Traveling out-of-state.... fly or drive?

[Ronin]

okay, i just received my first interview offer today, and it's kinda far, and i have NEVER had an out-of-state interview before, so i am wondering how people travel to out-of-state interviews.
Drive there? Or fly there and then rent a car? For those who fly, do you use a special web travel service like Travelocity, Priceline, or something like that? Which onine travel agency is the best?

btw, I am quite poor, with less than $400 in my bank account, so traveling out-of-state is really a big investment to me.

Thanks for the help!

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[lola]

which state are you going to? if you're in santa clara, i can't imagine any of them being a quick drive. normally i'd imagine people fly and take public transportation. you can usually get flights to nearby states for less than $200 -- sometimes you can get them for quite a bit cheaper ($100-$150). look into southwest airlines. jet blue is also cheap, but i think they go to limited airports. there are threads about finding a flight. basically you will need to search a lot of sites to try to find the cheapest deal. i don't think southwest flights show up on search engines, so you'll have to go to their website. alaska airlines sometimes has some good deals to oregon/washington. to save money you can probably stay with a student host.

since you're on a limited budget, i'd think hard about whether or not to go. are you having luck in-state? have you applied to a lot of out of state? do you have a good shot at interviews at other out of state schools you'd rather go to? if you're not a highly qualified candidate, perhaps you can borrow the money from family for interviews? $400 really isn't much (even for in-state interview costs).
good luck!

 

[DoubleDoctor]

Check all the airports within easy driving distance of where you live because smaller airports sometimes have much better prices if you leave from there. Here in Ohio, you will pay at least $100-300 dollars more to leave from Cincy than Dayton which is 40 minutes further and you get hassled a lot less by security in Dayton and their long term parking is much cheaper. Most of the time when you fly out of Dayton, you fly 15mins and land in Cincy and pick up the guys that have paid a lot more for their tickets and had to be there 3 hours before to get through security.

 

[Mutterkuchen]

Originally posted by lola

since you're on a limited budget, i'd think hard about whether or not to go. are you having luck in-state? have you applied to a lot of out of state? do you have a good shot at interviews at other out of state schools you'd rather go to?

Obviously, you have to go to this interview, despite the costs. You cannot affort to not interview somewhere if you have no acceptances, unless you are positive that you do not want to go there. As far as driving vs. flying . . . depending on where your interview is, you have to decide what is cheapest. Use southwest.com and travelocity to check flight prices. If driving is cheaper and you have the time, it might be better.

 

[Ronin]

Thanks to you guys for helping me out.
I have decided to buy a flight ticket through Orbitz.com today and fly to my interview in style