Oh, come on. Had the government planned a direct rail link that bypassed Tysons and the Dulles corridor, it would have been DOA. The Silver Line is desperately needed to reduce the number of vehicles clogging the roads into DC from Northern Virginia.

I'm looking forward to redeeming 4500 BA Avios for some of US's DCA shorthauls -- almost as much as I'm looking forward to maybe getting bikeshare at DCA.

DOJ seems really keen on getting "new entrants" into DCA -- each proposal for slot divestiture over the years (UA+US+"DCAir" backed by AA, DL+US+B6, DL+US + B6+WS) has involved giving slots to new carriers rather than legacies. Now that everyone from WN to WS is there, though, I'm not sure whether that strategy will still work. DL sure seems to get a lot of throughput from its slots and might bid to get some back.

Well, and people from Tysons & Reston. Projected travel time to Tysons will be 22 minutes, Metro Center in 52 minutes -- so about comparable to ORD-Loop. Yes, the station will be 1000' further than the current 5A bus stop, but Metro won't get stuck in I-66 traffic and it will load much faster. (I've been stuck for 20 minutes waiting for scores of TATL pax, and the attendant hundreds of giant suitcases, to board the 5A.) Fares are unknown, but it won't be cheap.

The irony of the IAD station location decision is that IAD was built from the get-go for some kind of rail transit, but TPTB dilly-dallied for decades. At least it seems to be actually happening.

DCA's landside dining options are okay, but more importantly you spend much less time inside DCA than inside IAD.

The local FT happy hours stop by Arlington once in a while.

I, too, will miss having US as an option for East Coast routes. But: Those don't yield much PQM either. When the airfare to BOS jumped on US before a trip I had planned last May, I didn't feel at all put out booking B6 instead. (Yes, they fly out of the crummy end of DCA, their onboard product is worlds better). US routes to Florida yield a little more mileage, but that's also a much less frequent destination for me.

Meanwhile, by far my most common business-travel destination is the Bay Area, and UA's DCA-SFO nonstop works really well for that. If only the return flight got back a little earlier; I've flown back to IAD a few times to be home in time for dinner and our kid's bedtime.

The NYT story I read said that the combined US/AA would have 60 percent of the slots at DCA, so if UA gets a few and makes creative use of them, this discussion would change course a bit.

Lastly: With phase one of the Silver Line opening (hopefully!) by the end of the year, the schlep to IAD should get a little easier even with having to transfer to a bus. You'll have a choice of two bus services at Wiehle Avenue--the Washington Flyer and a new, cheaper but slightly slower Fairfax Connector route--instead of having only the Flyer at West Falls Church. I don't know if the 5A will also stop there, but WMATA would be stupid not to arrange that.

For a domestic flights nothing beats the ability to leave <1 hour before departure and still have time to grab food and coffee at the gate. After the loss of 500 mile minimum on US and this, AS or AA may become my primary program (albeit, I fly only ~50 segments a year, mainly short-haul).

For international (revenue or award), IAD is still, and always will be my preferred option (unless multiple segments) as a $60 taxi is worth the savings in time and potentially avoiding misconnects.

UA has flights only to PEK and NRT from IAD.

ORD and EWR add HKG and PVG, which is all I've happened to need.

Yep, I do HKG almost as often as I do NRT, and always through EWR. The first and last time I flew direct NRT-IAD (in November) I was stuck in a First Class straight out of the 80's, with entertainment on tape, the power outlets that require adaptor (which I threw away years ago), and a crew as old as the plane (although they were pretty nice). On a 8k ticket, thanks but no thanks.

To be fair I expect that the 787 will give IAD more Asian nonstops.

Yep, the old 500-mile minimums made it much easier for me, an all-leisure traveler, to make 1P back in the day. Shuttle and upstate New York trips alone on US were good for around 12,000 EQMs; now, the same trips would get a whopping 2400 or so. These days I suck it up and drive or Amtrak those trips, mostly because of high fares, but the 80% reduction doesn't help.

I live near Clarendon about 4 miles from DCA, and like it for all the usual reasons, but I'd rather arrive at IAD from an international trip and be "home" than face another connection after processing at JFK or ORD, or if OW, transferring at LHR. And for the West Coast, I take a lot of redeyes, and doubt AA+US(+AS) will offer more long-hauls QLA-WAS than the various UA combinations, unless I skipped the part of the press release announcing AA's new LAX-BWI nonstops.

1) It will be a while.
2) HKG (8153m) may be at the edge of range for a 787. PVG might be possible.
3) IAD-ICN was dropped a couple years ago, presumably for business reasons.

Not sure where else they'd fly (HND perhaps?)

Wow lots of Arlington folks here. Pretty cool stuff! I live in Courthouse now and grew up in Montgomery County. A meetup happy hour is definitely in order. Nice to know there are other FTers in my neck of the woods!

I was thinking PVG, HND, and DEL. The 787 might make ICN viable again. TPE might be another possibility.

I'm guessing HKG will have to wait for the A350.

I don't recall UA ever operating ICN from IAD ??

HND slot times are a huge mess. Just look at the *success* that AA is getting on JFK-HND or DL was getting on DTW-HND and you can see why UA shouldn't touch that with a 10-ft winglet.

I'd really love to see either 787-8 or A350-900 used to re-open HKG-LAX or launch HKG-IAD.

Maybe they could even do IAH-HKG to capture some VFR traffic that goes IAH-HKG-SGN, but that's too much wet dreaming for me.

HKG-LAX 42.8� (NE) 7260 mi
HKG-IAD 10.0� (N) 8153 mi
HKG-IAH 29.4� (NE) 8346 mi

There is a lot of traffic going from IAD to SGN, to the extent that NH has Vietnamese signage at IAD. Not sure if UA has (or will have) an aircraft capable of serving that route, though.

I could be wrong - never flew it myself but I thought colleagues had.