What is your threshold for just hitting the open road vs flying? Mine has increased recently. We live in a rural area and are about a 45 minute drive from EVV which is a nice regional airport with about 25 daily departures to hubs such as Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit,Memphis and one daily flight to Dallas and that is about it. We are about 2 hours from Louisville and Indianapolis which have less direct flights that they used to.
This past weekend we took a quick trip to MSY from EVV. From the time we left our hotel until we puled in our drive was 8 hours. I could drive it in 10 hours and have less hassle. Am I crazy
Those of you who live close to large hub airports are very fortunate. My son and I recently made a trip to Kansas City for business. We were able to drive in about the same time it would have taken to fly and I was on my own schedule which is worth something.
I should mention I enjoy driving and I have a really good radar detector
My threshold is creeping up from 500 miles toward 700

5 hours for me, unless the flight is exceptionally expensive. I live 10-15 minutes from MSP, so getting to the airport isn't too bad. Southwest to Chicago and AirTran to Milwaukee make some short hauls rather cheap.

I love to drive my V1-equipped M3 as well....

....buuuut....my threshold is much lower: 200, maybe 250 miles.

Living in CA (15-20 minutes from SJC), although the time savings may not be much, it is often cheaper (when looking at the entire wear and tear equation, not just gas) to fly when the distance is equal to or greater than 300 miles. It is also safer and a lot less tiring.

Or maybe I'm just getting old.

I can't think in miles since a couple places i've gone for work have involved significant 45-55 mph driving.

5 hours is my threshold. It also depends on airports and price. I'll drive from CLT-Greenville, NC b/c the flight is turbo prop and usually seems quite expensive, then i'll still have to rent a car. To places like BWI the flights are cheap and I can get by with just shuttles.

For personal travel it depends on whether it's just me, how long i'll be there, and if I need a car when I'm there. more than 1 person = driving will be significantly cheaper. More than a few days and i'm willing to drive farther. I have never rented a car to visit family so if someone can't pick me up when i'm there, then i'll probably just drive the whole way!

Well, I can see the situation many people face if they're not near a big airport with robust competition. It's hard for an airport in a place like Chattanooga or Augusta to get much traction when people will drive to ATL or BHM or BNA to fly out because of the fares.

It has also worked in reverse, though. After Eastern folded, Delta had some high fares until they got LCC competition. People in ATL would drive to BHM, especially, for Southwest-match fares. And I remember some 15 years ago when I did a whole series of GSP/AVL-NYC trips on 3 segments via DL to take advantage of $100 fares and a FF program that then was much more generous about segment runs.

I've gotten to be a real curmudgeon about long distance car travel, though. Seems the driving habits get less safe every year and the stats are saved only by engineering improvements on the roads. Some interstates, especially the main east-west trunks (like I-20) are very thick with trucks, and if they are still 2-lane in stretches it's no fun at all.

Alamo even had a pretty good Florida driveaway deal this year, one I certainly would have taken a decade ago but passed on this time.

An oft-quoted stat is that the country as a whole had about 1,000 more highway deaths in the last 3 months of 2001, after 9/11, than the year-ago period. More people drove temporarily and the stats sadly caught up with that.

5 hours if the flight is non-stop and 8 or 9 hours if I would have to change planes. Last year I drove 9 hours from Peoria to Nebraska because flying would have required a connection at ORD. But I flew from Nebraska to Minneapolis because the flight was nonstop and conveniently timed.

Before all the TSA insanity I would have flown much shorter distances, but with all the hassle now it's just not worth it to fly.

Being in ANC... our options are rather limited...

Anywhere else in the lower 48 $ & Hawaii - Fly. I have never been on the ALCAN... and I really don't have an interest in doing it (well... maybe once might be fun... but air travel is so much more fun, faster & safer)

So there are several places where one can drive for fun and its ok in Alaska... for instance the Kenai Peninsula- 3-5 hour drive (depending on where you are going) - there are 2 airports with scheduled service... but its on a beechcraft or dash-8, (or a Cessna depending on airline)... and the time savings would be great (45-1:15 flight time) but then you need a vehicle, fishing gear, etc...

FAI is another option... and I've done the ANC-FAI drive several times and recently flew it... flying it is much faster! (Plus great views of Denali)

JNU, our Capitol is accessible by air or water... and so is ADQ... so we're really rather limited on where we can drive (that is a destination)...

So this mindset is engraved in my mind (I grew up in AK) so whenever I need to get there... I think 'fly' vs. 'drive'...

Another key point is weather (which can put the kabash on flying too) - I was at WSU for a while in Eastern Washington- PUW specifically. The Snoqualmie pass to SEA would shut down during various times of the year due to snowfall/avalanches/mudslides so it was very nice to fly over in an hour. Besides, its a very boring drive as most of it is over flat boring farmland. (don't have much of that in AK ) So that's another key point...

I have an upcoming trip to IND this summer... I booked the AS nonstop into ORD already, (upgraded of course ^) and am contemplating the ORD/MDW-IND segment (I have family near MDW I can visit for one end of the trip)... so I could drive... or take the train... or fly via DTW and get more miles & check out some cool lounges... hmmm... the price isn't bad at 140ish AI... now for me to confirm my dates!

My threshold is 0...I don't own a car

If I don't feel like flying I can usually get to where I need to be via Amtrak. I used to fly to DC and BOS all the time, but now usually just take the train.

I forgot about that one...

In PUW... I didn't have one either so I was literally stuck flying from PUW... with two non-stop cities... SEA or LWS... (LWS was part of the SEA-PUW-LWS-SEA triangle to make the two cities viable for QX)

In terms of driving time, I can manage 4-5 hours with relatively ease and about 7-8 hours with some fatigue, after that I'd rather not.

However, another consideration is if the car would be an advantage/burden at the other end. If one is visiting La Crosse WI, may be good to have a car there; downtown Chicago, the car would be an expensive burden.

I live 35 minutes and work two EL stops from ORD. My drive radius is roughly 5-6 hours, but it depends on the destination. There are several non-hub or small-hub cities near ORD that you'd think would be a snap to fly to, but are the first ones to get hit with cancellations if the weather gets bad. Specifically STL, IND, and CVG in my experience. If it weren't for that, my drive radius would be a lot less.

Oh, and there's a quirk to my company's travel rules. Time spent on air travel outside normal working hours is not billable. Time spent behind the wheel outside normal working hours, however, is billable.

Would you mind breaking down where those 10 hours were spent? Significant flight delays? Was this a 1-stop, with a significant layover in between?

I just flew into EVV a couple of weeks ago. On my return, in the middle of the day, TSA was locked up tight! Did not open until 20 minutes or so before the expected arrival of the flight I was going out on. No other flights were scheduled near that time frame, so no need to open security.

First time I had seen that.

My radius is pretty small since I'm very close to PHL. I'll drive to DC, NYC, or MDT (or, more likely, take the train). But anything further than that and I'll fly. That really puts it at only about 2 -3 hours.

Since the advent of the TSA, PFCs, segment taxes and now checked baggage fees, my driving range has expanded tremendously. It's now up to about 900 miles, or one day's worth of driving. This takes me west to South Bend or south to Charlotte.