My UA elite status days started as a DCA-based flyer doing a lot of UA JFK flights; and DCA has always been my primary airport during my years as a UA*G, as I would tend to be going to ORD or JFK. For the first 20 years of my use of DCA, I would do just about anything to avoid flying out of IAD unless I had to go to California -- and even then I sometimes would just do the hop from DCA to ORD, EWR or JFK and make my way that way. Basically, just about anything to avoid going out to IAD. If I were to be out by Potomac or Rockville, then I probably would have used IAD and perhaps UA more. The main reason I use IAD nowadays is because of the Star Alliance international route network and because dealing with flights up to EWR had become less reliable over the years for me (and UA went MIA at JFK); but even still I sometimes would rather go from DCA and connect out of the EWR/JFK or ORD if the flight times work out better for my schedule/interests than what UA/Star Alliance offer at IAD.

Probably because of my dislike for IAD due to its relative inconvenience for me and because DCA had good coverage to all the legacy major hubs, I started off in the FFP world with spreading my eggs across different FFP baskets. Blind loyalty and being a UA IAD hub captive would have been good for UA but bad for my bank account, and I'm glad I didn't get stuck paying the IAD "premium" or passing the buck on to anyone.

I've only used BWI as a very last resort -- you almost have to pay me to even think about using it. I can't recall the last time I even flew UA into or out of BWI -- it was probably at least 13 years ago.