I’m sitting in the Kansas City International Airport waiting for a flight to Chicago that connects to Frankfurt, Germany for a week long stint in Europe.

I love airports. Mostly because I’m a pilot and I’m at home around airplanes, but partly because airports are a great place to watch people.  Passing through, going home, setting out on vacation; an airport receives all kinds.

If you’re a frequent traveler, you see people you know, either from real life or the fantasy land of television.

Just today, I had a quick chat with Kansas City Chiefs ex-General Manager Carl Peterson. Seems like a nice guy, and while some believe and relent that Peterson was run out of town, you can tell that up front, he’s a business man.  He understands.

Most fascinating though, are those in uniform. A segment of the Armed Cavalry division is heading home for an extended weekend with their families, which is pretty cool.

You have to get deep into a conversation with any one of them to find out they’re heading back to Afghanistan in 6 to 12 months. It’s not at the forefront of their life right now, and let’s face it; they’re going home.  Little else matters now.

I always try and show some appreciation for a soldiers service anytime I run into them, and the regard seems much appreciated.  I also selfishly try to gain a bit of information from them in our closing remarks.

How are things going over there?

Let’s face it, if you want the truth about how our soldiers are doing overseas, you go straight to the horses mouth.

What’s interesting is that a recurring theme with any one of them is that I shouldn’t be getting my information from the news.

Completely unprovoked, Major Chaparral told me not to listen to the news. In fact, he loves his work, because “we’re doing great things over there”.

Sitting next to me at the boarding gate, Major Dixon told me that while the work in Afghanistan is hard due to the terrain (primarily in the Southern part of the country), he says it’s worth it and actually looks forward to going back.  Again, he urged me not to believe everything you hear on T.V.

That’s frustrating, as it’s as though our guys in the sand aren’t getting a fair shake.

With that, the Major’s cell phone rang, and from the context of the conversation, it was his wife.

I quickly excused myself, because let’s face it, that conversation would be far more important than any he could have with me.

Travel people, Travel

A long time ago, someone once told me that you can monitor the health of your car through the gas mileage.  Not knowing if that was true or not, I started recording all the pertinent data during each fill up: gallons, dollars per gallon, miles driven, etc.  I started this practice when I first bought my Ford F150, and continue the routine today.

I can’t say whether or not monitoring this information can tip a driver off about degrading health of the vehicle, but it does give me some good data to look at for other reasons.

There has been a lot of gum-flapping on the television about the rising cost of gas.  The average in my area is still below $4, but that’s not the case everywhere.  The television anchors will lead you to believe that gas prices alone are forcing people into foreclosure on their home, forcing them to quit buying milk and break, and forcing them to decide which body part or child they’re going to trade in on the next fill up.

Somehow I don’t think it’s that bad.

The data will set you free.

Using my mileage log, I determined exactly how many gallons of gas I burned in 2006 and 2007.    Unfortunately this data is a bit skewed since in 2006 I was doing a lot of over the road travel for the oil business, but I’ll throw it in there anyway.

I suspect that my driving for 2008 will be similar to that of 2007 (I’m not having to drive as much for business these days).  I’ll assume my average mileage will stay the same in 2008 as it was in 2007; on average it was about 16 miles/gallon.

Now, figure the average price per gallon in 2008 is $4 per gallon, vs. $2.71 per gallon in 2007.

If I burn the same number of gallons in 2008, at $4 per gallon, I’ll end up spending $2,948 in 2008 on gasoline for my truck.  Basically an extra $1,000 for the entire year.

I can handle that, and I have enough disposable cash flow to absorb the increase in cost without having to cut costs elsewhere.  I honestly can’t say that the extra $1,000 per year is going to force me to drive any less.

But what if…

But what if I did have to maintain my current costs of $1,994 per year in gas expenses?  Good question.

Obviously I’d have to drive less.  Divide $1,994 by $4 per gallon, and you have the new total gallons burned in 2008 of 498 gallons.  Multiply by the 16 mi/gal average and you end up with 7,976 miles, or a reduction of 32%.

I calculated out that I drive 3,640 miles per year to work, round trip, just under half the 7,976 mile figure to maintain the 2007 gas cost.

Doable, but until the increase in gas price really hits me in the wallet, I probably won’t cut back.

So where’s the tipping point?

Given the numbers above, gasoline is going to cost me an extra $83 per month this year as compared to last year.

That isn’t much considering my entire paycheck goes into savings.  However, I would guess that if I had to pay an extra $200 per month for gas, it would sting a bit, and I might be influenced financially to cut back on my driving.

So that’s an extra $2,400 per year compared to 2007.  What does that mean in terms of price at the pump?

Sparing you the expense of writing out my math, it’s $5.68 per gallon.

So where’s your tipping point?

I’ve had a poll running for the last several weeks, asking readers of The Corner Office Blog at what price they’d actually considering cutting back on their driving.

So far, 42% of the 24 people answering the poll say that we’ve already reached the threshold for pain at the pump.  17% have said that $6 is the threshold, and another 17% say that they’ll pay whatever it takes.

I’ll let that poll run a little longer, but I’d like to ask you:  What price will it take for you to cut back on driving?

Economics, Finance, Travel Economics, gas prices, mileage

I’m on my way to Reno this weekend for the annual Reno Air Races.  Since the new ban on anything liquid in a carry-on, I figured I better check and see what I can bring.

Permitted in a carry-on:

Scissors, screwdrivers, wrenches, pliers, knitting needles, nail files, nail clippers, toy weapons, walking canes, tweezers.  Oh, and “personal lubricant“.

NOT Permitted in a carry-on:

Toothpaste, mouthwash, shampoo, chap stick, liquid soap, eye drops, saline solution, deodorant, sun tan lotion, bug spray, mascara.

Does anyone else find this a bit odd?

Oh what a tangled web we weave.

Travel