Originally Posted by negs

I'm a newbie to this elite stuff (just made first time plat!) so I'll leave value judgements re: the value of miles to others.

But, regarding the airport: yes, you *could* fly into Dulles, and, as Non Non-Rev has mentioned above, you can use BWI as an alternate airport. BUT, everything else being equal (and it may NOT necessarily be), most folks would choose to fly into DCA. Closest to downtown and all the tourist stuff, and a Metro station that you can access right from the airport (very short walk once you're outside) to get to virtually any destination in the D.C. area.

(Note: they are currently expanding one of the rail lines all the way out to Dulles, but they're not finished yet, and I don't know what the timetable for opening that line is.....perhaps by this time next year, they may have it, and then there will be Metro access from Dulles, too. But, for the moment, that's in the future.)