Originally Posted by
UAPremExecflyer
The obvious question is why are you not booking LHR-ORD? Or LHR-IAD-ORD?
That said, assuming your inbound TATL is on-time, assume an hour to get through immigration and customs and collect your bags. Traffic on a Saturday afternoon shouldn't be so bad ... 30-40 mins to DCA ... that gets your there in just about enough time to queue and check-in again? The 3 hours 10 min doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room, and if your inbound is delayed, you really will be at the mercy of the carrier of DCA. Do you have any airline status or would you be travelling First or Business? That may help a little. Also, flights from DCA-ORD go approx once an hour. Could you book a 5pm to be safer?
Believe me, I would love to to book an alternative to changing airports. The combination of short planning time, and semi-newbishness with reward bookings beyond anything straightforward leaves me with limited options. I get that, and I'm not complaining, it's still a nice family trip with a lot less out of pocket than I'd normally pay.
The bookings (which are on hold for 1 more day) are actually FCO-LHR, overnight, then to IAD (both on BA, so...fees!), with AA Gold status (my son's). Then: DCA-ORD is on United, no status. I know...not great, but late to book.
Originally Posted by
gailwynand
I would not do this without Global Entry and airline status.
- Between summer peak travel season and the sequester you could easily have significant delays at customs. You also have to factor in the annoying moon buggy ride to the international arrivals area and any delays at baggage claim. I would not plan on being out of the airport before 1:30 even with GE. Figure 2pm without GE and it could easily be longer.
- I-66 is often congested on Saturday afternoons in summer, especially if it's a nice day or there is any type of event happening in DC. So you could easily end up at DCA with less than an hour to spare. And..
- TSA lines can be problematic at DCA - status will help you here.
Thank you for the good advice. It seems wise to head back to the drawing board and hope for better options. If necessary, I guess we could just spend a day in D.C., a place I do love, but we'd much rather just get home at that point.