So, I've been traveling literally almost every week for the past year for work. I live in Falls Church at 50/495 & try to fly out of DCA as much as I can (100K miles on NW so far, mostly out of DCA), though I am often forced to fly UA, and therefore need to fly out of IAD (will hit PremEx this year with ~30K of it in east coast short trips & 20K in int'l long haul & 1 transcon on UA).

More often than not, I drive my car to the airport as most of my trips are 2-4 days and airport parking is cheaper & I like the flexibility of not having to wait for a cab to pick me up at my office (in Bethesda) or my house (in Falls Church) - every now & again though, if I'm returning a rental car from a local drive trip to the airport or if my roommate or a friend needs to borrow my truck, or if its a longer trip, where airport parking isn't cost effective, I'll take a cab or hitch a ride to the airport & cab it back.

Well, recently, I've had to take 3 cab rides back from IAD. The average cost is about 40-45 bucks, tip included. I pay for it with my corporate Amex. In all 3 instances, it takes forever for Washington Flyer to send the charge to Amex. I took a ride on 11/2 & it's 11/10 and it still hasn't posted. For me, to do my expense reports, I charge everything to my Amex & then it gets transferred over to our expense reporting system. I'm sitting on an expense report for an extra week or so because Washington Flyer can't post charges to Amex on time! I called Amex & they're showing the authorizations in place, however, they say that Washington Flyer hasn't sent over the charge request to them. It's ridiculous. I sent an email to the Washington Dulles International Airport Taxicab Advisory Panel (see bottom of the page) letting them know that I thought this was a ridiculous business practice & that I would be posting about it here on FlyerTalk.

It's ridiculous. And the Washington Flyer service has a monopoly on IAD - at DCA, you can at least get independent companies - you're not limited to one company. If they're going to be allowed to have a monopoly on the airport, then they should at least treat their customers well - or open it up to cabbies that will submit charges in a timely manner...

So, if you're traveling to IAD, be forewarned that your charges probably won't post in a timely manner...

[/rant]