With personal aircraft, if your schedule can't swing at the very least, two days either direction, and once in a while four days... You're better off in cattle class on an airliner.
Depends on where you are and where you're going. You live in a major metro area that's a major airline hub and can probably get a lot of places quite easily. But, let's say you're trying to get from Fairmont, MN to Siloam Springs, AR. The nearest airline airport to Fairmont is Fort Dodge, the nearest to Siloam Springs is NW AR Regional. The cheapest cattle-class airline ticket from FOD to XNA is well over $500 and unless you leave Fairmont at 4 AM to make the 6:50 AM flight out of FOD, you're going to get there faster by driving the 10+ hours instead.
In cases like that - and there are many - It's much better to have an instrument rating and an instrument-capable personal aircraft and use it when you can, and on the few occasions that won't work, you can rent a car. You'll save a ton of time - KFRM to KSLG is 447nm and even a 182 will do that in 3.5 hours. I usually figure $1/nm for the cost, so we're talking $894 for the round trip. Door to door for the round trip, let's say it's 8 hours total via GA including preflight and the inevitable headwind. Driving is 21 hours round trip, airlining it with the drive on either end is also 21 hours round trip (8 going, 13+ returning).
So... Airline cattle class is $552 and 21 hours. Driving (assuming 25mpg and $4/gal and assuming you're absorbing the costs of having a car already) is 21 hours and $188. GA is 8 hours and $894.
Clearly, airlines will be the last option here - It's just as fast to drive and way cheaper. If your time is worth a mere $25/hr (and I daresay that most of us in this hobby must make at least that) then GA is "saving" another $325 which just about ties it with the airline. Now if you consider that you'll probably need an extra night in a hotel if you drive, and probably if you use the airlines, to get your work done and get back - Throw another $100 on. Now GA looks pretty good, doesn't it? And if you have another person with you, even more so!
Sure, there will be times where wx or mx dictates that you must use one of the other options, but a fairly plain-jane GA aircraft and a pilot who is instrument rated and proficient will probably complete 90-95% of their desired trips. You want a known-ice twin? Yeah, that'll cost you a TON and get you up to 98%. But, using GA for travel is not as bad as everyone says. I do it all the time, and I don't have a known-ice twin. In fact, for me it doesn't even work out to make sense to rent a known-ice twin for that last 5% (even though I'm one of the very lucky few who CAN rent a known-ice twin), as it costs so damn much to stay current in it that it makes more sense to either cancel those trips or use one of the alternate methods of transport.
If your priority is in flying yourself safely even with schedule changes and hard thought about re-routes, weather briefings, capabilities of your equipment and yourself, and risk analysis -- flying yourself is the way to go and very rewarding.
Isn't that all of our priority?
![Dunno :dunno: :dunno:](/community/styles/poa/poa_smilies/dunno.gif)
I must say, though the issues with weather, maintenance, etc obviously do exist, they are not as dire as we seem to make them out to be. Always have a backup plan and be willing to execute it, and you'll find GA to be a fairly reliable mode of transportation. FWIW, my favorite backup plan for when I have to be there is to leave early enough that if for any reason I am unable to continue the flight, I can land, rent a car and drive and still make it on time. If I am able to complete the flight, I'm way early and can do other things. If not, no sweat, I'll still be on time.