Originally Posted by fishkill
You would probably do alot better taking the Acela service. I do understand that you cant make it from DC to Boston for a 9am, but if you are a student I would think you'd welcome all that extra time on the train working in peace (with a place to plug in your laptop). Rather than dealing with the hassle of what are imho some of the worst airports in the US to deal with, some shuttle flight boarding areas *cough* AA *cough*dont even have restrooms inside of security checkpoint in Logan (yeccch)
Plus Amtrak is very generous with points on those segments and you will probably get select status, free trips and use of the Acela clubs really quick. Remember that shuttles often dont get you miles
You are going to end up flying sometimes, but dont rule out Acela service for the trips where you can take the time.
-Fish
I actually considered doing that but it expanded the total commute time way too much. The trips are about 5-6 hours in each direction, compared to about 1.5 hours in the air. They are also very expensive when compared to the cheap flights from IAD to BOS.
I have kind of resigned myself to dealing with the flights because it's simply the best of all the bad options I have. I'm eternally grateful for Independence Air which has been driving the airfares to BOS down out of IAD. They are really the ones that are making this possible for me.