Do you refuse to drive, and fly instead?
 

When you have a engagement or meeting that is 4 hours and 30 minutes drive away, and rail is not viable. Do you fly? Connecting once, at that.

Given that question before, I would fly but now I would consider driving.

old way/very much liked taking flights
0:30 drive to airport
0:40 check in to airport
1:00 first flight
1:00 connecting
1:00 second flight
0:20 get rental car
total: 4:30

now (if flight taken)
0:40 drive to airport
1:10 check in to airport (1:20 if very big airport)
3:00 flights (same as before
0:25 get rental car
total: 5:15

If a nonstop is available, I would fly, but with a connection involved, I would drive. While 4.5 hours spent driving is unbearably miserable, it would likely be faster.

I usually use the 4 hour rule for nonstops and the 6 hour rule for connections.

Not a problem in the Washington area, but for 4 hours of drive time, I would fly, even if it means a connection.

4 hours of drive time won't even get you outside the beltway on most days...

My husband works for the Government. With all their cost saving the won't pay for overnight accommodation but expect him to drive 3 to 4 hours to another site for a meeting of 4 to 6 hours then drive home. How unsafe. He'd prefer to fly if he could. Even if the travel time took the same, at least with flying it is relaxing instead of concentrating on the road.

I'd fly instead of drive 4 hours if I could. The only time I would not is when the airport was 3 hours away and I was going on an international flight. If the local small airport plane was delayed, I'd be in huge trouble if it got to the point where I had no time.

Yes, my family prefers to fly NY-Baltimore rather than drive 4 hours both ways in a weekend. It can be done for little more than the price of gas ($49 each way), and it saves time and energy.

I should add that the local airport is a 10 minute-ish drive for me. So my options many times are; drive 10 minute and then spend the next few hours working and hopping around the country. Or....my alternative could be to drive 5-6 hours many times.

This.

For me it depends on the type of driving. 4 hours driving in Alberta never bothered me because it was mostly flat and open with little traffic so I drove. 4 hours driving in the northeast US will make make my blood pressure soar so I fly even if it means a connection.

Drive. Assuming decent weather, anything under 10 hours I drive.

My employer requires that I utilize a rental car for car trips of more than 149 miles. The nearest rental car facility to me is the airport, and some of the cars they have on offer are very unpleasant to drive on long highway journeys.

So, I use the 149 mile rule. If it's more than 149 miles, I fly, because I'm going to the airport anyway.

I don't drive for work. Train, plane or a combination only. That said, I've almost never visited a place in this job that I can't get to by public transport (with the odd taxi).

Also keep in mind that the more and longer you drive, the more likely you will encounter conditions that result in an accident or ticket. If this is for business, this is a liability that endangers your personal driving record and insurance rates.

Cost factors in for me too. I had a project in Greenville, NC. Not a fun drive from Charlotte (~4 hours), but the flight is in a regional jet and 7-day fares were usually in the $700 range. Needless to say I drove.

We sometimes have work trips that are about a 6 hour drive away...some folks drive it, I still fly even with a connection.

I really despise driving more than about 2 hours but will do it if I have to. Once in the 4-6 hour range I may be more likely to fly - depends somewhat on the specific destination, weather concerns, or whatever.

I wish I lived in a place with reasonable rail options as I would go that route often if I could. But it won't happen in this region of the US, not in my lifetime anyway.

I'd probably drive unless there was a reason not to (e.g. weather, inaccessible location, etc.)

Years ago I had a project that required stops in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Syracuse over a ten day period. The project budget included hub and spoke flights from Toronto. I suggested to my boss that he rent me a car and let me drive instead. Cheaper for the client and I enjoyed a very pleasant motoring "vacation."

It depends on the scenery of the drive.

Four would be a drive, my cut off seems to be at the 6 hour mark. Although I have done two road trips around the US (one solo). I abhor long distance driving, though much less so as a passenger. I get to sleep that way!

We drove once from CT to Baltimore and back. Never again. At minimum I would take Amtrak down, but in all honestly I would just hop on a 55 minute flight to either BWI/IAD/DCA. I have to drive to Florida from CT coming up in August, not looking forward to it but that's the price of wanting my car down there.

Depends whether I'm billing by the hour or lump sum.

Drive
 

I don't fly unless I absolutely have to and I love to drive. I wouldn't fly for under 8 hours. Train comes second after driving and flying as a last resort.

Luckily, I don't have a job that requires distant travel. Actually, it's not luck at all, I wouldn't take a job that requires travel, as I am afraid to fly. I fly only because I want to see foreign lands and I don't have enough vacation time to take a boat. I'm not going down in a pile of steaming metal for work.

Think Auto-Train. You'd have to drive to Virginia, but after that you can sit back with a book. Or a nap.

Have you thought of the auto train. You can ride relaxed on the train,and your car arrives with you.

4 1/2 is a great over/under and makes for a tough call for me. The determining factors are pretty much where/when would I have to drive, what is the expected level of traffic along the route, how "taxing" is the meeting/engagement expected to be, and what is the cost of the flight. If I could use the driving time in a more productive way, I would probably fly. If it's a marketing call and I don't expect the meeting to be much more than "meet and greet", then I might drive.

But, from the greater DC area, the airport choices make getting to a lot of places within a 4 1/2 hour window fairly easy. Driving from this area, on the other hand, can be a real pain and full of unexpected delays.

I would fly if at all possible. I hate driving and would spend 6 hours at the airport over 3 in the car. In the car, I can only talk on the phone at best, but while I'm at the airport/on the plane I can get quite a bit of work done. Or, if I don't feel like working, I can have a few drinks and watch a movie. It's generally a lot more productive.

Far too many other factors involved to simply say over/under 4 1/2 hours.

Personal car? I wouldn't trust it that far, and quite frankly I get too uncomfortable driving over two hours in it. If I had another car to use - maybe. Depends on how difficult the drive is -lot of traffic? Lots of navigating? And what about parking at the other end? Am I going to be doing this on top of a 9 hour day?

Of course many variables in the plane and train as well. Example - MetroWest Massachusetts to New York. The train is convenient, other than you have to get into Boston first, and then it is usually the most expensive and crowded option if you have any time at all to plan ahead (and they say no one wants to take the train!). Driving may be an alternative if the weather is nice and you are not doing rush hour. Then again airfares between the two are cheap if you plan ahead and take the train in from JFK or EWR. But if this is last minute, forget that option.

So there is no one answer. And if you are talking about a policy, I would think it would be better if it included a time function, and also wear and tear (and safety) on our car.

Thanks for that idea, I might just do that.

Fly.

London to Manchester is regular for me. I'll drive one in five or six.

Prefer someone else to drive me to LHR in Friday M25 traffic. Catch up with some TV on the ipad in the terminal. Have a scotch on the plane and watch the traffic below on the M40 / M6.

I drive whenever possible. I hate flying. I can't stand being jammed into a tiny seat, breathing in stale air. The airlines have ruined flying for me

.....

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... :D

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).