9 1/2 hours

That should be the absolute minimum number of hours a drive would take you to even consider flying. Putting aside the relative nausea of each travel experience (driving for X hours vs. clawing your way to the airport, through the airport, onto your plane, actually flying, clawing your way through another airport, renting a car or getting ground transportation, etc. etc. etc.), driving usually costs MUCH less, unless perhaps you're going by yourself. If there are two or more persons traveling, it's no contest. Driving wins hands down.

My repeated experience is that it took me 9 1/2 hours to get to Vegas from San Francisco if I drove, and longer if I flew--considering door-to-door, to the point where I would be unloading my bags at the entrance to my hotel, one way or another.

So if you're in Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Tucson, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Reno, or anywhere in between, you should definitely NOT fly. If you have two or more people traveling, you should consider not flying even if your drive would be longer than that.

Don't fly the unfriendly skies if you can possibly avoid it.

Or in Kevin's case, if you can't afford to.  

Even stupider than your usual comments. And though you appear to not give a crap, the rules of these forums prohibit personal attacks. So do the rules of common decency.

But y'know what? Whether or not I, and I suspect most people, spend X dollars on a leisure activity isn't a matter of affordability. It's a matter of getting the most value. And if I could spend 9 1/2 hours behind the wheel of my car and spend $100, or spend 9 1/2 hours fighting my way through airports and spend $500, I would take the former option regardless of whether I could afford the latter.

That seems logical plus no outlay for rental car.  

Yeah, I didn't even factor that in, because some Vegas visitors just use public transportation--but that ain't free, either. And an additional consideration is getting to and from your home airport. I live in a city where public transport actually goes to the airport, but in many cities, it doesn't or rarely does. So you have to park your car, at $12 or $15 a day...then ride the shuttle bus to the terminal...yada yada yada...before you even get to the check-in ticket counter baggage claim nightmare. ECCCH.

And the real funsies moment is when you come home, your wallet and your psyche battered and bruised, and you wearily clamber off the shuttle (hopefully, you remembered that you parked by G18 in the Red Lot), start your car, and...parking fee, $120.

Done both.

Fly first Class with miles plan now.

Both good. When we drive spend night in Bakersfield.

I'm financially comfortable, yet far from rich.  I always wonder why someone questio another's travel spending while not considering that person's income, net worth, likes or dislikes.  My friend Jeff flies fist class, but he's worth $25 million.  I'm not rich, so I don't fly first class.  Jeff doesn't care about the cost of a rental car or Ubers. Nor would I if I had his money.

 Obtaining solid information about the pluses and minuses of travel is always welcomed. Over the years I have honed my personal routine and I find it works for me. What I don't like about the advice some offer up is the constant negativity that always seems to be part of said advice. I don't like anyone telling me how to choose whether I drive or fly. 

I don't recall discussing cost so much as time spent traveling.

I pay $5.60 on Southwest for each one-way. I earned that privilege by getting two Chase Southwest sign-up bonuses in January, which set me back about $160 in fees. I will cancel those cards after a year. And I auto-pay the full amount on all my cards and haven't paid credit card interest in years, so the $160 is my total out-of-pocket.

I get almost no points from flying or spending, but I get almost all from sign-up bonuses. In January, I got 140,000 points, but because I also earned the Companion Pass, that is the equivalent of 280,000 points when flying as a couple. My most recent purchase, LAS/LAX ROUND-TRIP FOR TWO, cost less than 7,700 points in total.  So I can do that same round trip for two another 36 times before I have to pay more than $5.60 per one-way. No, I don't think I'll be driving.

Kevin, we've had this discussion before. Your objection to spending the $160 is that the credit card companies are money-grubbing corporations who take advantage of their naive customers. Funny, you never had that same objection about casino owners.

Would it make you feel better if we started calling it Advantage Play Travel?