Just had a meeting come up which changed my travel plans so that I need to fly from DC to Boston tomorrow in the late afternoon/early evening. Every flight on USAir (and AA, etc.) is sold out, including anything connecting through NY, Philly, and so on! There literally is no way to leave DC after 3 and get to Boston before 9. Anyone know what's going on? I am mystified - it's a Thursday but I've never seen a Thursday this bad. Or, if anyone has suggestions about travel sites that might still have tickets, since our corporate travel is not helping here, I'd love to hear that too.

Just had a meeting come up which changed my travel plans so that I need to fly from DC to Boston tomorrow in the late afternoon/early evening. Every flight on USAir (and AA, etc.) is sold out, including anything connecting through NY, Philly, and so on! There literally is no way to leave DC after 3 and get to Boston before 9. Anyone know what's going on? I am mystified - it's a Thursday but I've never seen a Thursday this bad. Or, if anyone has suggestions about travel sites that might still have tickets, since our corporate travel is not helping here, I'd love to hear that too.

Amtrak's Acela is down and not running. They pulled it last week, tried to reinstate service on Monday and then pulled it again. I was in BOS for the marathon on Monday and when I left on Tuesday morning all the flights were oversold. I'm sure that on top of the usual traffic this isn't helping things, but it should be helping US from a revenue perspective....

Im showing the following availability:

2:45 shuttle: Y4 - sold as UA codeshare UA2838
3:45 shuttle: Y1 U1

AA 4553 BWI-BOS dep 4:49 PM: Y1 B1

ual.com is selling the 2:45 shuttle.

usairways.com is also selling:

DCA-PHL US394 5:20-6:15
PHL-BOS US1138 7:30-8:55

Thanks so much, osxanalyst and dukeman! I am trying those flights on the USAir site now. Don't know why corporate travel wouldn't see them, but it looks like some are coming up now.

Worst case scenario you can haul yourself out to IAD....

Amtraks woes have been a good thing for the shuttles.

Acela down, and the marathon was on Monday, no?

NPR reports this morning that Acela is out of service until summer. They need something like 1800 brake pads and the manufacturer only has 50! Maybe this will be a little windfall for US.

Acela down, and the marathon was on Monday, no?


Yep, Monday was Patriots Day. However, that should not have effected inbound on Wednesday.

Many schools in New England had spring break this week. Could be people traveling home. NYC and DC were filled with teenagers on high school trips last weekend and a friend said Dizzy World was mobbed with people wearing Red Sox and Pats gear on Monday.

Sounds like you may have lots of kids and families on your flights.

I don't think that Amtrak is the primary cause of the situation - I was trying to book DCA-BOS plane tickets a couple of weeks ago, and availability was already terrible at that point for this weekend, with very high prices. I ended up booking Independence Air out of IAD (which, when I checked last night, was completely sold out IAD-BOS for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). I think, as other posters have said, it's people going back from spring vacation, etc.

I don't quite understand why DCA - BOS nonstop flights would be so oversold with no Acela service. Not many business travellers took the Acela for that route. They would use it for the 2-3 hour segments, like WAS-NYP or NYP-BOS.

It seemed like a lot of business travelers, actually. I took the 4:45 DCA-BOS last night and it was beyond packed. I got to the airport around 3:30 (early for once) and the standby list was already closed. An hour before the flight the gate attendants were yelling at people who were on the list that there was no possible way they'd get on so stop asking.

Off-topic, but when is DCA going to install wireless access near the shuttle gates? Would make life so much easier! :D