I just found out that I need to go to Charlottesville in January for a few days. I've only done the trip once and went to Heathrow via IAD. My problem is that the trip to and from Heathrow (from Exeter) is the worst part of the whole trip!!! So I need to figure out if there's a better way to travel. I'll be flying business class for at least the transatlantic section (some of the regionals into CHO don't seem to offer it). I want to travel on Star Alliance, which is why I am posting here.

Options that I've thought of include Flybe-CDG, then UA-IAD-CHO. Unfortunately this means collecting my luggage and re-checking in. It would probably be a long wait in CDG as well. I was also wondering if there was something out of Bristol, but can't really find a decent way of searching. I wouldn't mind changing somewhere further west than IAD as long as it wasn't more expensive. LHR via IAD is currently the default, though. One advantage of this, I guess, is that the AC lounge in LHR is way better than any Red Carpet Lounge I've ever been in .

Is there a decent search engine that will allow me to figure these things out?

If all goes well, I'll have to do this a few times this year. While I can do this trip with just a little luggage (but not carry-on only ) this time, in the summer I'll be bringing 2+ largish pieces, so discount airlines may not be an option.

Any thoughts?

Dr. PITUK