Washington D.C. (including Baltimore) - Which Airline Do You Take Across the Pond?

I feel like we have quite a few options out of IAD for heading to Europe. How do you choose? Alliance loyalty? In-Flight Service? Non-stops? Flight Timings? Price?

Carriers flying to Europe from IAD:
*A: United, Lufthansa, SAS, Austrian, Turkish
OneWorld: British Airways (including OpenSkies), Iberia
SkyTeam: Air France, KLM, Aeroflot
Non-Aligned: Virgin Atlantic, Aer Lingus (to Madrid under UA auspices)

Carriers with a stop in North America:
Air Canada, American, Delta, Continental, US

Carriers flying from other US Airports:
Finnair, Tap Portugal, Alitalia, Aer Lingus (to Ireland), LOT, BMI, Swiss

Also Possible:
Singapore, Air New Zealand, IcelandAir, AirBerlin, SATA International (to the Azores), Aerosvit, Air Europa

It might be helpful if you spelled out the names rather than using codes, as some of these are quite unusual. Are you sure that you meant to use SP - SATA Air Acores owns two Dash 8s. I doubt they re doing transatlantics with them. Perhaps you meant SQ. Not everyone is a nerd about airline codes.

My apologies, I'll make some edits. I also forgot SQ (and NZ)

Thanks for the update.

My decision is based on corporate agreements with certain airlines in the list as well as price.

I would be surprised if anyone is choosing SATA unless they are going to the Azores, and Aerosvit to Ukraine.

Aer Lingus also fly out of IAD - to Madrid, under the Joint Venture agreement with UA. So I guess you could include them in the direct list also.

Been choosing based on price and alliance loyality. I fly to Germany and England frequently and 95% of the time for past 7 years, I'm on UA (even though my preference is Virgin for LHR and LH for MUC on Airbus). Never flown into any other European cities from IAD directly yet.

To get to France, I used to be loyal to AF from IAD, but now with OpenSkies at IAD that may change. First trip on EC next week IAD-ORY. From everything I've seen, I'm expecting a good experience. For the same price I'd rather take OpenSkies than AF's Premium Voyageur (esp since I no longer have status on AF). ALso, like many, disappointed by AF's proposed "new" J-cabin offering.

My choice is UA. I can only book economy, so if upgrades don't clear, E+ is tolerable.

Regardless of your final choice, I would recommend you stick with one alliance to maximize your mileage and status earnings.