DCA vs BWI?

[puffkin]

We were resigned to driving for our Thanksgiving week trip, but I was able to find airfare I can work with out of DCA. I was DREADING the 20 hour trip each way to drive (we are not road trip people, my kids have never been in a car longer than 3 hours).

We do fly often out of BWI since PHL has become so expensive. Realistically, how much further is DCA from BWI? We probably will be driving in the night before our flight so hopefully will do a sleep, park, and fly. IT was about $500 more to fly out of BWI so I hope this is worth it!

 

[GrnMtnMan]

We were resigned to driving for our Thanksgiving week trip, but I was able to find airfare I can work with out of DCA. I was DREADING the 20 hour trip each way to drive (we are not road trip people, my kids have never been in a car longer than 3 hours).

We do fly often out of BWI since PHL has become so expensive. Realistically, how much further is DCA from BWI? We probably will be driving in the night before our flight so hopefully will do a sleep, park, and fly. IT was about $500 more to fly out of BWI so I hope this is worth it!

Its probably an extra 45 minutes driving to get from BWI to DCA...without traffic. The route to take will vary with the time of day/day of week that your traveling.

DCA has its pros and cons. On of the major pros is that it is a much easier airport to get around once you are there. The gate areas are pretty compact, and you don't have to ride shuttles/people movers to get from ticketing to gates.

One of the major cons is that getting there in rush hour can be time consuming...and parking is limited and expensive, but you'll be taking care of that by doing a park and fly.

Are you flying Jet Blue?

 

[puffkin]

We are flying Southwest. Saturday AM flight so we are going to come down Friday night. I think we should be able to avoid a good deal of traffic then. Our return flight gets in early evening the following Saturday (right after Thanksgiving).

 

[PlutoPony]

There is currently very little in the way of food and drink options past security in the SW terminal. There is some construction in that area (thank goodness, it desperately needs a facelift) but I'm not sure when the new restaurants, etc will be opening. By Thanksgiving the situation may be much improved.

Doing fly-sleep-park is good, otherwise I'd be careful to schedule arrival / departure times around rush hour due to traffic. Driving down Friday night may not be a picnic.

 

[GrnMtnMan]

We are flying Southwest.

The good news about the A gates is that there are only a few of them, so long lines at security are generally not an issue. The bad news is what the prior poster mentioned: very few options for shopping or dining.

Though the A gates are old, the small number of lines that use them make the area more convenient than the main part of the airport.

 

[999DoomBuggies]

holy crap, 20 hrs to go from maryland to disney? I am there in like 14 hrs with some stops. Pick up the pac a little bit. I fly and drive. It takes 4 hrs more to drive than fly. Flying requires 30 mins to airport (bwi), 1.5-2hrs in advance (park and ride, security, etc), always a layover for us, rarely ever book in time for direct, and then magical express or rental car ride to resorts.

You can caravan with us in a week or so. You have to entertain my kids. They're ruthless these days.

 

[puffkin]

holy crap, 20 hrs to go from maryland to disney? I am there in like 14 hrs with some stops. Pick up the pac a little bit. I fly and drive. It takes 4 hrs more to drive than fly. Flying requires 30 mins to airport (bwi), 1.5-2hrs in advance (park and ride, security, etc), always a layover for us, rarely ever book in time for direct, and then magical express or rental car ride to resorts.

You can caravan with us in a week or so. You have to entertain my kids. They're ruthless these days.

We live in PA, so that is another 2+ hours more on a good day from where you are. We would have needed to break up the trip each way. I know the limitations of my driving abilities and my husbands. We just are not good at driving long distances at night, we would nod off. My kids are also not good with long car rides, they just aren't used to it. Plus we would need to rent something to get us from PA to FL so we would still have that cost. There are 5 of us (with my mom) and in my car we can cram in to get to the airport, but not for a super long trip. So we would much prefer to fly if at all possible even if we have a little more inconvenience to get to an airport.