DCA logistics
 

I can't find a thread. And this is the first time I've flown out of the DC area.

I have a flight at 18:45 tomorrow DCA-EWR and I have an event at the national press club (529 14th ST, NW) which is suppose to finish at 17:00.

At that time how long should a taxi to DCA take. What is the latest I can arrive at DCA?

I have TSA pre and no checked bags.

It's a 10 minute trip under normal conditions. Can easily take 20-30 min if there are traffic incidents. You could walk to Federal triangle metro and take a blue line train - total time around 28 mins, but that's pushing it, even with pre check.

You're going to be cutting it close if the 14th street bridge is a mess.

You'll be fine. Even with traffic, 14th St is the bridge. Max 30 min to B gates entrance. Under 15 min in Pre Check and 3 min to gates 10-12. Metro is probably iffier during the "Safety Surges."

Although I agree that the Metro is probably not the best choice, the Blue Line is not the way to do it as it has more stops. Take the Red line from Metro Center (2 blocks from the National Press Club, actually closer than Federal Triangle) one stop to Gallery Place. Transfer to the Yellow line to Virginia. 7 stops total (including change), while Blue line is 10 stops from Fed Triangle to DCA.

The Blue line route is a mess, due to the new Silver Line trains having to share the Potomac river tunnel with both Blue and Orange between Foggy Bottom and Rosslyn.

Welcome to the best "major" airport in the Northeast -- close to downtown, very easy navigation, and this being "Congress's Airport" you can get virtually anywhere in the continental US directly. Your schedule should not be an issue; even at its worst it should not take more than 30 mins to get from 14th & F to DCA. (Use a Lyft / Uber instead of a cab; don't bother with Metro.) Typical TSA Pre wait time is under 10 minutes, and the walk to the United gates is less than five minutes from there.

If you need to eat, go toward Gates 20-22 straight ahead past security instead of turning left to the United gates; the options are much better. Also, the United Club is a bit tucked away, upstairs near Gate 11. It's a retro Club, not big but perfectly nice and quieter than most.

Only if you're headed to the eastern half of the US.

http://www.gcmap.com/map?P=&R=1250mi...MX=540x540.jpg

Thanks all. I will jump in a Lyft at 17:00 and hope for no extraordinary traffic jams

Except that on the Metro trip planner, your red/yellow option takes longer than the blue line option.

make sure you hail Lyft standing on the west side on 14th street. It might even be faster to grab a cab at the Willard.

That restriction has gone away. Dulles still has more options for longer flights, but I've flown SFO-DCA nonstop in the last few months and it's a huge win when the schedules work.

Bob

If using Metro, make sure it is operating normally as there are a lot of problems with that system: http://www.wmata.com/rider_tools/met...s/rail_Bus.cfm

That's using two of the very-few beyond-perimeter slots. Mostly no service to the western US, and certainly not direct.

Please follow this to the Washington DC forum.

l'etoile
UA moderator

Your odds of a traffic delay are highest and your odds of waiting for a train are lowest between 5 and 6ish. I concur with the advice about taking the Red Line to the Yellow Line; the views from the bridge are among the nicest in the whole system.

If your EWR flight gets cancelled and you have United Club access, the agents there may be able to put you on Amtrak instead, at which point your have to taxi/Uber/Lyft or Metro over to Union Station.

OP - Although the weather is good today, check flight status carefully. If your flight is substantially delayed or cancelled, do not head out to DCA from the NPC, but head straight to Union Station (5-10 mins by taxi/uber/bus/metro, 20 min. walk) and grab a train. I presume that you are connecting at EWR, so you will need to call UA to have them cancel your DCA-EWR segment so that your onward/return segment(s) don't get cancelled, but you are entitled to that in case of delay/cancellation.

For what it is worth, if you leave the NPC in an Uber at 5:05 (you can now preset the pickup time) and give the address location for the building on 14th Street facing South, it will take 15-20 minutes to DCA at that time of day. With Pre-Check, you will be at your UA gate in 10 minutes (only because the EWR departures are down a long corridor from the checkpoint). Without Pre-Check, add 10-15 minutes for the checkpoint at that time of day (even w. status, because it's DCA and everybody has that).

Amtrak is actually a far easier and better option than the miserable micro-hop up to EWR which is routinely delayed/cancelled because late afternoon ATC results in those flights getting the short end of the stick.

If you do wind up on Amtrak, don't short-change yourself on comfort. It is substantially nicer to take an Acela changing to almost anything including a local commuter on NJ Transit at Metro Park than to take something less pleasant from WAS just because it stops at EWR (which the Acela does not).

Doesn't Alaska still fly DCA-LAX every day? I know they used to.