What costs do you use?????

[Jon99]

When comparing the costs of driving vs flying, what costs do you use when determining the cost to drive?????

Cost of flying is easy, airfare, car rental and parking... For our next trip, currently the cheapest we can fly is about $1250, $850 for airfare, $300 for rental and $100 to park...

When driving, the easy stuff is gas (about $150), but how about wear and tear on the vehicle (2400 miles x ?????)???, we drive straight thru so we have no hotel expense and food expense is minimal...

Our drive is 18 hours, for us to fly we figure 6 hours by time we drive an hour to the airport, waiting for flight, getting out of MCO and driving from MCO to WDW....

So from a cost analysis, how much cheaper would you need airfare to drop before it was worth 12 hours of your time????

 

[Myrtle]

We drove once. Orlando is about a 16 hour drive from home. Our intention was to stay at a condo. for two nights on the way there and for three nights on the way home - to break the trip up as our son was 5 years old at the time. After leaving the first condo., we drove and made it about an hour from DW before the alternator went out leaving us stranded - in an area with no stores, restaurants, etc. Luckily, a mechanic happened to drive by us and took us to an automotive store and fixed it for us - $400.00 cash. Then, while we were staying at WDW - which was wonderful - a hurricane came along and blew away the condo. we were to stay at on the ride home. Ended up driving to my in-laws in Laurel, Miss. Hope you have better luck than we did.

Flew the next time. There's just something about getting there within two hours that I like - even tho' I'm scared to death the entire time I'm in a plane!

 

[ducklite]

I also figure in the "cost" of my time. I only have so much of it, and to me it's worth it to fly rather than spend two vacation days driving.

Anne

 

[drogerstn]

Good Topic

From a purely financial standpoint, I doubt flying will ever be cheaper than driving for us (family of 4).

We have driven a few times and flown a few times and I don't have a break-even on the cost. Our drive is shorter (13 hrs), so we probably lean more towards driving than you would. I guess we go by feel. We flew in 2002 because we had rt airfare for $91 per person (4 people=$360) to Tampa; we did rent a vehicle while there. This included a connection through Atlanta, so we probably saved 8 hrs one-way. We have driven at times when we included other items as part of the trip (ie. a basketball game in Tuscaloosa, AL and a vacation with visiting relatives in Panama City beach along with a fishing and diving trip to the Keys).

We are willing to pay up to around $150 per person round-trip before we decide to drive. We have also rented a mini-van for the drive when we were able to get a really good deal ($175).

You can figure costs fairly directly for each mile for some general maintenance items like oil changes, tire, belts, etc. Some items like brakes (tires too?) can vary significantly depending on the type of driving you normally do in your vehicle. If you do a lot of city driving, you may replace brakes every 15,000 miles; a trip on the highway barely affects this.

Depreciation on the value of the vehicle is affected by age and mileage. If you keep the vehicle for 10 years and put 180,000 miles on it, then the trip to WDW has little affect on the value of the vehicle. If you buy and replace new vehicles every 2 years, and put low mileage on them, then the WDW trip would have a bigger impact.

Availability of paid vacation time is another factor. Some folks don't get any paid vacation, some 2 weeks, some 5 weeks, etc.. If I have 5 weeks of paid vacation, I'm more willing to give up a day or two to the drive; if vacation and schedule is tight, then an extra couple of days would be tough to justify. There is a lot of value to the relaxed feeling you get with the shorter trip from flying, but I always feel better about the money we saved when we do end up drivinig.

So from a cost analysis, how much cheaper would you need airfare to drop before it was worth 12 hours of your time????

With an 18 hour drive, I'd be willing to pay around $1000 total for flying, parking, and car rental; otherwise I'd drive. (At least that's how I feel at the moment.

 

[caitycaity]

18 hour drive!!!!????!!!! if i couldn't afford to fly, i'd just stay home. driving more than 8-10 hours without a break is not my idea of a vacation.

 

[drogerstn]

if i couldn't afford to fly, i'd just stay home.

Able to afford and willing to afford are two different things.

I usually regret deciding to drive after about 8 hours into the trip; then I'm happy I decided to drive a day or two after getting back home.

 

[CarolA]

Personally the value of your life and your families lives should be considered if you are going to drive EIGHTEEN hours straight. There are regulations prohibiting professional truck drivers from doing that just because it has been proven so unsafe. I find it amazing that people really think they can be just as alert after 18 hours as they were when the started.

Statisitics prove you are much safer in an airplace then in a car with someone who has been driving for that long!

 

[MaddieinWonderland]

Originally posted by CarolA
Personally the value of your life and your families lives should be considered if you are going to drive EIGHTEEN hours straight. There are regulations prohibiting professional truck drivers from doing that just because it has been proven so unsafe. I find it amazing that people really think they can be just as alert after 18 hours as they were when the started.

Statisitics prove you are much safer in an airplace then in a car with someone who has been driving for that long!

I'd imagine that if you rotated drivers during the trip, it'd be a bit safer.

That said, I've driven alone from New York City to Atlanta via Knoxville and it was definitely strenuous. I'm not sure if I-95 is engaging past Richmond because I've never driven it, but I-81 become very, very repetitive and endless and there were long, long stretches of nothing to look at or think about. The road didn't even *turn*. That was what did me in and made me stop for 45 minutes or so to eat and call someone to reel me back in to the real world.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Hmmm, good question. I never consider it. My idea of driving to Florida is to drive to my nearest airport and park.

 

[frazzled one]

I've never factored in the wear and tear on our vehicle, though of course that's important. I figure I bought the car because I need transportation, so I might as well drive it - and I do! I probably put 350 miles a week on in the normal course of driving, even though I only live 2 miles from work - taking kids back and forth to dance, lessons, school activities, etc.

Although stats definitely show that air travel is safer, I just don't feel safer in a plane - and that counts for a lot with me. We switch drivers regularly, maintain the car well, are very cautious on the road, etc. If we did fly to Orlando, I'd lose a lot of pleasure during our vacation fretting about the trip back.

It also seems to me that the time you invest in flying isn't necessarily the 2.5 hours it takes to get from NY to FL. Folks who need to make connections often have to put aside a day for travel on both ends of the vacation. And then there are the delays, flight cancellations, overbookings, etc.

Wouldn't it be great if some genius could invent the perfect mode of travel to WDW!

fraz