Would you rather fly out of IAD or DCA? (Alexandria: home, buying)

[Carlingtonian]

Originally Posted by persnicketygal

I use DCA, but that's because for the past several years my travel has been "limited" (by my own choosing) because I'm usually taking my carry-on puppy with me....

Interesting; I didn't know they allowed carry-on dogs. If you don't mind my asking, is it a service dog, or do they let you take a dog on the plane so long as it fits under the seat in front of you?

[charveldude]

The OP asks which airport I would "rather" use. No question it's DCA, and I've used both. Obviously your proximity to either one is a factor, but just weighing them against each other, I find IAD to be one of most poorly designed airports in America. It looks great from the outside, though. DCA's smaller size and better design make it a much more pleasant and hassle-free experience.

Factors in IAD's favor are the greater selection of flights and cheaper parking (assuming you can't Metro it to DCA). I travel regularly to Portland Oregon for family visits, and the only direct flights to PDX from here leave from IAD, so I've been using IAD a little more in the last few years.

Most people I know end up using all three area airports occasionally, though I do try to stay away from BWI.

[charveldude]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

I do miss the old "people movers" at Dulles. I know--they were weird.

They still use a couple of those at IAD, you know. I know, because I got on one after my return flight to IAD a couple years ago and ended up going the opposite way of where I was trying to go. Which is very easy to do at IAD.

[jazzmanjoe123]

Originally Posted by brenpilot

If you're looking to rack up miles, don't choose based on airport, choose based on the strongest alliance in your domicile (which is BY FAR STAR Alliance in the DC area).

I live in Alexandria, so DCA is WAAAAY easier to get to, but as others have mentioned, I'd rather fly non-stop to Dubai out of IAD than fly to EWR out of DCA.

Over the past ten years, Star Alliance flights are the cheapest option 99 times out of 100 (excluding the fluke AirTran ticket here and there).

I maintain a United account only, but as I'm sure you're aware of, anytime you fly Star Alliance the miles are credited to the Star Alliance account of your choosing. I'm closing in on the million miler mark with United, and I'd venture a guess that only about 500,000 of that is actually on United aircraft. I fly US Airways and Continental out of DCA a lot.

I'm actually a new frequent flyer so all this rewards stuff is really new to me. I didn't even know about the STAR alliance so I will look into that. Thanks and congrats on all those miles.

Originally Posted by ACWhite

Back to the OP's question, people have implied this but I am not sure anyone's made it completely explicit: How much international travel do you do? If it's a lot, Dulles has a lot more international flights. If you do much more domestic than international travel, National can be much more convenient. Are you absolutely sure Falls Church is best for you?

Since I can almost walk to DCA, that gives DCA a huge advantage (like others here, I am willing to connect on some long flights), but the more one is located in the middle between the 2 airports, obviously that goes away. I think the primary problem with BWI and living far from any airport is that, the farther you are (around this metro area) the more likely that you will encounter problems and delays in getting to the airport. Aside from the hassles themselves (and stress you may feel, given that you have a deadline to get to the airport or will miss your flight) is the uncertainly with regard to how much time to allow (and potentially waste). Since it's bad enough to have to allow extra time for waiting, security, lines, etc., at the airport itself, I particularly dislike having to build in extra time for traffic, cabbie getting lost, accidents, etc., en route to the airport. All this can make even a short flight a major hassle.

I won't be doing any international travel, and if I do it would be really rare.

I'm choosing to live in Falls Church because I'm commuting to Reston but I wanted to be closer to the city without being too far so I was thinking Falls Church would be a good middle ground.

I'm not sure how long my projects are going to be but at this point, I would assume my projects/locations to change every 2 or 3 months or so. It seems like United is a big hub out here especially at IAD but I'm not really sure if thats the airline I'll be taking most yet.

Thanks for all the responses everyone. I posted this last night and woke up to 4 pages

[Carlingtonian]

Originally Posted by jazzmanjoe123

I'm actually a new frequent flyer so all this rewards stuff is really new to me.

Here's a tip that'll get you some major miles fast on United/Continental: Get one of the United Mileage Plus credit cards. They give you a major mileage bonus just for opening one. (The Explorer gives you 25K off the bat, another 5K for adding a spouse, and another 10K if you spend $25K by year's end.) The Sapphire Preferred card gives you 50K miles, but we couldn't open one because (to my great annoyance) they had converted one of our other cards to Sapphire already, and the bonus is only for new cardholders. (Ours used to be a Bank One card, and then Chase bought Bank One and turned our card into some other Chase card, then a Sapphire.)

There's an annual fee of $95 after the first year, but I think it's worth it for the miles.

