.....

Flights are dirttt cheap. I am finding a lot of just $300-400 flights r/t for a lot of engagements. The drive is 5 hours~ many times. 6 hours sometimes. It all varies. But everytime I look at it, I look at it as time lost. Because it really isn't enjoyable to drive. Train or airtravel allows you to still work, enjoy media, read, etc. Then I look at it as really 5 hours one way...so 10 hour or more a week of just totally lost time - doing what? Defensive driving...

I spend $350~, and my employer and client..."forces" me to sit in airport lounges with my work laptop? It becomes hard to avoid work at that point. If I am driving, I am as others point out (and where is Nate Silver when you want him) - more likely to be injured while driving.

I might not fly to some of these locations 5 hours away for leisure, but it is just because these are truly not destinations you necessarily seek out. So you don't value the destination like you would a a flight from Denver to Aspen, which might save you 5 hours of driving over the mountains.

I have to fly I live on an island. But people in England take the train everywhere on crazy long distances like from London to Durham. Personally I would rather fly there for enjoyment and the fact that you'd be there in half an hour v four hours.

I personally don't understand people who take the train over the plane its so so boring!!

I should clarify. I love the concept of flying. I love airplanes. I enjoy just sitting near an airport and watching them take off and land. What I hate is what flying has become. I fly economy, that's all I can afford, and it's painful being jammed into smaller and smaller seats. Flying has become so painful due to airlines jamming so many people into these planes. It's not the actual flying I hate, I love flying, I just hate how damn uncomfortable the airlines have made it.

London to Durham is a little shy of three hours, on decent trains with food and wifi, city to city. You can work, ready a book, watch a film... Much more civilised, IMO (and no longer door to door than a Heathrow-Newcastle flight - unless you're starting near the airport). But each to their own!

Fly. There are too many lunatics driving on the roads - paying attention to their cell phones, texting, watching DVDs etc. I am most definitely not one of them.

I'll willingly spend more time flying to avoid driving.

Currently, driving for domestic trips. The petrol AKL-WLG is roughly the same as a OW ticket bought on a date/time I'd like to fly. As I am still relatively new to NZ, the scenery is novel. My car is sizeable and comfortable, the driving conditions (roads, traffic, etc) are ok, and I can avoid the annoyance that is short haul Y: 1 hour to AKL, 1 hour waiting, 1 hour flight in a tight space with minimal service (NZ$150), cab/bus to cbd.

Int'l trips necessitate flying. It's a long swim, and the idea of a cruise doesn't appeal to me.

About 3 hours is my driving cutoff. Anything longer I will fly (assuming no decent rail option exists). Connections/transfers/layovers don't bother me at all.

I would much rather relax in an airport lounge than fight the endless stream of morons one typically encounters on US roads...

Based out of PHL. Live in the triangle between I-76/I-476/I-276 (for anyone familiar with local geography), so a trip to PHL is 30 - 45 minute drive + 15 minutes park/TSA + boarding at T-30. That means I have about a 90 minute sunk cost in flying per departure and about an hour per arrival.

Drives: I drive to north NJ (2 - 3 hours) semi-regularly. I've also driven to Pennsyltucky (2 - 4 hours) regularly. I've driven Montreal to Ottawa (2+ hours?) and back as part of a multi-city trip nested in a PHL-YUL roundtrip by air.

Train: NYC (3 - 4 hours by car) is Amtrak & MTA when possible. Downtown Philly is SEPTA when I have meetings there. I once did Toronto to Ottawa (4 hours by car) by VIA to close an open jaw PHL-YYZ/YOW-PHL.

Air: I have done PHL-BDL, PHL-BOS, and PHL-RIC same day trips by air. That would be 4 - 6 hours for any of those driving. Flown to MHT, PIT, and ERI around multi-day trips. Also about 6-ish hours driving.

The key is whether or not the whole day is blown by driving. If so, a flight makes better sense so I can get a half day of work out of a travel day (either office time or client meetings).

I usually do BOS-JFK by air. I enjoy Acela better on that, but it is usually much more expensive and too much of a hassle to get to South Station versus the airport. I have driven down to Stamford a few times, and that is really too much for me driving wise.

same here, I feel in a jail when flying coach

If I am driving, I am on "their time". Like others, driving sucks. I can't do what I want. It isn't the weekend anymore, thats for sure. So driving on 3-4 hours on a Sunday for me is not a conversation starter.

If I am flying, I am on my time. I can do any number of things. Including sleep.

Also - get a quote to see if an auto transport company will pick your car up and transport it down to FL if you just want to fly straight down. If you have more than one car, you could ship it beforehand (so it arrives when you do).

I don't fly for work, so all my travel is personal and thus, costs are out of pocket. There are so many factors that I don't have a hard rule for flying vs driving (i.e., anything more than X hours, I'd fly).

Obviously, anything that would require me to spend the better part of a day on the road, I'd fly. But shorter distances, it all depends. If I'd have to rent a car at my destination, I'm more likely to drive. If hotel parking would cost more than a plane ticket, and there was decent public transportation, I'd be more likely to fly.

KC, Memphis, Indianapolis and Chicago are all roughly the same distance from my home here in St. Louis. KC, Memphis and Indianapolis, I'd definitely drive, because a car would be needed in those cities (besides I don't think there are nonstops from STL to MEM and IND unless I could stuff myself into a FedEx box). Chicago, well, then it all depends. Am I staying downtown where hotel parking is 50 bucks a night? I'd probably fly. But I'm going up there for a family function in a few months but it's in the northern suburbs where I'd need a car anyways, so I'm driving.