We bought an RV in December of last year after my spouse declared he wouldn't fly again. We use it for our holiday travel now, rather than flying. The gas costs are comparable to two airline tickets, and we can take our dogs, which in turn saves money in house/dog sitter costs.

Like last year, I offered to buy my dad and his partner a ticket to spend T-day with us, since there were still plenty of seats available at reasonable fares. Again, he declined. They'll be driving over to watch the Mars rover launch instead. No scans, no groups, no stress.

Attention mainstream media: please take this story and run with it. They love doing articles about the Thanksgiving tradition of spending multiple nights in airports going nowhere, and if they could go to a terminal on this super-busy travel day to the sound of crickets chirping, perhaps that would say something about the TSA.

As much fun as TSA bashing is, I have to believe that this is the answer.

Or people finally got wise and figured out how much of a pain in the tuchus it is to travel the day before Thanksgiving.

Mike

I drove 550 miles / 9 hours (one way) to New York for an extended weekend. But coming back yesterday (Tuesday before Thanksgiving), the traffic was much heavier, it took me about 11 hours on the road.

I was also floored at how little traffic there was at Newark airport.

I hate that I'm now at an age where I could afford and do weekend air trips, but I can't now.

I'm in the same situation. Well, the TSA is saving us money!! :)

Last year, the Weds. before Thanksgiving, I was at large US airport (flying domestic) at a normally peak travel time. No one was on the shuttle bus. There were 5 people in the ENTIRE security screening area. They made EVERYONE, even the 2 elementary school aged boys, go through the scanner. I hope the person in the viewing booth enjoyed their new job...

Yes, I was very surprised to see nine passenger cars. It was a long train - for Amtrak.

This weekend we're auto-training to Florida. The roads will be crowded, and the airports full of TSA. So we'll sit back, eat well, watch a movie, lie flat (sleeper car), and arrive rested, not-radiated, not-groped, and with all our stuff -- an entire carload of stuff.

TSA has changed the value equation. Now Amtrak is the better value.

"TSA has changed the value equation. Now Amtrak is the better value."

Right on the mark.

Boston (Logan) was nearly empty this morning. The local news here showed no lines for security at 6:30AM. Usually security is nuts at that time. They showed the screeners all standing around just swinging their arms waiting for people to show up.

Love it!

According to the 5 p.m. news in NYC, LGA is a "ghost town."

Good. I hope people stop flying. TSA will only be curtailed when airlines whine about revenue loss.

Complaints and letter writing are useless because TSA bureaucrats and related tech industry make too much money and Obama needs his only effective jobs program.

Today the early morning TV news was that PHX was jammed and travelers needed to arrive at the airport at least 2 hours before departure time. However, the accompanying video showed empty security lines. Tonight's broadcasts had stories about heavy highway traffic, but nothing about Sky Harbor.

As for cost being the only explanation, many of us have either the money or the miles we could use if we chose. I bought my 3 kids airfare to visit grandma for Thanksgiving (they are young and more patient than I, and one is even an "anything for security" nut, how embarrassing for me) but I'm staying home, as I refuse to deal with the airport foolishness.

MIA was a ghost town this morning. Was sitting in the SkyClub 10 minutes after getting off my shuttle.

Best part was the MMW machine had to get re-calibrated, so it was WTMD for all of us this morning! No lines, no gropes, no radiation - only thing that would make it better would be get PreCheck up and running and no War on Water.

Why would they blame their friend the TSA when they can easily blame "in this economy"?

Amazing...
 

I just returned from picking up my husband at the Amtrak station in Newport News, Virginia. I have never seen anything like it. The parking lot was full, the side lots were jammed, and even the road leading to the train was packed with not a spare place to park.

I parked NEXT DOOR at a health clinic and texted the hubby and told him where to find me.

He said the train was 100% full, and there were several people who had to stand in the train cars, due to lack of seating. Today, there were eight LONG passenger cars on his trek from New York to Newport News.

Amtrak is busy, busy, busy.