Yes, your story is very, very typical.
I’m north of Atlanta by a little bit. ANYTHING within 7-8 hours drive from my house is faster to drive than go by parking + checkin + security + flight wait time + get-in-plane-time + actual flight time + get off plane time + luggage pickup time + rental car wait time + drive-to-site time.
Actual flight time may be only 2 or 3 hours of an 8-11 hour travel day.
Agree!
Plus I do my best thinking while driving.
And I forgot to mention that you are now advised to allow nearly 2 hours to pass through security. So boring...since all TV’s play CNN only, it usually requires less time to pass through security, so more time wasted sitting around.
The boarding procedure on planes makes no sense. The front seating passengers including first class board first. Which means the rear of the plane passengers must pass through an obstacle course people standing in isle trying to shove their carry-on luggage into the overhead bins. Why not load in reverse sequence from rear to front.