Hello folks,

Will be relocating to the DC area shortly and will be flying a bit, both internationally and locally.

At this point, for my domestic travel (mainly between IAD & IAH) am torn between the following:
- Stick with UA and use IAD
- Use flights out of DCA (CO, US etc) and split my miles between Skyteam & *Alliance.

While my preference would be to stick with UA, the one time I flew in/out of IAD on CO was a nightmare, mainly due to the looonnnggg security lines. Are there shorter elite security lines in IAD for UA (as in IAH for CO).
Any comments/suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks
-FN

There are no elite security lines at IAD. You are ******. There are elite lines at DCA, and the regular lines are slightly shorter there.

I personally never minded IAD, but for me the decisions was all untility. 98% of my travel was international so IAD was a no brainer. DCA would have been much more convient because of location and security (though I have heard that DCA can also have some nightmarish security lines). I would say that if 50% or more of your travel is international, then maximize UA MP and use IAD. If it is less, than you may want to look at DCA.

The airport administrator for DCA is taking over the job at IAD. He seems to be a pretty good guy from interviews I've read... so maybe there's hope for an elite security line at IAD, too. One can certainly hope!

Since DCA is currently only a 5-10 minute drive for me, I prefer flying from there (and security at DCA is much easier to clear--no lines wrapped around the terminal 2-3x and blocking access to the ticketing counters!) However, since UA only flies to ORD and DEN from IAD, and many of the cheap fares valid out of IAD don't work for DCA (although a lot do), I often do have to make the drive out to IAD. If you can easily get to the airport access road (the non-toll lanes of 267), getting to and from IAD is fairly easy even during rush hours; I can usually drive from there to my office in Rosslyn at 7:30 in the morning in forty minutes or so--and all the traffic is in getting off 267 and onto/along local roads.

Agree with previous posters re: int'l at IAD vs domestic at DCA. It also highly depends on where in the metro DC area you relocate to (traffic here can be atrocious). I use DCA (10 mins away) as much as possible coz I live in DC and IAD (40 mins away) is a pain to get to but I do use IAD for trans-Atlantic travel and transcons (regularly). For local/regional and trans-Pacific, I stick to DCA (mostly via ORD on UA). But AFAIK, there are no elite lines for US/UA at either IAD or DCA. US may have a priority line that's open to *A Silver/Gold members at DCA and I do recall seeing it but it's not on their website *shrug*

Besides proximity, I favor DCA because you can get from daily parking to the gates in 10 minutes flat, or slightly more depending on security. Security to get to the UA pier is usually not as bad as the US one but at worse, the security line to the US pier is comparable to an average line at Dulles. At Dulles, security alone would take more than 10 minutes, some days up to an hour. Not to mention the 10 minute walk to get from daily parking to the main terminal. And the 10 minute moonbuggy ride to the gates. And if you have to use the G terminal, well, you'll need divine intervention

Both DCA and IAD have non-stops to IAH. DCA-IAH is on US and IAD-IAH is on UA. They're both E70s so they're much nicer than RJs. But UA E70s have E+ and F ^

I would pick an airport based on regular traffic conditions but your priorities may be different. Good luck!

US just recently opened an elite security checkpoint at DCA. However, many of the E170 flights (such as those to IAH) leave from the center pier, same as United.

The elite line on the main US Airways pier is open to all US, UA, and Star Alliance elites.

Wherever you plan to stay, drive from there to wherever you will be going at the times you will be going before you commit. There are a number of nasty surprises around here.