Why aren't you super paranoid about missing a train?
Arriving at an airport - even last week in Moscow where's there's convoluted immigration, security, and I was checking a bag, more than an hour before take off seems crazy. An extra hour a flight adds up to days of wasted time hanging round at airports.
Apart from the fact that being „paranoid“ or more general being afraid of something has no rational basis there are a couple of things that make me feel more comfortable going by train.
Even an inner german (or inner Schengen for that matter) flight has a lot more unknowns than a train:
1. public transport times are often a lot longer to airports. So you usually have to factor in more buffer.
2. what‘s the waiting time at luggage drop?
3. what‘s the wait at security?
4. how long do I need to go through security (I travel with lots of electronics which I usually have to take out)
If any of these things don‘t go as I expected my stress level increases because my calculated time buffer goes down. That‘s why I factor in an insane amout of time before boarding and usually end up hanging out at airports for hours.
For trains: The only unknown is the time that it takes me to get to the station. Every other time is practically zero.
And as someone else pointed out in this thread: the cost (in terms of money and time) for missing a train is a lot smaller.
That is actually not true, train prices (in Germany) are fluctuating based on demand as well. But you are not tracked individually and generally the prices are simply rising the closer the travel date gets. So the situation is better than with air travel.
Except they don't fluctuate, there is just a certain amount of lower fares (going up in stages, the closer you get to the travel date and depending if all tickets of that category were booked already). This is know in advance, and the maximum price is always fixed. So quite different.
> Except they don't fluctuate, there is just a certain amount of lower fares (going up in stages, the closer you get to the travel date and depending if all tickets of that category were booked already).
This isn't true, or at least that's not true in a general sense. IIRC ticket prices of all high-speed services offered by Spain's high-speed train operator, Renfe, increase as we get close to the travel day. In some cases, I assume due to low demand, sometimes prices drop a couple of weeks to the travel day. I assume all prices follow a predetermined progression accompanied by ad-hoc adjustments depending on demand levels.
Source: I've scraped price data out of Renfe's site for fun.
Well I take almost every week the ICE from Frankfurt to Paris and it always costs the same: 125,40€. No matter how in advance, no matter the day I travel. Try that with a flight... Even if this is not true for all trips, for those that it is, it is another advantage.
I don't understand how that's "the real question". It's a Sparpreis. They fluctuate. You can buy a full price ticket that doesn't fluctuate if you want to.
1) The trains go every 30 minutes to Munich, so I don't have to wait that long.
2) The price structure of trains vs planes. The standard DB train ticket is flexible, i.e. you can use any train at the given date. Booking a flight on the same day is very expensive (and might be impossible if all seats are taken). There are discount tickets that are not flexible, but the price of the flexible ticket doesn't increase to enormous sums just because I book it on the same day - it's always the same.
On the other hand, in my experience the cheaper inflexible advance tickets stay cheap for longer for flights than for trains. I guess it depends on whether you travel for business or leisure.
Arriving just 60 minutes before takeoff seems rather crazy in a lot of airports. For example in CMN and AGA that gives you 10 to 12 minutes per security check (assuming you check in online and have only cabin luggage).
The problem is with plans you don't know how long it will take to get from arrival to bring at the departure gate. There are multiple opportunities for large queues and delays, and the cost of missing a plane is much higher than that of missing a train.
With a train it basically never takes more than 10 minutes from arrival to walk to your platform, so you don't need to waste so much time just in case there is a delay. Also if you miss it you might be able to get the next train for free depending on your ticket.
You have to account for a buffer, I always plan to be at the airport at least an hour earlier than the flight for unknowns such as: slow traffic on the route of the airport bus (or delays for train service, traffic for taxis, etc.), slow/long security and/or luggage drop lines, etc.
With trains I just factor how long takes for the subway right across the street to take me 8 stations to the center.
I flew from Geneva to London City Airport the other day. Check in closed 45 minutes before the flight, and it's so convoluted to get through the airport that after checking in right at the deadline, I had a brisk walk through the airport for 30 minutes to arrive halfway through boarding. I would not want to arrive any later, and anyone who didn't want to rely on short lines at security moving fast would be well off to arrive at least an hour before takeoff.
The main reason I'm paranoid about missing a flight is the unpredictability of the length of the queues before security. This is partially because I seldom take a plane[0], so I simply don't have enough experience and data to go on.
[0] for all the reasons cameldrv mentioned, plus the impact on the environment. It may be noted that high-speed trains are worse on the environment than classic ones, although still in a different league from air travel.
> I seldom take a plane[0], so I simply don't have enough experience and data to go on.
I fly frequently but I'm also unable to predict how much time I need. It varies greatly. Security/check-in can take anything between a few minutes and 30+ min each. Usually, late passengers can cut the line, but I wouldn't take the risk.
Here in London my biggest concern is getting to the airport on time. Once I'm there I know that getting through security and to the gate is going to be roughly the same each time.
I regularly take flights that only fly directly from Luton or Stansted, both of which take around 1 1/2 hours of travel time from our office in Central London. But that involves multiple connections, each of which could be missed or held up.
Some folks here are misinterpreting paranoid in this context; perhaps it's a language thing. Read paranoid about being late for a flight as wanting not to cut things close. In my case, it's a significant stress reducer. Get to the airport 30+ minutes earlier than I probably have to and relax/have a coffee rather than cut things close and be potentially looking at my watch constantly in traffic/in the security line/while rushing to the gate.
Arriving at an airport - even last week in Moscow where's there's convoluted immigration, security, and I was checking a bag, more than an hour before take off seems crazy. An extra hour a flight adds up to days of wasted time hanging round at airports.