Aside from the economy being a central issue, airlines and airports have done everything humanly possible to ensure that you simply don’t want to fly unless unavoidable. Overbooked flights, bag fees, no food, dirty airplanes, and surly employees all add up to “hey let’s drive, gas is $1.94 a gallon!”.
Bay Area airports were eerily empty for much of what traditionally has been among the busiest travel days of the year.
Case in point, we are talking about taking a family vacation to San Diego early next year (look out Kedrosky!) and decided that renting a minivan and driving down would be cheaper than flying and less hassle to boot. It’s a lot of time behind the wheel but no worse than trudging through an airport pissed off about having to pay $150 to check bags.