WAS-DCA Commute
Dec 13, 2004 | 9:43 pm
#31
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Washington, DC, USA
Posts: 1,882
First, it's clear that if nonstop is your preference, it's basically united.
If you are willing to give up non stop, I believe the choices turn into American (thru chicago), Northwest (which flies some nonstops from minneapolis to dca) and one screwy one -- Alaska Air has one of the few long nonstops to dca (from seattle). If you work close to downtown and can get out of work early, alaska has a 5:30 p.m. dca flight, that goes thru seattle, but would allow you to get back home on a friday night and you can catch the metro to dca.
fyi, in checking fares for my brother who lives in pdx, I've sometimes found some very screwy fares, where booking portland flights on american or united, is far more expensive than booking the flights on their partner airlines Alaska Air (American) or US Airways (united) though you fly on American or United.
as per the discussion of bwi/dca/iad, I personally hate connecting thru chicago (though it's where I'm from. Way too many delays). I vote for IAD over BWI, basically because from downtown, transit is more predicatable.
Driving to BWI is a mess and while getting to bwi on the train is fairly easy weeknights after work, you can have to wait awhile coming back on weekends. But basically even on weeknights, it's metro to amtrak to a bus to bwi, which is three opportunities to miss connections. Dulles is metro to a bus (which leaves every half hour from west falls church). You can have to wait but it's one connection.
If you are willing to give up non stop, I believe the choices turn into American (thru chicago), Northwest (which flies some nonstops from minneapolis to dca) and one screwy one -- Alaska Air has one of the few long nonstops to dca (from seattle). If you work close to downtown and can get out of work early, alaska has a 5:30 p.m. dca flight, that goes thru seattle, but would allow you to get back home on a friday night and you can catch the metro to dca.
fyi, in checking fares for my brother who lives in pdx, I've sometimes found some very screwy fares, where booking portland flights on american or united, is far more expensive than booking the flights on their partner airlines Alaska Air (American) or US Airways (united) though you fly on American or United.
as per the discussion of bwi/dca/iad, I personally hate connecting thru chicago (though it's where I'm from. Way too many delays). I vote for IAD over BWI, basically because from downtown, transit is more predicatable.
Driving to BWI is a mess and while getting to bwi on the train is fairly easy weeknights after work, you can have to wait awhile coming back on weekends. But basically even on weeknights, it's metro to amtrak to a bus to bwi, which is three opportunities to miss connections. Dulles is metro to a bus (which leaves every half hour from west falls church). You can have to wait but it's one connection.
Dec 13, 2004 | 9:57 pm
#32
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Shanghai
Posts: 46,283
[QUOTE=MrAOK
If you are willing to give up non stop, I believe the choices turn into American (thru chicago), Northwest (which flies some nonstops from minneapolis to dca) and one screwy one -- Alaska Air has one of the few long nonstops to dca (from seattle).
.[/QUOTE]
you forgot about hp. sorry to keep mentioning it, but i've never once found another airline in the same ballpark for last minute purchases and their total travel times are absolutely unparallelled (with the exception of ua from iad, which operates the ONLY nonstop in the market).
ps - i don't have any particular loyalties or interests in hp. it's just that this thread echos my current situation exactly so i've done quite a bit of "research" on the topic.
If you are willing to give up non stop, I believe the choices turn into American (thru chicago), Northwest (which flies some nonstops from minneapolis to dca) and one screwy one -- Alaska Air has one of the few long nonstops to dca (from seattle).
.[/QUOTE]
you forgot about hp. sorry to keep mentioning it, but i've never once found another airline in the same ballpark for last minute purchases and their total travel times are absolutely unparallelled (with the exception of ua from iad, which operates the ONLY nonstop in the market).
ps - i don't have any particular loyalties or interests in hp. it's just that this thread echos my current situation exactly so i've done quite a bit of "research" on the topic.