal view.. i just think it is very unsafe to drive that amount of time alone. But, if it works for him.........................

Well, he keeps busy. He's currently learning Spanish from CD's. He's got a CB radio and talks to the truckers. Or sometimes just listens to them laughing. He and I chat on the phone for hours on end. He listens to music.

The key is that he's not afraid to call it quits for the day if he's getting tired. He never feels the urgency to get home or back to NJ--there's no paid for hotel room waiting, and his job has a lot of flexibility if he needs to take an extra day to get back. And he's got zero problem spending $80 for a room at a Hampton Inn.

I think that he is proobably an anomoly to the typical vacation driver--the once a year road warrior with the same commando style mentality that so many have in the parks--he is more concerned with getting there safely.

Anne

 

[katerkat]

I just thought of some more intangible benefits of driving.

I don't have to spend three hours saying, "Don't kick the seat," and holding the boy's legs down. In most cars, he can't reach the seat, or if he can, the kicking doesn't bother the other people like it does on an airplane.

It's also a lot easier to pick up his toys when he throws them.

And if he makes a stinky diaper, we can pull over just about anywhere to change him. Stinky diaper during take off or landing? Gotta wait until it's safe to move about the cabin. Landings, especially - people automatically stand up as soon as they can and block the aisle to the bathroom. (Though they move fast if you dangle a stinky toddler in front of them.)

It's hard to put a price on that.

 

[ducklite]

2) Safety issues re: eyesight. Part of the natural aging process is a decline in the ability of the eye to make use of light. The decline starts in your early twenties. The older you get, the more light you need to have on your subject in order to see it clearly, and the longer your eyes take to adjust to changes in light intensity, such as happens when someone passes you with high-beams on. This phenomenon has a huge effect on one's ability to safely drive at night at highway speeds, especially for long periods, and starting out rested makes little difference. I used to easily drive overnight when I was in my 20's, but I don't consider it safe any longer to try it now that I'm in my mid-40's. It's not that I have bad eyesight in terms of acuity; my visual acuity is the same now as it was when I was 22. The problem is the light -- since I need more of it I have to make a greater effort to concentrate when it is dark, which means that my eyes tire more quickly when driving at night. Nowadays my eyes start to feel strained after about 90 minutes of night driving, and when your eyes are feeling strained, your vision is just not as sharp as it should be to drive safely. YMMV on how long it takes you specifically to experience eyestrain, but once you pass 40 I guarantee you that you have less than half the night-driving vision that a 20 yo with the same eyeglass Rx does.

I agree. This is one of the reasons DH does his ride like he does. He's fresh and wide awake in the first couple hours where it is still dark. In the summer time he's home before it gets dark at night, in the winter he's got about three hours of dark driving.

He also has it timed to miss the worst of rush hour in the areas he needs to drive through.

He did mention to me after his last trip down that he thinks in the future as he gets older he'll need to break the trip into two days when it's winter with it's shorter days. I've obviously got no problem with that. I'd rather have him arrive home safely.

Anne

 

[Caitsmama]

Anne, that's great that he will be willing to step down and do it for 2 days if the need arises.. I gotta admit, i am somewhat jealous of him, lol.. Please tell him we are driving to SC from RI next month, and see if he is looking to drive! LOL ..
Seriously though, we are breaking it up b/w 2 days, and there are two of us driving - me and my mom.. but we will also have my dd with us, so, to try to do it straight would be not fun.. LOL

And at least he is doing something useful - like learning another language.. LOL.. that's funny. Good for him..lol.

 

[disneysteve]

Would you mind stating what type of work your DH does?? I am very curious! LOL

I would assume he is an attorney.

 

[Caitsmama]

Oh ya........... not even CLOSE to my field.. LMAO.. Ahhhh.. to dream. LOL

 

[consultant]

I forgot to comment on the bringing the kitchen sink joke.

We are a family of 4. Our 5 and 7 year old bring a small little backpack. I pack a carry-on size piece. My wife packs like we were going on a 2-week safari even if it is only for 3 nights, and we combine the kids clothes into one large piece like my wife's. We typically rent a mini-van and the back is pretty full. We just got back from Hawaii. We rented a "Full Size" car from budget. It ended up being a Ford Taurus (boy has that car grown larger over the years) - the trunk was about as big as any I've seen in a sedan (maybe not a Lincoln Continental.) The trunk was COMPLETELY full. What are all you people driving, Suburbans or Econoline 9-person vans? Even with the 3rd row seats down in our Honda Pilot, the back would be full up the top of the backs of the second row seats. Granted techically it would only be half full but then the rear window is blocked and I don't like to do that.

I just thought of some more intangible benefits of driving.

I don't have to spend three hours saying, "Don't kick the seat," and holding the boy's legs down. In most cars, he can't reach the seat, or if he can, the kicking doesn't bother the other people like it does on an airplane.

