Is Flying Really Affordable?

Growing up and still today I have been very fortunate to have a family that goes on vacations about every other year to different places, typically to a beach though. Out of these several vacations I have been on a commercial airline only twice in my life, one to Disney World in Florida and the other to Denver Colorado where we departed from Chicago so we still had to drive. All the other places we've been to we've all piled in a car, sucked it up and started our adventure to wherever we were going. I must say that because of these car rides our family has become a lot closer, has many inside jokes, and stories. Not to mention all the experience we had from driving in different locations and in different situations. Typically my family travels in packs so my moms brother his wife and their three kids come along as well which just adds to the fun. This past summer the five of them the four of us (My dad, mom, sister and  myself) and my cousins fiance all traveled to Dauphin Island, AL which isn't your typical vacation spot and I understand that so this isn't my only example. We took a total of 3 cars to carry all of us and our luggage, plus another key factor to this is that all of us have drivers license even though the youngest just earned his a few months prior. This helps a lot because if we had to we could drive all through out the night but we didn't because we had travel points that we used to sleep in a hotel. Now to get into the nitty gritty of costs.

The closest airport to our destination that has airlines is Mobile, AL (MOB), there are four different airlines that fly into MOB. Not to mention that we would then have an hour car ride from the airport to our house on the beach and no car... Without the cost of the car a ticket for one person cheapest was about $455 per person from United and U.S. Airways round trip. I chose tickets from a Saturday to the following Saturday which is when we were traveling and made sure it wasn't on a holiday to get the best price option. The cost of gas for us to get down in my mothers 2008 Cadillac STS which gets about 22 mpg on the highway wast about a total of $650 to travel there and back. With 4 people in the car that totals to about $163 per person to travel down and back. Need I say more?

But like I said tickets to get into Mobile are probably higher because it's not the hot spot to be at. So earlier in the year once again my mother, sister, myself and my mom's brother, his wife, and their three kids went on a cruise. We chose to drive down to Miami, FL because once again driving made more financial sense then to fly. Even though the time of travel more than triples the savings meant that we could spend more on ourselves during the cruise. The cruise started on a Thursday and we returned on Sunday so I chose tickets on Travelocity this time because there were way too many options to search them all. I chose morning flights on Thursday so that we would make it in time for departure of the cruise and afternoon on Sunday which would give us time to load up and arrive at the airport in time for our flight home. The cheapest ticket was $321 per person from DTW to MIA. For this trip down we took my sisters 2011 Hyundai Elantra (which is a lot more comfortable than the Cadillac in the back seat) which gets about 38 mpg highway. We spent a total of about $700 in gas to make it to Miami and back, plus an $80 parking fee (which we would have had to pay at the airport anyways). But to make this seem more fair I'll leave the parking fee in. Three people (My sister, my mom, and myself) in my sisters car this came to be about $260 per person. The margin is closer for sure however it still would cost more to fly than to drive. And when you're saving $60 per person it comes to saving a total of $180.

I understand that a lot of pilots in training fly because they have a family member who is a pilot or is in the aviation industry with some flight perks. If that's the case more power to you why not travel by plane in arrive at your destination faster than if you were to drive. However my family doesn't have that luxury so we utilize our resources in order to find the cheaper option and to go where we want to go. All my life my mom says that she works so she can go on vacations, yes why not wait another year and save up the money for a plane ticket but if that were the case why not go somewhere nicer and still drive?

Is flying a luxury? That depends on who you're talking to. To my family it's an option for travel that we have taken a few times not necessarily a luxury. But why spend the extra money on flying when you can spend the extra time with your family and drive. If you were able to snag a great deal on airline tickets to go somewhere, more power to you. Or if you notice that flying is actually cheaper than driving once again don't be silly take the cheaper option. But some people are willing to spend the extra money to save time, and once again like I said it depends on who you're talking to.

So you ask, if we raise the time requirement if that will ultimately effect the price of an airline ticket? If a pilot wants to be an airline pilot I think they'll take the same measly pay and work their way up to a better salary even with the extra hour requirement in the beginning. That's just from talking to people in the area who fly, they are determined to make it in the airlines and that is what they've wanted ever since they were a little kid. "To be successful, you must decide exactly what you want to accomplish, then resolve to pay the price to get it." - Bunker Hunt. If a person wants it bad enough they'll do whatever it takes to get it. If you think there isn't enough people to go the extra mile I must say that I laugh at you. Look at the sports industry, all those athletes went the extra mile to climb to the top and they did whatever it took to get there. That is just the sports industry there are so many other fields where there are people who paid the price to accomplish what they wanted to accomplish, the airlines is a great example of that too.