Dennis RomeroThank fracking, your Saudi Arabian friends, or just Mother Earth.
Because gas is so inexpensive these days that, in many cases, driving home for the holidays is way cheaper than flying, even when compared to good fares, it seems.
See also: Should You Thank Fracking For This Crazy, Sub-$3 Gas in L.A?
The folks at travel site Priceline.com recently compared the average air fares for popular destinations from L.A. to the fuel costs for driving to those same places and came to some interesting conclusions:
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With some gas stations charging less than $3 a gallon (!), the site wondered aloud if it's “cheaper to fly or drive for the holidays.”
Using Nov. 22 to Nov. 29 fares and current gas prices, Priceline found that round trip travel to Phoenix from L.A. for your turkey daze would cost $261 by air but only $92.40 to gas up your car for the trip.
Organic (of course) turkey in San Francisco will cost $143 by air but $95.48 by car, Priceline says.
Credit: Sterling Davis Photo/L.A. Weekly Flickr pool
But the further you have to travel to get stuffed, the more flying appears to be economical. For example, Chicago by air for Thanksgiving week would cost $426, Priceline says. Gas for the same trip would cost $498.96.
Driving to New York will really cost you a lot by car. The round trip flight is pegged at $494, the site says. But gassing up for that 5,588-mile long haul would cost a whopping $689.92, the site says.
On that note, we're going to grab a piece of the wishbone and hope that nobody has to drive to New York and back for the Thanksgiving holiday.
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