3Cforme

Delta's route map will take WAS as an origin, and from all 3 DC-area airports the only Pacific Time Zone destinations are LAX and SEA. That's Seoul TPAC.

marcdc

this is great info! where were you able to pull that map from, if you don't mind me asking? this is really useful!

sydneyracquelle

lamphs

I live in Montgomery County, MD and concur. A lot of options. If i have to make a UA connection anyway, BWI can be considerably less expensive. (Easy access via the Rt. 200 to I95N.)

DCFinanceinFlight

Both IAD and DCA will satisfy your need for going out west depending on when you like to fly(Morning of or night before)

IAD has a flight to SLC at ~7:30 AM and SEA at ~7:20 AM(Although I believe this is changing)
DCA has the ~4:45 PM flight to SLC and the D1 flight to LAX at ~5:35 PM

As mentioned, DCA has a SkyClub, but IAD has multiple PP lounges and Terminal B where DL flies out of is probably the nicest there.

ND76

The Metro "Silver Line" currently terminates at a station roughly 8 miles east of the IAD terminal. There are both dedicated "Washington Flyer" buses that run non-stop to IAD and also "Fairfax Connector" local buses that run on surface streets and make stops between Wiehle Avenue station and IAD.

ND76

I live roughly halfway between BWI and CHO, so I don't use BWI much any more (I used to live in Annapolis, MD and BWI was a 25 minute drive away).

I live 15 miles south of IAD and 30 miles west of DCA. Delta's domestic facilities at DCA are much better than they are at IAD; however, a number of Delta's international partners fly out of IAD, and hopefully the AF/KLM lounge will reopen by the end of March (it has been closed for reconstruction and enlargement).

When I use DCA, my practice is to drive my car to the Huntington metro station park-n-ride (south of the Beltway (I-95) between Exits 176 and 177), and park in the area in the structure in the back designated for multi-day parking; and then ride the train to DCA (about a 12 minute ride for the 5.5 mile trip). First train out of Huntington is 5 am sharp, so I can make any of the 6 am flights that Delta has pretty handily (CLEAR comes in handy). My total cost for this will be around $12 ($7 for the transit fare and $4.95 for the parking charge, which is flat regardless of how many days you park (the limit is 10 days)). By contrast, at IAD, I park in the Green Zone of the economy lot, over 2 miles from the terminal; it is a 7-10 minute shuttle bus ride.

At DCA there is a simple and straightforward walk to the Delta security entrance (maybe 100 yards between the metro station exit and the "National Hall" landside concourse, then a turn to the right and maybe 20 yards to the entrance to both the regular and pre-check lines, and another 20 yards beyond that for the Clear line. The SkyClub is accessed by an elevator to your left just after passing through the Security Checkpoint area, and the gates are all pretty close beyond that.

By contrast, IAD is very cumbersome. The parking shuttle lets you off on a ground level at the middle of the IAD terminal. Delta's check-in is at the west end of IAD (to your right). You enter the building and walk up a ramp which is beneath the roadway for cars meeting arriving flights. When you reach the end of that ramp you are on the baggage claim level. You then need to go up to the next level (there are elevators at roughly one o'clock), with escalators further down to your right. The security entrance is in the middle of the building, so if you have to check a bag with Delta you have a 100+ yard traipse to make. From Delta, the CLEAR entrance is more convenient than the pre-check or regular security lines, which are another 20+ yards down. After clearing security, you go down either stairs or an escalator, then you have to walk a short distance, and then turn to the right until you reach the escalators that take you down to the AeroTrain station. The train takes 75-90 seconds to run you out to midfield Concourse B. After detraining there, you have to go up a long escalator to reach the concourse. Then you turn left and you have at least 200 yards to cover to reach Delta's gates, which are numbered in the 70s).

Bag claim seems always to be Carousel 14. On the reverse, it has never taken me less than 40 minutes from deplaning until reaching my car in the economy lot.

The Delta staff at Dulles has won internal company awards for "best station", and they are a good group, so there's that.

jrl767

Duke787

My two cents as someone who used to live in the Courthouse area.

There is absolutely zero reason to choose AA. You'll be in the exact same boat as with DL -- some direct flights to a select number of hubs and connections to everywhere else but you'll have to start from scratch plus AA has been driving to tighter and tighter configs on their 737s (both MAX and non-MAX) where DL seems to have reached a stopping point (as you know as a current DL flyer). The additional non-hub direct flights that AA has out of DCA are only relevant if OP has extensive travel up and down the east coast to smaller cities like BTV (which doesn't appear to be the case).

The only airline that you can make some argument for switching to is UA solely due to route network ex-IAD. Since they do have a hub, they have a number of direct IAD - XYZ flights that you simply won't be able to get from AA or DL (for good reason, why would DL run flight like IAD - SAN with no feed on either end?) and they may have 3 or 4 of those flights giving you greater flexibility on timing (IAD - SAN, IAD - LAS, IAD - PHX are three from your list that come to mind though AA does have DCA - PHX). Plus their route network from DCA captures DCA - SFO, DCA - IAH, DCA - ORD, and DCA - DEN.

When I was living in DC as a consultant I flew mostly UA (having come from Chicago previously so was already invested) and found them to be quite strong. The only reason I eventually left was during the low point of the Smisek era and AA was running IAD - LAX (my weekly flight) so it was an equal trade for me.

DCAhome

Similar experience here. I've done several trips with a cheap repositioning flight to JFK (11,000 miles R/T) to take advantage of cheaper JFK J seats TATL. I've also used DCA-DTW-Asia, which I've seen price out about $1000 cheaper in J than the direct flight from DTW.

mot29

joejones

ElmhurstNick

IAD is a PITA, but don't forget that VS flies IAD-LHR 1x/day, and it's often very lightly loaded in off-season. Just over 10k MQM, and about 2100 MQD for PE, which is often reasonably priced.

NotHamSarnie

Not just a PITA to get to but then a PITA to go through security (no TSA Pre-check or CLEAR to VS). Then when you get back a PITA to get from the airplane to the terminal with that hideous people-mover instead of a jet bridge. Plus VS Upper Class is far inferior to DL Delta One. Ugh. Did it once. Never again.

3Cforme

https://dl.fltmaps.com/en

Click on 'destinations'

Enter WAS A few other metro codes work, too, like NYC (for LGA/JFK/EWR), PAR (CDG/ORY) and BUE (for EZE/AEP)

Non-stop flights only

Include codeshares (That's how you see Seoul, Paris, Rome...)

Search

You can then click on a map destination, and click 'show flights'

I don't believe the route map shows seasonality - anything on the schedule will appear, even if not operating at present.

You can see that Delta has a fairly limited destination set out of WAS airports - but perhaps not as bad as you feared. If you really are airport-agnostic and traveling to DL hubs you can play fare and upgrade arbitrage across DCA/BWI/IAD with a ton of flights. On Monday's schedule:

11x BWI-ATL
7x IAD-ATL
12x DCA-ATL

Every one of those flights is mainline - although if you want AVOD and 2Ku wifi the A321s & 320s from DCA are the ticket.