mduell

$80 RT Uber?

trk1

For a comparsion:

Capital Hilton Hotel to Iad 26.5 miles 36 min

Capital Hilton Hotel to Bwi 29.8 miles 57 min

who is taking a cab to either one???

exerda

Sure, they could. But they'd miss out on the O&D traffic from the NYC area to South Florida that way. And I believe that O&D traffic is pretty significant. I'd love for them to steer connecting traffic to Europe and even NRT through IAD with a few nice nonstops to somewhere other than TPA and MCO (I don't even count the Barbie jets to JAX, FWIW)... I just don't see it as likely.

I am incredibly disappointed that UA has abandoned South Florida, FWIW. And that it's so hard to get there from WAS! My wife and I wanted to go to MHH for a 10th anniversary celebration (we got engaged in the Bahamas), and everything we found anywhere near our dates required an overnight in either Florida or NJ on both ends of the trip, except for one flight which had 2 legs on Silver () each way and which still had poor flight times.

FWIW, DL actually offered mainline into MHH ( as I don't see how they can land or take off at that airport with a mainline a/c), but the cost was prohibitive. We ended up saying we'd go to Trinidad and spend time at a nature resort--at least the IAH connection is better than EWR.


BWI? Pshaw. Unless you live in the northern suburbs, it's out of the question for frequent travel. I don't even consider it unless it's more than $300 cheaper than IAD or DCA.

IAD is ~25 minutes for me, and DCA ~30. From my old offices in DC, IAD was ~40 and DCA ~15, whereas BWI was still over an hour away most times of day. Even my penny-pinching employer didn't force us to trek to BWI to save $$ since they knew they'd be paying for our time if they did.

cigarman

Seriously? Only broke college students can take uber...
Good luck suing driver when he crashes and your crippled... you going to get his futon? The vast majority of uber drivers do not have liability insurance to cover carrying paying passengers...

And its an illegal activity in many places, so good luck YOUR insurance paying also.

Taxi cab commission exist for a purpose, cool app aside...

But I have too many assets to do uber

Your not taking a cab to BWI you take a one stop train from Union station. Your there in about 30 minutes.

You ARE taking a cab to IAD because the silver line, plus bus takes an hour and is filled with "interesting" people.

And your drive time to Dulles is like 2 am... good luck at oh 5pm... you'll be more than an hour.

My point was DCA...DCA...DCA... THEN BWI.
You might try the Amtrak from union station. 30 minutes even at rush hour to BWI. AND BWI is often much cheaper due to the southwest/LCC effect, and surprisingly has some better nonstops to some places.

From downtown, I can get to BWI well quicker than IAD and at 1/3rd of the cost. Its a fair option.

halls120

If you walk to Union Station or are close to the Red Line, sure, Amtrak is an option. Anywhere else, it's a PITA to get to Union Station by cab or Uber from 9am to 5pm.

mduell

Uber has commercial liability insurance for every trip in every city around the world.

To protect rent-seeking monopolies who make good political contributions.

WineCountryUA

Topic Reminder

Seems to be some topic drift on ground transportation options, let's return to UA related posts.

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator

LPDAL

I was actually wondering this myself, but an United phone rep claimed that management's strategy is to rely on Silver Airways, formerly an express operator (Gulfstream International Airlines) which United still has a very good relationship with, to transport customers intra-Florida to the cities they no longer serve on mainline aircraft. If someone up north wants to fly IAD-FLL, which hasn't been served for well over a year, United will offer an itinerary like IAD-TPA-FLL or IAD-MCO-FLL, where the second leg is Silver Airways and the first is mainline UA. Here are the 3M connection opportunities for MCO and TPA to other cities if you're originating at Dulles that can be booked on UA's codeshare:


-LPDAL

Ber2dca

The EWR funnel (in addition to UA's crap terminal at IAD) basically makes UA a poor choice for DC flyers unless there's really no other option. Who wants to rely on EWR-IAD/DCA service that UA routinely cancels on a whim?

bocastephen

I spent 4 years doing FLL-EWR-DCA/BWI/IAD-EWR-FLL during the Continental years and it probably cost me 10yrs of life expectancy. Getting out of DCA/IAD or BWI to make that EWR connection back home was stomach churning to say the least and I had it down to a science, checking the FAA ground stop website, noticing if we taxied out on one or two engines (one meant a ground stop), or if I stopped by the DCA counter earlier in the day to get my boarding pass the agent (they all knew me well), thrust a boarding pass into my hand for an earlier flight leaving in 15 mins, screaming "R-U-N!!!" while I tried not to fall down the escalator, dashing for the checkpoint while waving goodbye to my bewildered and annoyed other half, all because they knew my 5pm departure would be 2hrs late.

Oh yes, happy times....not.

However, the new airline mirrors the old airline's focus - O/D plus connecting traffic to Europe/Asia/regional points near EWR because that is where the S. Florida leisure and business market lives up north - not in the capital region.

thorpeflyer

I selfishly would love IAD-RSW service to see family in Southwest Florida. I've done the IAD-TPA flights often, and they are always oversold. That said, I understand why IAD is a less desirable choice and why UA has forced South Florida traffic through ORD, EWR, and IAH. But I like the Lufthansa lounge in IAD, so I'd take the chance to connect there more if I could.

LPDAL

Various airlines have tried FLL/PBI/MIA-IAD, from LCCs to the legacies. To my knowledge, the only carriers that still fly South Florida to Dulles are Frontier seasonally on PBI-IAD and AA year-round on MIA-IAD. Everyone else, including United, pulled out.

When I flew IAD-FLL on May 31st, 2014, it was a PMUA 752 with the massive domestic first class recliner cabin. Over 5 nonrevs, two pilots and three flight attendants, managed to make it up front. That's how I knew the route wouldn't last. We see less and less 757s from United in FLL nowadays, but that is the way it is....

-LPDAL

bocastephen

Continental was able to fill 757s (and sometimes had to send down a 764 in a pinch) between FLL and EWR/IAH every day all year 'round. Now it's pretty much all 737s and 320s with the same approx. flight frequency. Where did the customers go? (rhetorical question).

goldelite8

Looks like FLL will be seeing some more 757s in the upcoming months with the addition of so many 757s to EWR and the reduction of 757 service overseas. Will be nice to have some BF seats on this route again! This used to be SOP in the CO days for at least one or two flights a day.

kevanyalowitz

Strongly disagree. IAD is a 35 minute (no traffic) ~$40 UberX ride from DC and from there you can go to every major city in the US and a large set of international cities...all non-stop. That's a pretty good setup, and based on the packed security lines for the 8a and 5p banks, other business travelers in DC seem to agree.