BWI to Metro / Northern Virginia (Greenbelt, New Carrollton: rent, buy, pricing)

[DiderotsGhost]

I fly to DCA and take the metro to Vienna station frequently. With the AirTran / Southwest merger, a lot of the cheaper flights to the Northern Virginia airports seem to be disappearing. Now, I can actually buy tickets to BWI for almost $80 cheaper per flight ($160 cheaper for round trip).

Since this is such a huge difference, I'm considering flying into BWI instead of DCA, even though it's vastly less convenient. Only problem is, I'm not sure what's the cheapest and most efficient way to get back to Northern Virginia from BWI.

Some options I've thought about:

(1) Take a cab to Greenbelt or New Carrollton Metro station; metro to Vienna
(2) Rent a car at BWI, drive to Vienna (would keep for 4 days)
(3) BWI express bus service to Metro
(4) MARC train to DC; get on Metro to Vienna
(5) SuperShuttle to Metro

Any perspective on pricing and convenience that anyone could provide would be appreciated. Also, curious to know if there are any other options people have utilized.

Obviously #3 sounds like the most straightforward path, but the buses only run every 45 minutes, which means my total commute could start to drag out to over 2 hours. So this option is not without its downside, either.

[nightnurse613]

You know, I've been using the ICC Connector routes to get from BWI to the Metro at Shady Grove ($5; leaves hourly and takes about an hour). They recently opened up some new routes. The BWI Express bus to the Metro works pretty well into DC. Not too sure about cost/times but someone will chime in pretty soon, I'm pretty sure!!

[qjbusmaster]

Originally Posted by DiderotsGhost

I fly to DCA and take the metro to Vienna station frequently. With the AirTran / Southwest merger, a lot of the cheaper flights to the Northern Virginia airports seem to be disappearing. Now, I can actually buy tickets to BWI for almost $80 cheaper per flight ($160 cheaper for round trip).

Since this is such a huge difference, I'm considering flying into BWI instead of DCA, even though it's vastly less convenient. Only problem is, I'm not sure what's the cheapest and most efficient way to get back to Northern Virginia from BWI.

Some options I've thought about:

(1) Take a cab to Greenbelt or New Carrollton Metro station; metro to Vienna
(2) Rent a car at BWI, drive to Vienna (would keep for 4 days)
(3) BWI express bus service to Metro
(4) MARC train to DC; get on Metro to Vienna
(5) SuperShuttle to Metro

Any perspective on pricing and convenience that anyone could provide would be appreciated. Also, curious to know if there are any other options people have utilized.

Obviously #3 sounds like the most straightforward path, but the buses only run every 45 minutes, which means my total commute could start to drag out to over 2 hours. So this option is not without its downside, either.

(4) is by far the best option PERIOD!!!!! Option 3 is only for weekends.

[dkf747]

Supershuttle is ... I'd better not say. If you're going to use them then why not all the way to your destination. Forget Metro.

The B30- express bus to Greenbelt is not a bad option, nor is MARC or Amtrak to Union Station. I guess it all depends on when you want to do this.