I held this view for many years. Then one kid moved to Seattle. We flew out (from St. Louis) to see them, and took along some of his handguns that he'd left in our basement when he went in the Army and hadn't had a chance to retrieve (he lived in NYC for a few years after the Army). Flew Southwest nonstop, packed guns per web site instructions, zero issues at checkin, as the counter agent clearly had seen it all many times before. All in all, a completely painless experience (apart from my anxiety at checking guns for the first time in decades - the previous time was in 1967 when I bought a P-38 in Denver and just carried it home to St. Louis in my carryon bag on Frontier. Nobody asked, nobody cared.) Total travel time was about 1/2 day each way.

Then this summer we drove out to see them. Had a number of his long guns to deliver, plus lots of ammo and miscellaneous equipment - hundreds of pounds of stuff. Way too much to take on a plane, and some of it couldn't go anyway (too much ammo.) Trip took 7 full days on the road, and the gas alone was more than the plane tickets plus car rental had been. Add in meals and lodging plus 4500 miles on the car and tires, and it was a very expensive trip.

From now on, we'll fly. I can take a handgun or two with no airline hassles (both my wife and I have WA concealed carry permits - just walk in and fill out a form) and save lots of money and travel time.