Have a trade show in LAS. TUS-LAS driving is about 7 hours. (Drive a Prius so gas is about $20 each way. Could also fly AA but that would be TUS-DFW-LAS or about 5 hours in the air.

Advantages to driving 1. My own car in Vegas. 2. More direct trip.

Advantages to Flying 1. Miles!!!! 2. No hassles with having a car in Vegas.

Disadvantages to driving 1. 7 hours of Windshield Time. 2. No miles other than Credit Card and hotel.

Disadvantages to Flying. 1. Go 2 hours East then 2.5 hours West. 2. have to arrange transport from Airport to hotel



Which way to go. (without including WN since the idea of flying would be to get more AA miles.)

Or am I just obsessed with miles.

I'd drive that every time. Travel time getting to the airport, plus time/hassle at the airport, plus risk of weather/equipment prob's/general unpleasantness of flying nowadays says drive to me. Miles are nice, but still. Leave when you want, listen to the radio, have fun watching your mpg exceed 100 going downhill, figure out how you're going to spend the $ you saved, etc. Enjoy the drive!

By myself, I'd definitely fly if the price for the airfare wasn't out of whack.

For me:

Advantage to driving: 7 hours (x2) of solitude.

Don't forget that your 5 hour flight needs to add additional time to get to your origin airport ahead of time, and ground transportation time at both ends. So that would probably be about 7 hours total.

You can fly non-stop between TUS and LAS on US Airways / America West or Southwest. That's a little more than an hour in the plane (and the fares on the random dates I picked are much cheaper than on American Airlines). No American Airlines miles, though.

Basically, if you fly American Airlines through DFW, you're saying that those American Airlines miles are worth about 8 hours of your time (counting both directions) + a few hundred dollars, when compared to the non-stop flights on US Airways / America West or Southwest.

Road Trip!!!!!!

Got a cd player or XM radio? 7 hours will go by like nothin'.

if you factor in possible delays and cancellations, the expected value of the airtime is more. since 7 is not that much more than 5, driving wouldnt be a bad idea.

what time of the year would this be?


I generally fly .. even short distances.. but in your scenario, I think
driving makes more sense.

Time to/from the airport.. at the airport may get significant..
and you wont be bound to the schedule. you can leave whenever you
want and stop whenever you want...

and I think in that part of the country, traffic wont be crazy either.

I am often faced with a simlilar dilemma. LAX to SFO. Truthfully, it's about 4 hours flying time (2hrs pre-LAX which is my drive time to LAX plus security, then 1 hr flying time and then 1hr waiting to de-plane, pick up bags and taxi into the city) vs. 5-6 hours drive on I-5 time (with stops included!) If I had a Prius, I would do it on principle alone. Advertizing your mpg on any US interstate by simply driving a hybird car is a reminder to us all to ween ourselves off our world-record-breaking oil consumption. I don't even care if your body-weight plus baggage on a commercial airline consumed less fuel per person (which I highly doubt). I always smile in admiration to hybrids as they stream by my 4 cyl (at 40 mpg) Saturn. I fully embrace role model vehicle pick and plan to own a hybrid when my Saturn finally breaks down.

If there's a big trade show (or several) in town, then I revise my opinion and would consider driving .... unless wanting the bump compensation.

Take the car turn the XM on and drive. 250 is my threshold, unless IM on vacation and well rental vehicles are so darn expensive now days, I just factor in extra time. Since afterall I drive a 07 Honda Odyssey Touring!

Your 40mpg in the Saturn is already pretty good. Most hybrids (other than the Prius, Civic hybrid, and maybe Camry hybrid) use more fuel than that (because they are made for high performance with slightly-better-than-normal fuel consumption rather than minimum fuel consumption with good-enough-for-street-driving performance).

The 2004+ Prius gets 50mpg at 65mph on the freeway. City fuel economy can be all over the place; most suburban city drivers seem to be finding mid-40s, but certain types of city / traffic jam driving (with very gentle speed changes allowing a lot of electric only acceleration and fully regenerative braking) can give 75mpg or so.

If I did the same trip repeatedly, I'd fly. But if it's a one-time occurence, especially if it was a new route to me, I'd definitely drive.

delete

Drive! I won't fly MCO-ATL anymore since I hate flying in/out of ATL with a passion. And that's a 6 hr drive v. a 1 hr flight.

XM is a godsend. XM54 and cruise control on 80, coke bottle in the cupholder and a Red Bull in the glove box. Life is good.

Off topic, I have been getting more and more interested in Toyota Hybrids, not necessarily the Prius, but the new Camry Hybrid. Do you have any insight on that? I drove a friends Jetta TDI on my last MCO-ATL hop, and it was only about $17 in gas each way. I'm deciding on either a Jetta TDI or Camry Hybrid for a daily driver right now.