I bought a plane ticket yesterday for a trip to Dallas. When I was traveling in college, I was short on money but had vast amounts of time. It seemed like no trip was complete without a layover in Atlanta or Chicago or Saint Louis.
For the last couple years when I've had a salary, however, I've noted that my subconcious mind has started to assign value to my time. Who wouldn't pay $10 more for a direct flight rather than sitting in a dull midwestern airport for a couple hours on a layover? But exactly how much is my time worth? How much more would I pay for a direct flight than a trip with a layover?
Various factors I might consider:
- $ = The difference in price between the direct and indirect flights (of course)
- L = Length of the layover (A forty-five minute layover is more tolerable than a 3 hour one.)
- t = Overall length of the trip in hours (The difference between a 10 and a 14 hour trip is not as great as the difference between a 2 and a 6 hour one.)
- c = Convenience of departing and arriving times (It's not fun to arrive at JFK at 10:00 PM the night before I have to work.)
- V = Length of the vacation or time off
- S = my salary in approximate dollars per hour
I spent a little time trying to devise a general formula, but it got tedious. All told, I was on the verge of paying $60 extra for a direct 3 1/2 hour flight rather than buy the $230 flight that took 7 hours. A little nudge from a fellow resident who only flies direct if she can help it was all it took.
4 comments:
Very interesting... why have I never thought of deriving a formula as you described? I would need some data on your past flight purchases and perhaps using a little regression analysis could come up with a program to calculate which flight you should take.
J.t. and I just got back on Sunday night from Annapolis - after a 3 hour delayed flight, we arrived at DFW at about 11:00 p.m. and had to be at work by 8 a.m. *sigh*
also - isn't that a picture of the Modern Art Museum in my hometown? And you only say "Dallas" in your post. Humph...
Yes, the Modern Art Museum is indeed in Fort Worth. Sorry, I should have mentioned this interesting Dallas suburb in my post. I thought it was a cool picture.
have you ever been there? It's quite nice! If you come to FW, I'll take you and we can eat at the Cafe and look out upon the water.
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