You're right... flying out of CHO definitely tacks on a premium. But...

If you've taken the train, then you know how WONDERFUL Amtrak is out of C'ville hahaha... yeesh - has a similar on-time performance to the good old "Tower Air" - which makes planning in conjunction with flights difficult. The train also doesn't stop anywhere very near to IAD, so you have to add in Taxi. Two departures daily also severely limits options. Don't even get me started on greyhound; the last time I took them to DC it took me 7 hours.

I have a car (well, it's actually owned by the professor I'm research-assisting for but... nevermind), so that may be the best way to go. It still adds a good 2 hours on each end of travel time and if I want to stick with UA it still only saves me about $100-$150... the overall economic savings just doesn't seem to pan out once I plug in parking/gas/time.

I'm actually surprised to see the fares so high. The bulk of the fare comes from the CHO-IAD and IAD-CHO segments (a grand total of something like 180 miles round-trip). With ACA moving out though, 60 seats per day were added as the J41s magically turned into CRJs. That's a rather large increase (considering there were less than 140 seats originally).

Again, thanks all for your advice.