You've got to be kidding. You actually thought it was a good idea to try to fly during the holidays? For a mere 300 miles??!!! You decided to go to the airport and deal with the airlines to save yourself a 5 hour drive in your car.
Think about this: You can spend 5 hours driving your car. During this period, you can stop whenever you'd like to eat whatever you like at whatever restaurant you'd like. You can sit next to somebody you like, and not a stranger. You can listen to whatever radio station, CD, or MP3 that you'd like. You will have no baggage restrictions- you can pack as much stuff as you want in the cargo hold. There will be no lines, no metal detectors, and you can leave whenever the hell you want. And, when you arrive at your destination, all of your luggage will be exactly where you expected it to be and you won't have to wait to get it. Perhaps best of all, when you arrive at your detination, you will have total access to your car!
Or...
You can spend an hour driving to the airport and finding a place to park. You can pay a fee to park. Then, you can spend 15 minutes heading over to the terminal, 20 minutes standing in line for a metal detector, all to arrive 2 hours early for your flight. While you are waiting, you may have your choice of eating a cold sandwich or fast food. Or, if you'd like, you can pay $5 for a Bud Light. You will then stand in a line to check your luggage and, if it's not too large or too heavy, agents will take it from you and will place it somewhere, perhaps on the plane you are taking... but there's certainly no guarantee of that.
So then, after waiting two hours, you will line up with hundreds of grouchy, inconsiderate people, to board a metal tube. Once boarded, you will sit on the runway for somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour. You will have little choice regarding who you sit next to. You will not be able to listen to your music or portable devices during this time. If you have to use the bathroom, you will have to wait in line. After these 30 minutes, you will take off and fly for approximately one hour in that metal tube before landing and waiting for 30 more minutes for the gate to open. Once open, you will spend 30 minutes getting off the plane and make it to the baggage claim area. Now, assuming your baggage did manage to find its way on your plane, you will have it in your possession within another 45 minutes. That is, unless it was not on the plane at all, in which case you will wait a total of an hour and a half to find out where the hell it is and when you can get it.
Hopefully, if your luggage was lost, you will get it back before Christmas or else your hosts and loved ones will likely not getting the presents your brought for them. Oh! And don't forget! You weren't able to wrap your presents beforehand because wrapped presents aren't allowed on the plane! So you will have to bring some wrapping paper with you, or borrow someone else's and wrap presents at a time that you would really prefer to maybe be visiting with your loved ones.
But forget about having to wrap those presents for a minute! You still have to either wait in line for an hour to get a rental car, or else be a burden on someone who has to drive to the airport and pick you up. And you will get to be a burden again on the way back to the airport. Good job. Everybody LOVES driving to the airport during the holidays! Way to put people in the Christmas Spirit! Make them fight traffic to play chauffeur for your ass.
And all told, the total time of this journey will be FAR IN EXCESS of the amount of time you would have spent driving, but at least you've gotten to face many countless inconveniences- that almost makes it worthwhile, doesn't it? But that's assuming everything goes according to plan! There's always the risk of an overnight delay, or a misplaced reservation, or just plain getting bumped because they overbooked.
Now think about it. Wouldn't it be nicer to spend that time sitting in your nice, heated, car with a loved one alongside you, listening to whatever you want, and with complete control over the temperature in the cabin, with your presents already wrapped, and your planned dinner stop at a delightful restaurant of your choice? And yet people gladly pay three to ten times more for the privilege of putting up with the public transportation system.
When I was a young kid, I used to take a bus to school and other places. In high school, I took a train. Now that I am finally was old enough to afford a car, I want to avoid taking public transportation as much as possible. And yet there are some people who pay a premium for it and put up with countless inconveniences, likely delays, certain aggravation and they don't even save any time in the process. They put up with this just for the privilege of taking public transportation!!!!
In all seriousness, if it's less than 400 miles, I wouldn't even think about flying...
