important life impacting advice sought

take airforce one. duh.

Take a cab and have a sandwich.

If you're flying for 1.5 hours, you should drive.

ETA: not drive to the airport, drive the entire distance.

Thumb it!

miserly said:   i parked air force one kinda far away, so can't use it.
it's a transcon flight so 5 hours eastward and 6 hours westward, when non stop.
i have to buy my own sandwich.

1 hour drive to get non-stop transcon is a no-brainer, IMO. (unless you are likely to get worthwhile perks by flying your usual carrier)

Take a plane. Your arms won't get as tired that way.

Send me the money.
Stay home.
done

soundtechie said:   arch8ngel said:   soundtechie said:   If you're flying for 1.5 hours, you should drive.

ETA: not drive to the airport, drive the entire distance.

Flying 1.5 hours could easily be 6-8 hours of driving.

Driving 6-8 hours is more preferable (and faster than) flying 1.5 hours.

I have never had a 1.5 hour flight (and all of the security BS, etc) take anywhere close to 6 hours.

It only makes sense to drive that distance if you are traveling with multiple people (or children/pets) with more than carry-ons.

There is probably also an exception for chain smokers, the morbidly obese, and the abnormally tall.

arch8ngel said:   soundtechie said:   arch8ngel said:   soundtechie said:   If you're flying for 1.5 hours, you should drive.

ETA: not drive to the airport, drive the entire distance.

Flying 1.5 hours could easily be 6-8 hours of driving.

Driving 6-8 hours is more preferable (and faster than) flying 1.5 hours.

I have never had a 1.5 hour flight (and all of the security BS, etc) take anywhere close to 6 hours.

It only makes sense to drive that distance if you are traveling with multiple people (or children/pets) with more than carry-ons.

There is probably also an exception for chain smokers, the morbidly obese, and the abnormally tall.

For some strange reason, SW Airlines doesn't have a direct flight from Dallas to Corpus Christi. As a result, the flight from AMA to CRP often has a layover of a couple of hours in Dallas, a stop in Houston where we do not deplane, and finally arriving in Corpus about 7-8 hours later. This doesn't include the early check in, security lines, etc. Just time on the plane.

There is one scheduled flight from AMA to CRP which does not require a plane change, but does require stops in Dallas and Houston. If we can book that one, the flight is just under 4 hours.

For a frame of reference, direct flight from DFW to CRP on AA is 1hr 20mins.

All of that to say that we do, quite often, drive rather than fly. It's 9-10 hours to drive, we have a vehicle there, and we have no baggage restrictions. Nor are we paying inflated airport prices for food and beverages.

arch8ngel said:   The OP is asking about driving 6-8 hours versus a 1.5 hr direct flight. On business travel, so the rental car (if needed) is covered by the company.

i'm unsure why people keep misreading my posts, but i've said it's a transcon flight from one coast to the other. nonstop is 5 hours one way, 6 the other (jet stream) from an airport 1 hour away. or i can fly with 1 stop each way for 6.5 hours one way and 8.5 hours the other. the local airport airline will give me miles i am collecting, the non-stop will give me miles for an airline i never fly, so basically worthless. fare is about the same.
at the end of the day, time is about the same, taking time to get/from the airport into consideration. non-stop is more convenient and less likely to have scheduling issues. the stopover opens up additional risk of delays. the flight with stops have slightly better departure times as the non-stop is only one flight per day. so driving to my final destination was never in the cards. it still isn't.

as for the texas two step, you can thank Jim Wright http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Amendment

miserly said:   arch8ngel said:   The OP is asking about driving 6-8 hours versus a 1.5 hr direct flight. On business travel, so the rental car (if needed) is covered by the company.

i'm unsure why people keep misreading my posts, but i've said it's a transcon flight from one coast to the other. nonstop is 5 hours one way, 6 the other (jet stream) from an airport 1 hour away. or i can fly with 1 stop each way for 6.5 hours one way and 8.5 hours the other. the local airport airline will give me miles i am collecting, the non-stop will give me miles for an airline i never fly, so basically worthless. fare is about the same.
at the end of the day, time is about the same, taking time to get/from the airport into consideration. non-stop is more convenient and less likely to have scheduling issues. the stopover opens up additional risk of delays. the flight with stops have slightly better departure times as the non-stop is only one flight per day. so driving to my final destination was never in the cards. it still isn't.

as for the texas two step, you can thank Jim Wright http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Amendment

You should probably make your original post more clear, then, because it definitely sounds like a 1.5 hour flight is being discussed (even though you say trans-con in a later post, and there are no transcontinental flights that short).

My advice stays the same, though. Direct. Screw the layover and chance for missed connections.

arch8ngel said:   (even though you say trans-con in a later post, and there are no transcontinental flights that short).

i define transcon as transcontinental, though debates rage http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/aviation_polls/read.mai...
i'd say SFO-MCO qualifies, as would SAN-BWI...

ganda said:   what sort of car is it?
In typical FW fashion, it has to be a Crown Vic...