It's also a lot easier to pick up his toys when he throws them.

And if he makes a stinky diaper, we can pull over just about anywhere to change him. Stinky diaper during take off or landing? Gotta wait until it's safe to move about the cabin. Landings, especially - people automatically stand up as soon as they can and block the aisle to the bathroom. (Though they move fast if you dangle a stinky toddler in front of them.)

It's hard to put a price on that.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

I would assume he is an attorney.

He'd have to be working as outside counsel to a government agency to bill as low as $260...

 

[Frincy]

We got plane tickets for $135 round trip per person through Southwest. At those prices I gladly decided to fly instead of driving the 14+ hours with my family.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

Being 2500 plus miles from WDW... and 110 miles from DL... it's still cheaper for us to fly to WDW than it is to drive to DL. The airport is 17 miles away, and we get free parking and airfare. DL is 110 miles, and in an Expedition it can get pricey.

Go figure...

 

[kribit]

One last thing. I'm a little offended by the "if you drive more than 15 hours, you're nuts" comment. My DH gets up at 3:00 am to go to work. The night before we left on the July trip, I stayed up until 4:00 am so I would be able to sleep while DH was at work (kids spent the night with my parents). I was up at noon when he got home. I did this so I WOULD be fresh to drive most of the trip. When DH is tired, he can sleep almost anywhere. He slept for a good 8 hours while I drove the first 12. I slept while he drove the last 7. Moral of the story- please don't make blanket statements about people you don't know! On the plus side, we ended up getting to Orlando much earlier by driving than we would have if we had flown.

Add my family to the "nuts" side. We have flown all around the world and don't mind it, however, we wanted to experience the 20 hour drive to Disney last year and had such a good time that we'll probably never fly to Orlando again. It was so nice not having to wait for buses and having the flexibility to come and go as we pleased. We definately saved about $500 driving including a hotel stop down and back. We didn't want to drive straight through, but we probably could have made it.

There are so many things to see that you don't see flying over.

I say if you have the ability to drive...do it.

 

[consultant]

Interesting perspective. Family of 5 is of course not cheap to fly but that is a decent size budget that could accomodate flying as long as the other costs don't get out of hand. Granted flying to London is a little different than flying to Orlando, I'm surprised how difficult you find flying? We have a 5 and 7 year old and they've flown about 7 or 8 times now on flights as long as 6-1/2 hours and 99% of the time it's been a piece of cake. I bring my notebook computer along with my big battery and they watch DVD movies the whole time. When they were really young we times flights to maximize the chances they would sleep, and they did! (The white noise on the plane does the trick.) Our our trip to Hawaii last week, they played their Nintendo DS systems the entire time. Just goes to show you how different of an experience people can have flying I guess. All though I will admit that taking care of 3 kids on a plane is probably a little more challenging than 2. It also depends on the demeanor of the kids (in addition to the parents).

My wife tends to get tense when we fly with the whole check-in process. In looking at the faces of the people in the lines, you can usually see stress on their faces so its fairly common. We went to Phoenix for Thanksgiving though, flew out on a Tuesday and back on Sunday. The security lines in Seattle and Phoenix were non-existent. I couldn't believe it. Post 9/11 I guess it is a little harder to fly than it used to be. I've always enjoyed it even with a few hitches here and there. You just have to learn to roll with it, kind of like changing a flat on the freeway.

Last time we went to Disneyland we missed our flight because of the hellish LA traffic. My wife was all stressed out and I kept telling her no big deal there are plenty of other flights to Seattle. (It would have been a different story if it was LA to London.) This is when I discovered the new rule that your luggage had to be on the same plane as you. We showed up with enough time to get to the gate (25 min prior to departure), but it was too late to get the checked baggage on the plane. In the past we would have just waited in Seattle for the luggage to arrive with the next plane, or if it was coming a lot later just come back out to the airport and get it. Everything turned out fine though and we just went on a flight an hour later. I think flying is like going to Disney parks. There are some tips and tricks to make the best of it and its not always easy.

We're a family of 5 that typically drives from SW PA about twice a year. We generally stay in nicer hotels, and have a fairly generous budget (around 6-7k) per trip. We would much rather drive than fly at this point, especially with the kids and if it saves us money, then all the better. Even though we have the extra funds to fly, we don't see the need to spend the extra money just because we can. Flying is of no value to us, the extra time in Orlando not worth an extra 300 - 400+ hundred dollars (I have a spread sheet for our annual budget in excel; each vacation category is broken down) or the stress of flying.

I absolutely hate the hassles involved with flying. DH and I took a trip to London/ Greece in 2005. We nearly spent the entire thing in DC because of a missed flight. After being told numerous times to wait in the 4-6 hour United service line, I found a helpful gate employee (?) that was able to get us on the next flight. If not, the remaining flights were booked solid and we were told it would be 3-4 days before we could get a seat on a plane to London. Although we were able to get on the flight our luggage did not, and was subsequantly misplaced, end result we spent the first 3 days of our trip without most of our possessions. Coming home was smooth enough until our flight from DC to PIT was delayed from 11:00PM until morning at the earliest. We had enough, went to Enterprise rented a car and were home and in our bed by 3:00AM. It was a horrible experience and one I can not fathom dealing with kids in tow.