[bmwguydc]

I much prefer DCA to IAD, but not that there's anything inherently wrong with IAD, just that it seems to take much more time to get from the car to the gate. But, generally, you will likely end up using both airports, depending upon destination, and if the organization is ticket-price sensitive, since IAD does tend to have lower fares.

BWI is a nightmare, and there are corporate travel agents who are so focused on price that they don't realize the differences in this area, and that BWI is a realistic option for Baltimore, and parts of Suburban Maryland. I used to specify a limousine for BWI as opposed to the regular car service cars because the drive could take 2 hours. There were times when I had to make a dash for the train, though in Silver Spring, because the car service was stuck and the chauffeur knew we would not make it. And, twice when I drove to BWI myself, I returned to a dead car -- dead batteries, so I will not leave a car there for any length of time. Overall, just a very negative impression of BWI from my standpoint.

[brenpilot]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

Oh my god! Wow--congrats. You're like that guy in Up in the Air. They must treat you like a rock star at the airport, huh? (Are you a Global Services member?)

Only once, for 2009 I miss the dedicated phone line for GS'ers most

At a million, you get lifetime premier exec status and your spouse status matches you, so that'll be nice when she's flying alone.

[Carlingtonian]

Originally Posted by brenpilot

Only once, for 2009 I miss the dedicated phone line for GS'ers most

What happens if you call it now? Do they decline to help you once you give your number and they realize you're a "mere" 1K?

And hey, aren't you a pilot? Or ex-pilot? Does that get you nothing?

[brenpilot]

Originally Posted by jazzmanjoe123

I'm actually a new frequent flyer so all this rewards stuff is really new to me. I didn't even know about the STAR alliance so I will look into that. Thanks and congrats on all those miles.



I won't be doing any international travel, and if I do it would be really rare.

I'm choosing to live in Falls Church because I'm commuting to Reston but I wanted to be closer to the city without being too far so I was thinking Falls Church would be a good middle ground.

I'm not sure how long my projects are going to be but at this point, I would assume my projects/locations to change every 2 or 3 months or so. It seems like United is a big hub out here especially at IAD but I'm not really sure if thats the airline I'll be taking most yet.

Thanks for all the responses everyone. I posted this last night and woke up to 4 pages

Ughh nothing to congratulate, I can assure you

Sorry for not explaining why I prefer United more in-depth earlier. Let me expand:

Domestically, United, Continental (soon to be United), and US Airways are all in Star Alliance. see the others here:
Home - Star Alliance).

When you search for flights, i recommend you use Yapta, and in the search options, search by "Star Alliance":
Yapta: Track flight prices and check for airline refunds

So, when you search for flights by Star Alliance, any results that come back will give you United miles. Here's how to maximize your miles:

As Carlingtonian suggested, get a United credit card. There are actually a number of 50,000 mile offers out there as well, if interested I can dig one up for you. Another great benefit of having an airline card is it gives you a certain amount of miles that will qualify towards elite status (I think my card is 5000 miles).

Put all of your United/star alliance spending on that card, and link the card on chase to your mileage plus number (if you don't have one yet, get it here: https://www.ua2go.com/profile/Join.do).

Fly Star Alliance airlines whenever possible. Work to hit the bottom tier of elite status, Premier, which is 25,000 miles/year (5000 of which is from spending on the credit card, so you actually only need to fly 20,000 miles a year). Once you hit that status, you earn miles at a rate of 125%.

As an example:

As a premier, you buy a $1,000 ticket from IAD-SEA-IAD. You get 2,000 miles (2 miles per dollar on the United card) for buying the ticket, 2300 miles each way for the flight, and a 575 mile bonus. So, for that one flight, you get almost 8,000 miles (a saver award ticket redeems at 25,000 miles, so for every 3-4 flights you'll get a free roundtrip).


Sorry if this is info overload. I can explain anything else you need if you want!

Another great resource is Flyer Talk: Miles&Points - FlyerTalk Forums

[brenpilot]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

What happens if you call it now? Do they decline to help you once you give your number and they realize you're a "mere" 1K?

And hey, aren't you a pilot? Or ex-pilot? Does that get you nothing?

Ex-pilot...I was a lowly flight instructor/regional pilot for a bit.

Being an ex-pilot gets you nothing, except when you run into friends in the airport who know you're flying in the back making more money working less hours with less stress

As a pilot, you fly on a status similar to standby when traveling on leisure. These days, you need to plan on at least a couple days on either side of your trip to get anywhere, because planes are so full. The consensus among most is that "free travel benefits" are not worth the hassle, especially when considering people who work on the corporate side of the airline operation are compensated much lower than their peers at the FAA, FAA contractors, etc.