Fair enough, but 35X seems special in its own way. DCA is generally a pleasant enough airport but there is something Dantean about the descent into 35X that is unlike the rest of the experience.

True - it's an out of character blemish on what's otherwise one of my favorite US airports

I've been flying out of DCA for almost 20 years. 35X is a HUGE improvement over the old 35A. Granted, it's not great and the new commuter terminal will solve the problem, but US/AA has made attempts to make the experience less of a headache.

Speaking as one who lived for many years between DCA and IAD: Implying that the IAD mobile lounges are as bad as the DCA 35X buses is just silly.

I will add that the post AA-US luggage move was not an improvement. AA seems to barely manage to process luggage at DCA when it is busy, especially now that there is such a huge effort to get people to gate check.

Agree. Though it has always been appalling to me to know that the terminal was built in ~1995 and they couldnt think ahead enough to accommodate that capacity efficiently. So now more $$$ is being spent to fix it...

Yes 35x is maddening but my biggest complaint about DCA is the lack of seating in the food areas, they added all these restaurants but removed 90% of the seats. I almost never grab a bite to eat at DCA anymore because there is no where to sit and eat it.

I guess you're entitled to your opinion, and I'm entitled to think your point of view is equally "silly."

DCA was renovated with the ability to do 16-17 million passengers per year comfortably. MWAA's strategy was always to push as much traffic as it could to IAD (which needs all the help it can get). I don't think they foresaw Congress chipping away at the perimeter rule or the US/DL slot swap followed by the divestitures required by the AA merger, meaning lots of regional flights were replaced by WN and B6 mainline. The airport is now bursting at the seams with something like 23 million passengers per year, and it shows, especially with the no seating and extremely slow baggage (and you'd better hope the weather stays good!). For all IAD's faults (which for me are the distance from home in downtown DC plus the amount of time it can take to get to C/D), it can be a more reliable airport and I sometimes prefer it, especially in winter when weather could get bad/

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Welcome to FT!

Good point -- I've never stopped to count the seats, but I always kind of think in the back of my mind "people get out of the way, why don't you sit down, etc." and maybe they just can't. I either wait in the AC or arrive so close to departure that I walk onto the plane, but I forget that lots of people still arrive one or two hours before their flight with the expectation of sitting and waiting some place.

I am used to being bused around especially at CDG and FRA. The planes park at remote stands and you are bused to and from the plane. Same with AA Eagle at LAX.

The difference at the overseas airports is they operate more than one bus to the plane. It seems much more efficient than what goes on at DCA which I avoid due to the archaic system of shuttling passengers to and from the plane especially from an international flight.

Can you just imagine busing to an Airbus 380 at DCA? At SFO we are so luck ywe don't have buses. At least I have always parked at a gate at SFO when we arrive from an International flight and then its a nice 5 minutes walk to customs in the tunnel with moving walkways or a cart. Much better than being cramped into a bus.

Hope DCA fixes this soon with the construction. These mobile vehicles remind me of a Spaceship. Whoever designed this should have gotten the Failed Airport Design Award.

How about using one of these to board an Airbus 380 where all passengers are crammed into one of these buses?

You seem to have gotten DCA and IAD mixed up...

Those mobile lounges are out at Dulles (IAD)....and I don't think you ever have to worry about seeing an A380 at DCA with the short runway and all.