Again, each side has obvious benefits/ risks and each family has to be right for them.

 

[disneysteve]

We are a family of 4.

What are all you people driving, Suburbans or Econoline 9-person vans? Even with the 3rd row seats down in our Honda Pilot, the back would be full up the top of the backs of the second row seats.

We drive down with 3 or 4 people in our Toyota Sienna van. Plenty of room for everything without blocking the window. That includes luggage, a large cooler, a carton or two of food, my laptop, DD's pillow, etc.

 

[Becky2005]

The truck was COMPLETELY full. What are all you people driving, Suburbans or Econoline 9-person vans? Even with the 3rd row seats down in our Honda Pilot, the back would be full up the top of the backs of the second row seats. Granted techically it would only be half full but then the rear window is blocked and I don't like to do that.

We drive a Dodge Caravan -- Not even the "Grand" Caravan, so the smaller cargo space! Our stroller pretty much took up the entire space between the back seat & shutting the hatchback. However, I was able to easily squeeze a few bags back there in with the stroller.

Let's see...family of 6, ages 11, 8, 5 & 1 at the time plus the 2 adults. We went with 1 large suitcase, shoved under the middle seat (1 child in a car seat who's legs don't reach the floor makes for extra space!), 1 middle sized suitcase, 1 large size cooler (It's only a 7 passenger van, the middle seat is only 2 persons so that part is where the cooler went), various backpacks & stuffed animals/blankets (yes, those would have had to come with us on a plane too -- as it was the the things the kids sleep with all the time! So, it wasn't just because we went in the car.), big box of diapers (wipes) which we ran out of anyway -- glad I packed as many as I did. Lots of things under the seats. We never had the back blocked.

 

[consultant]

Ya, if you drive through areas you have never seen and there is some interesting stuff to see, it can be fun. You can just get a rental car for a couple hundred bucks for the week when you get there though. For us, the I-5 corridor from Seattle to LA can get fairly boring though after you've done it a few times. That's why when we did it we stopped at the waterslide park to help breaks things up a bit.

Add my family to the "nuts" side. We have flown all around the world and don't mind it, however, we wanted to experience the 20 hour drive to Disney last year and had such a good time that we'll probably never fly to Orlando again. It was so nice not having to wait for buses and having the flexibility to come and go as we pleased. We definately saved about $500 driving including a hotel stop down and back. We didn't want to drive straight through, but we probably could have made it.

There are so many things to see that you don't see flying over.

I say if you have the ability to drive...do it.

 

[HaleyB]

We get tons of paid vacation time, so we don't lose anything taking an extra day on each end of the vacation to drive.

We flew in last Oct. I figured the break even point for my family was $180 r/t and I was able to beat that by a little. Boy was my math off. We are used to the car being avaliable so we did not realize we would get stuck with no way back to our resort if we had a late dinner somewhere (on site, like Cali Grill). We spent about $150 in cab fare.

Not being able to run to Target cost us another $100 in snacks we had to buy.

We can not get a ride to the airport so we have to add another $140 to the total cost for flying. We also have our oldest child (who lives in another city) fly in and meet us for a long weekend while we are there so add another $100 for his transfer costs.

An extra night on site if we fly, maybe an extra night on each end- that costs us way more than a night on the road.

My kids don't bicker, we do not allow that. We really do enjoy the time together on the road and we get to see lots of interesting things we would otherwise have missed. On the other hand they do argue about who gets the window seat on a plane, and flying makes my daughters ears hurt too.

We got there around 6pm the day we left home, when we drive we arrive mid morning the second day. So at most we gain maybe 4 useable hours by flying.

It all depends on your situation.

 

[JamesMom]

Haven't read all the posts, but wanted to comment on the car depreciation. I ran numbers on Kelly blue book for the private party sale on my 2003 Ford Explorer:
30,000 miles = $12,100
33,000 miles = $12,100
No difference.

35,000 miles = $11,900
Had to drive an extra 5,000 miles to get a price decrease of only $200.

Not bad at all.
Just something to consider.
Ok, I'll read the rest and see what's up.

 

[consultant]

Try, 34900 and 35000.

Haven't read all the posts, but wanted to comment on the car depreciation. I ran numbers on Kelly blue book for the private party sale on my 2003 Ford Explorer:
30,000 miles = $12,100
33,000 miles = $12,100
No difference.

35,000 miles = $11,900
Had to drive an extra 5,000 miles to get a price decrease of only $200.

Not bad at all.
Just something to consider.
Ok, I'll read the rest and see what's up.