How far would you drive...

[BuzzLiteyear]

...in order to fly?

I'm thinking of driving a little over 4 hours to Columbus, OH to avoid a 19 hour drive. The price is right...

 

[Darcy03231]

I drove 2 hours to save $1200 (and there's a major airport within 15 min of my house). If the savings were substantial enough, I'd drive 4 hours. There are lots of people who live 4 hours away from a major airport and do it all the time.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

We've driven 3 hours to Detroit, 2 hours to Columbus and 2 1/2 hours to Pit.

 

[mybestieismickey]

I would say that if the savings are enough to off set the costs of getting there and back and still have you coming out ahead, go for it. For us, we have a minimum of a 2 1/2 hr drive to get to a real airport, with 4 hrs (opposite direction) being the next closest, so it doesn't seem strange to me. I always price both options.

 

[ottawamom]

We drive almost 5 hours to fly with Southwest. I really like their cancellation/ change flights policy. We could travel only 3hrs to Syracuse but for me its worth the extra distance to know our flight won't change and if we have to cancel we can. We have a great airport where we live but the taxes on flights are a deal-killer.

 

[mommytoryan]

I'm in Ottawa too and it's the same thing. We usually go 3 hours to Syracuse because the fees here are outrageous. I don't know that we would plan on much further than that though, we just don't want to spend the entire first and last day of our vacation in the car because it cuts back on our time in Florida.

 

[disneychic2]

We had planned to drive 2.5 hours to Columbus for our trip when we live 10 minutes from Akron Canton Airport. Last night I changed our dates and are now flying out of Cleveland which is an hour away and...wait for it...we're flying back via Pittsburg and renting a car to come home! The things we have to do to save $$! But it's worth it. So think nothing of your 4 hour trip to the airport and enjoy your savings!!!

 

[jking6]

We have driven from Upstate NY to Rochester 3 1/2 hours and we have also driven from upstate NY to Providence RI 4 and 1/2 hours. I always check prices to see whats better and if so can save a few hundred dollars it's worth the trip.

 

[Alexander]

Our options are:

SYR 45 minutes away
ROC 1 hour 15 minutes away
ITH 1 hour 15 minutes away
BUF 2 hours away

We don't drive any further than those. Obviously SYR is our first choice because it is the closest. The majority of our flights have been out of ROC on AirTran because the prices were the best. BUF is our third choice, but will take it because we can get JetBlue direct for a decent price from time to time.

As of late, SYR prices have been beating ROC. This all started with the Southwest/AirTran merger. ROC has AirTran, but not Southwest (BUF does) and the prices have skyrocketed since the merging of the two airlines.

Edited to add ITH. Forgot about that one. Once in a while we'll find a deal out of this tiny little airport near Cornell. Love it! One little line for security with never anyone in it!