cmculp

With the exit of US from star alliance (and the USAIR shuttle), I am looking at a couple of RTs from Dc to New York. UA has only RJ service in the market (a market that includes a hub to hub route).

This likely falls into the "everyone knows that" basket, but I didn't. Never crossed my mind that one of the 4 major airlines would not even enter the New York DC competition with mainline service. I sort of (no, I don't) get ceding say Atlanta to Delta and offering only RJ, but New York / DC??

am I missing something??

sannmann

Not missing anything. Some of the NYC/WAS flights are offered on Q400s, which do have a first class.

LaserSailor

Making the majority of commuter runs on the eastern seaboard RJ makes total business sense and will be followed by all airlines of substance.

sbm12

DL & AA have been doing it for years. US still has mainline on the E90s and occasional Airbus.

Duke787

AA has (or had at least) a daily 738 at ~530ish from DCA - JFK (and a flight that came down before that JFK - DCA on a 738).

Take the Acela.

Also UA runs a few (or did) E145s DCA - EWR.

Miesque

Yes, Delta, which is the airline that has substantially increased its foothold in the NY market over the past few years has the RJ model down and they have a lot of markets outside of DC where they are the only carrier to NYC such as Richmond and smaller cities. A lot of the RJs do have a few First Class seats which I personally like. Delta has rows and rows of RJs at LGA so much so they don't even use traditional gates for many of them, you land and park at a far corner of the tarmac and then a bus comes and takes you to the terminal.


I am actually more amazed that so much of the NYC-ORD traffic is RJs than the DC/NY.

awu25

Amtrak runs at least every hour from NYP to Union Station. I'm guessing mainline planes would not go out full.

JPG3392

UA's operations in the WAS area are concentrated at Dulles, and most NYC-WAS passengers want to go into the city of Washington and therefore wish to fly to DCA. Because of slot restrictions, UA couldn't expand at DCA even if it wished to. It's not in a position to compete with the hourly shuttle flights on DL and US.

LASUA1K

Jeff is that you?

berto714

As others have stated, Amtrak and Acela operate hourly, and as a result the train has a 75% market share of plane/train traffic between NYC and DC. As a result, mainline flights between the two cities don't make much sense. Taking the train is also generally much easier and more comfortable than flying, unless you live outside DC closer to DCA or IAD. Unless you really need those last bit of miles or need a few more segments for status, I would highly recommend the train over flying.

bob_the_d

i used to take this weekly and would alternate between the acela and the US shuttle. they both had their plusses and minuses.

i did like the acela in F. lots of space, and (mostly) a nice ride. it does take three hours though and sometimes when you're tired you just want to be there. but the seats are big, there's free wifi, and it's fairly low stress.

the US shuttle was nice. all A319's (did they change that? i did this pre-US/AA merger so maybe it did, i don't know). security was always a breeze, and the US shuttle ran hourly so if you miss one, you can hop on the next. flight is short. if i time it right, i could show up at DCA 30 minutes prior, take a 45 minute flight, and then take a 30 minute cab ride to home in manhattan from LGA, door to door in under two hours. i was a fan.

and then there was UA flying it's stupid E45's to EWR. it was a joke.

3Cforme

We can make this very easy. The totality of mainline service by all scheduled carriers today JFK/LGA/EWR - IAD/DCA is:

1 US 319 LGA-DCA

1 AA 738 JFK-DCA

1 UA 753 EWR-IAD

So, unless you happened to hit that single US flight, the exit of US from *A has little to do with aircraft scheduling NYC-DCA/IAD.

halls120

this. ^^

sbm12

The US E90s are operated as mainline. :-:

Often1

The USS is almost all mainline. It operates hourly on weekdays between DCA-LGA which is the O&D market for WAS. It's pleasant, convenient and with a well-run pre-check, you can walk from the curb to your seat in <10.

DL also runs a good and convenient service, sometimes on smaller aircraft. But, the question isn't whether they are mainline or a regional carrier, it's whether the aircraft is comfortable for the 30-minute airtime and whether there's F which there is.

Not sure what the complaint is.