Background: October 2005 - flew Huntsville to Dallas/Ft Worth to pickup a used, 2003 Prius I'd bought via eBay and drive home January 2010 - flew Huntsville to Detroit to witness the 2010 Prius release and eventually bought one in April. May 2016 - flew Huntsville to Charleston NC to pickup a 2014 BMW i3-REx and drive home. Spring 2017 - flew to Rhode Island to pickup a 2017 Prius Prime and drive home. Spring 2023 - flew to Palm Beach FL to pickup a 2017 BMW i3-REx and drive home. I've grown tired of flying versus driving. Although the ground speed is impressive, the block-to-block speed is a fraction due to: (1) to airport and check-in; (2) layover in route; (3) getting from airport to destination. As for the expense, add the parking fees or taxi costs, that cheap ticket is not so cheap. Driving home, I have a spacious, comfortable driver's seat. The windshield and side windows let me "see the world." Stop anywhere for a quality or fast meal and stretch. Recline and take a cat nap. Bathroom anywhere from the road shoulder to a truck stop. All my luggage and stuff is with me including late wife and our dogs. There are routes like over oceans where there are no roads and flying is the only way to go. So let's look at a trip from Huntsville AL to StarBase, Texas: Flying Departure Mon, Jun 16 $493 2:45 PMHuntsville International Airport (HSV) 4:50 PMGeorge Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) 1 hr 25 min layoverHouston (IAH) 6:15 PMGeorge Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) 7:40 PMBrownsville South Padre Island International Airport (BRO) 30 miles to motel in rental and 5 days rental car fees, $695 Driving Departure Mon, Jun 16, 1,124 miles 21 hr 40 minutes $157.36 Free charging during motel stay Offered only as a compare and contrast of a 1,124 mile trip. My choice, I drive. Bob Wilson
I just have a plain Prius HEV, not a PHEV or EV, so the cost comparison isn't as stark for me. I did compare my fuel cost last year after my trip to Vancouver and back and it seemed roughly in the ballpark of the round-trip airfares I had seen. I did enjoy all the other listed advantages, being able to stop and see old college friends, and Yellowstone, and so on. I also had the schedule flexibility to turn a < 1 week conference into a 3-week trip, which not everyone always has. A disadvantage was that, having little need for a car at all while at the conference proper, I paid somewhere around US$100 to park it there. Also, I had a tire damaged by a fallen rock in Yellowstone and had to put the spare on and make a side trip to get a replacement put on. Flying commercially generally won't involve that.
Travel needs differ. Time, cost, personal, business, preference and so many other variables determine how one decides what their best solution is.
