Replies

I’m in the same boat. I fly a lot for business but you can’t pay me enough to fly for vacation if I can drive instead.

Part of it is the strip search required every time you get on the plane. I’m not a moslem nor do I look like a moslem, why are they harassing me? Why don’t hey go after actual terrorists (moslems) instead?

Part of it is the outrageous costs involved for travelling as a family. Even just my family of two saves hugely by driving any trip shorter than about 20 hours driving time vs flying and then renting a car at our destination. Not to mention baggage restrictions when you fly. Try to bring all your beach equipment on a flight and you’ll pay hundreds of dollars in checked baggage fees. I’d rather spend that money having fun at the beach!

And part of it is the John Rocker theorem. Why sit next to smelly people who you don’t know and don’t like, who insist on invading your space when you can drive in the roomy privacy of your own car? Not to mention the extra risk of terrorist activity.

If I could get to the Caribbean and Europe driving for personal vacations (75%+ of our week long vacations are in those two areas), I would. I'm not a big fan of East coast US beaches (too crowded, water is rougher, unless you are in south Florida the water is too cold a few months a year).

We fortunately live in an old US Airway hub city so I have mostly direct flights (and we have TSA-Pre/Global entry, Admirals Club pass and I have platinum status with American Airlines which also really helps). If I had to deal with connecting flights all the time I'd go crazy.

I’ve driven across the country 5 times in the last 5 years with one or two friends in large part due to flying sucking now (we also have a lot of crap that isn’t amenable to being treated like a football)

It’s been cheaper and we get to see the country and meet folks. Screw flying government airlines...