Cheaper to Fly or Drive? There’s an App for That!
With cooler temperatures coming, we are planning to spend the last quarter of the year predominantly in the southwest.
We are soon leaving for the Paso Robles wine country and one of the first questions we ask ourselves, when we are within a five-hour drive of our home, is, should we fly or drive?
Answering this question isn’t alway easy as there are other considerations to be made.
If flying, you must consider rental car costs, and/or taxi cab fares. If driving, then you should think about time considerations, parking costs in large cities, and the stress of driving in potentially congested areas.
However, if you’re looking to strictly calculate the cost of getting from point A to point B, then the Cost2Drive website just might be your ticket.
iPhone App Compares Travel Costs of Flying Versus Driving
The website will compare the cost of driving your particular vehicle, after matching it with local fuel costs, with the cost of airline tickets using the Kayak airline flight comparison system.
Plus, for $2.99, you can get the company’s helpful information on an app in your iPhone. However, I think this isn’t information that I will be wanting to use on the road, so we’re likely to simply consider the company’s free calculation on their website.
But, “alas”, you say, “that isn’t the hip way to do it”. We’ll, fork out the $2.99 and be hip! 🙂
Here’s more information from the company’s recent press release:
C2G, LLC announced today that consumers will never again have to wonder what it costs to drive places, or if its cheaper to fly, thanks to the launch of the revolutionary Cost2Drive iPhone application. The new iPhone app leverages C2G’s industry-leading Galculator technology to calculate the cost of driving anywhere in the US and compares it to the cost of flying, making it the only mobile app to help people quickly determine if it’s cheaper to drive or fly to a destination.
The Cost2Drive iPhone app, which launched in Apple’s iTunes Store over Labor Day weekend, quickly caught the attention of the press including CBS News affiliate WPEC (West Palm Beach, FL), CNET TV and Autoblog Green. It’s also currently being featured in a special ‘On the Road’ section of the iTunes App Store for top car apps and has already made it into the ‘What’s Hot’ category for popular travel apps.
“We had a good sense this would be a hit.” said Jim Kovarik, the President and Cofounder of C2G. “Visits to the Cost2Drive Website from mobile devices have been soaring recently and so we knew there was strong demand for a mobile version of the app.”
Some of the features include utilizing the smartphone’s location services to automatically fill in current location information and integrating with the iPhone’s address book to easily add the address of a friend or contact. The Cost2Drive app also enables users to store up to 5 vehicles and takes advantage of the iPhone’s touch screen to quickly compare the cost of driving different vehicles with a simple swipe of a finger.
Unlike other road trip apps that require the user to manually enter items like a vehicle’s MPG or local gas prices, the Cost2Drive app removes that burden by including fuel-efficiency information on over 20,000 cars and light trucks and by tapping into current fuel prices for three grades of fuel (regular, premium and diesel) from over 100,000 retail outlets across the US.
“We’re incredibly focused on creating a seamless experience” said Mr. Kovarik “so we do it all for you. We believe this focus on extreme simplicity is the key to delighting users.” The Cost2Drive iPhone app does provide users with the option to manually enter vehicle information to modify EPA ratings or to add custom vehicles like RVs and motorcycles.
There are many practical uses for the Cost2Drive iPhone app including:
- Discovering if its cheaper to drive or fly on vacation
- Seeing if a great deal 60 miles away is still worth it after factoring in fuel costs
- Divvying up fuel costs among friends for road trips
- Assessing the commuting costs for a new job or house purchase
- Determining which car to take on a trip
- Knowing what to charge for delivery orders or ride shares
- The Cost2Drive iPhone application estimates trip costs based on the fuel-efficiency of a vehicle (as determined by the EPA) and current gas prices along a route. This is important as fuel prices can vary tremendously from city-to-city and state-to-state. The app also displays driving time and distance and provides a link to view additional information such as route maps and where to find the cheapest gas at refueling points along the way.
The US version of the Cost2Drive iPhone app requires Internet access and is currently available in iTunes for a special introductory price of $2.99. It’s available in all country stores so that people planning to visit the US can utilize the application to help plan their trip. Additional country versions are under development as are versions for the iPad and Android-powered devices. Routing and maps are powered by Google Maps API, fuel prices are provided by OPIS (Oil Price Information Service) and airfares are the cheapest airfares found by users of Kayak.com.
About C2G, LLC:
C2G, which stands for ‘Cost To Go’, is located in Northern Virginia and is focused on helping people quickly determine the cost of going places. C2G President and Co-founder Jim Kovarik is a 20-year veteran of the online industry and served as the General Manager of AOL Travel before leaving to co-found C2G in 2008.
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Hi Dave,
Tried using the website version of this today and it doesn’t enter the gas prices and calculates the trip cost as $0.00. Very disappointing. It’s a great idea but not if it doesn’t work. I tried several different trip destinations and departure points. I sent them an email about the glitch in their system.
Hi Dave,
I just tried it again. It worked great. I’m wondering, did you put the make and model of your car in the calculator? It just told me that it would cost me $112.59 to drive to Paso Robles, CA, while a flight would cost $199 on United. It also based the cost on buying gasoline in Arizona and California ($3.40/gal & $4.06/gal respectively). Further, it told me my carbon footprint was 763.0 lbs.
We just returned from Paso Robles, and even though we could have saved money driving, the 9+ hours of driving was unpalatable for this particular trip.
I can’t begin to understand why you’re having problems, perhaps it’s a glitch in the Matrix.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your experience. Please let us know if it clears up for you.
:Sad: