Drive or Fly to AZ?

[stevo_x]

You all seem like educated folk in here.

I need pro's and con's of driving vs flying. I've drove to Arizona before but when I was young with my parents. I'll state some obvious things I can think of about cost differences and maybe you can help me think of more.

Flying:
Cost of rental car
Biggest up front cost
No vehicle maintenance
Checked bag fee's(I was going to ship come clothes down or have my aunt drive some down)

Car:
Oil Change when I return
Possible Maintenance needed on road
Virtually no upfront cost(I still need to fix a few things before I leave but that will be small)
Tire and mechanical wear(I will be running my stock rims with snow tires on the front. Don't want to get caught in any snow with my summer rims/tires on)
No rental car needed
Lower overall cost

[Süsser Tod]

I dunno how the $$$ works out in the end, but I think the most important difference is time.

Is the money you're going to save worth the time you're going to spend driving? Is it worth it as much as to keep you from spending that time with your family?

[tcormier]

I think Susser is right, it depends on the time v cost for you. If it were only $100-$200 more to fly and get about 8-12 more hours, I'd personally fly. But if it isn't going to make much of a time difference, cheapest is the way to go!

[stevo_x]

Originally Posted by Süsser Tod

I dunno how the $$$ works out in the end, but I think the most important difference is time.

Is the money you're going to save worth the time you're going to spend driving? Is it worth it as much as to keep you from spending that time with your family?

I could actually leave earlier and stay a little later if I drove. I'm going to fly out there on a Thursday but I could start driving on Wednesday right after work. I'm going to fly back on Friday and I would still prob drive out on that Friday.

A lot of the driving costs depends on the mpg my car gets and the cost of gas. I looked up the national average for premium, my car has to have premium, and its 3.71. Here in Iowa right now premium is like 3.40-3.50 depending where you go. That would make a big difference.

Last time my car was on the interstate out to Illinois it got 29.8 mpg. But who knows with the mountains I'll have to pass through wether I'll get that or not. going from 29 down to a possible 26 makes a huge difference too.

[stevo_x]

The drive down would be the same time frame because I'm stopping off around denver for a day anyway. The drive back would be the one that takes a lot longer than flying but I dont really have anything to be back for that weekend.

[Builtgypsy]

For long drives:

It could take longer than you think. By several hours, depending on how much you want to get out and stretch, gas stops, food, finding and checking out of a hotel.

It gets very boring on the road on long drives. Have a shit ton of music to take with you, audio books, someone to talk to on the empty highways.

I'd suggest a small cooler and bringing food with you rather than stopping to eat. That way you can just pull something out real quick at a gas station or rest area, and not have to eat crappy fast food, or pay good restaurant prices.

Bring a lot of water. Bring a whole lot of water. Buy a case for $3, toss it in the trunk. You get stranded out somewhere in the middle of nowhere if something catastrophic happens, you'll need it.

Stick to the interstates over the highways whenever possible. Highways through the smaller towns tend to have speed traps, drastically reduced speeds and traffic where looking at a map wouldn't really suggest it.

I used to take 8 hour one way trips down to Florida when I was in Charleston, and I've been on two cross country trips (one 2 days, one 5), and every summer we'd load up and head 15 hours out to see relatives when I was little. I've been on a lot of long distance drives.

[stevo_x]

I always bring a cooler with. I like to make sammiches on trips and eat fruit. I wouldn't be stopping at a hotel unless I got really tired on the way back since the way there is broken in between 2 trips. Even so I could stop at a buddies place in Kansas.

I'm going to make my decision based on plane ticket prices tomorrow. If they are even more than when I checked yesterday I will be driving. I can always keep checking ticket prices but plan on driving. I could always end up snagging a good ticket deal last minute.

[stevo_x]

Welp I found some tickets back down at the 350ish price range so I'll be going back to flying if those are still available tomorrow.

Do you think it would be stupid to wait till the week before to buy tickets? If it wasnt thanksgiving weekend when I was flying back I would just wait till the last minute.

[binx_19]

the price of oil has also jumped about $5 a barrel.

[stevo_x]

Well I'm going to plan on driving for now. The ticket prices jump back and forth every day. I did some research and they say that Tuesday at 3pm is the time to get the least expensive tickets. I'm going to keep watching.