??for people from BWI...would you fly out of Regan National???

[lisareneeo]

We usually fly out of BWI (or even Philadelphia) We are about 45 mins from BWI and about 1 hour from PHL.

Found decent flights out of BWI....but found better prices and earlier departure time out of Regan National. Would save us about $100. The flight is an early 6:00am something flight and we would be in WDW bright and early and have the whole day.

Not sure if it would be too much of a hassle just to save $100 and to get a few extra hours in.

I think it would take us about 1 1/2 hours to get there....but I am not sure about parking and traffic etc....

What would you do?

 

[brunette8706]

Hi! We always fly Airtran! We are from Maryland and always use BWI airport. Reagan International is way out of the way, plus you will more than like run into DC traffic. Not a good thing.

I would stick with BWI but keep checking airfare. Usually if you leave on a Tuesday or Wednesday the airfare is cheaper.

Brunette

 

[bbwhos]

Ditto! The traffic is definitely not worth it plus remember the return trip home. You can take the Metro down to Reagan but even that's a mess. I'm about 15 min from BWI so we ALWAYS use BWI. I've seen some really super rates from Reagan but not worth the trip and the hassles at all.

 

[vwlizard]

1- You'll hit way more traffic
2- You'll probably spend more for parking
3- We always call DC the "roach motel". YOu can get in, but you can never get out. THere are almost always delays.

 

[vicki_c]

I don't even consider Reagan. We are about 25 minutes from BWI and (without traffic considerations) 50 minutes from Reagan.

I avoid driving into or around DC at all costs; it's bad enough when I have to do it for work! Also hard to plan out the timing, IMO, with traffic being such an issue. You just never know when you might get caught up in some major mess that delays you more than all the fudge factor you built into your schedule.

I also hear parking is problematic there.

 

[lisareneeo]

What if we got an airport park and fly package and drove down the night before and got a shuttle to the airport in the morning.
It would still be less and flight times are better.....

 

[mikehn]

We use both BWI and DCA. If your flight is at 6am on a weekend, I can pretty much guarantee you traffic will be lite. DCA has long term parking onsite as well. I personally prefer BWI because its closer, but if the price is right and the flight times are more favorable, I would not have any problems flying from DCA.

 

[lisareneeo]

The flight is on a weekday. If we decide to take these flights I think we will stay at a hotel the night before and do a park and fly package. That way, we can just take a hotel shuttle to the airport.

the return flight will land at 8:30 pm (weekday) so we should miss the traffic in the evening as well.


Any suggestions on decent hotels at a reasonable price?

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I actually like National Airport. It's very easy to get around. However, if you're only saving $100 on airfare to fly from there rather than BWI, I'd stick with BWI. Your savings will be eaten up by hotel and travel costs.

 

[Lassie Lynne]

I always fly out of BWI, even when I lived equal distance from DCA and BWI. I found BWI to just be more user friendly, plus more flights in/out, in case of bad weather, etc. Plus, we always fly Southwest and I find it soooo easy since Southwest has there own terminal, right next to their check-in!

 

[Anal Annie]

I go thru this airport dilemma every time we fly somewhere. We live in upper Montgomery Co. so it's about an hour drive to BWI, National AND to Dulles. I always price all 3 of them. So far there hasn't been a "OMG THAT'S A GREAT PRICE - TOO GOOD TO PASS UP" kind of deal for me to use DCA. I don't want to drive downtown & I won't leave my car at the metro lot over night.

Our airport of choice is BWI because Dulles involves crossing that darned bridge. But we WILL use Dulles too if it's a good deal. I actually just booked Jet Blue out of Dulles for our spring break trip. Comparable non-stop flights (with similar flight times) were in the same ballpark price with Air Tran from BWI but SW was much higher. The nice things about Jet Blue is they have TVs in each seatback and they include BOTH a free checked bag pp AND a free assigned seat. The assigned seat is not available on SW and we'd have to pay $10 pp extra for the early bird check-in with them. Assigned seats ARE avail. on Air Tran but FOR A PRICE and they charge for checked bags. Jet Blue won on both bags and seats. In the end their price worked out to be a little less and we are willing to drive to Dulles to use Jet Blue. But I wouldn't drive to National. It would have to be alot more than a $100 savings for me to go to National.

BTW I think you can get a park & fly package at hotels near BWI too...or you can get internet coupons for $7.90 / day parking at the Fast Park "Blue lot" or $8.90 at the "Red lot". We always use the Fast Park lots at BWI. They are pretty equal distances from the airport so I'm not sure why one lot is cheaper but that's always the one we use. They are very good (efficient). http://www.thefastpark.com/location/baltimore-blue/ For Dulles we use a local hotel. The Hampton Inn Dulles has a weekly parking deal for like $20 or something.

 

[DCTooTall]

I've flown out of both BWI and DCA. If the flight time/cost is enough that you are considering DCA, I'll give you some extra things to consider so you can determine if the savings are worth it.

1. DC traffic. DC traffic can be an...adventure. You would definately want to avoid rush hours as much as possible.... Weekends aren't that bad however, so it really will depend upon your flight times as to if the traffic in and around DC would be an issue for you.

2. Parking. Parking is more expensive at DCA than at BWI, so you may want to compare the parking rates on their respective websites to determine if your flight savings would be eaten up in parking costs. The Economy parking lot at DCA can also be a bit...confusing.

3. Because of DCA's proximity to so many government buildings and national Monuments.... it does give the airport a rather unique flight path on the north side. If you or someone in your party is a nervous flyer, it may definately be something to consider since you never know which way you will be flying out or doing your landing from. (the Southern approach/exit is pretty easy with a straight shot down to Potomac, but the Northern side involves some steep decents/climbs and sharp turns.)

4. Sleep and Fly/ Offsite Parking. Because of DCA's location, there is not a lot of off-site parking options around the airport...in fact, the only off-site parking options are at some of the area hotels. If you are looking at a possible Sleep & Fly make sure you pay attention to the site's shuttle schedule. I discovered when looking into it as an option for my trip this past march that with my early departure and late arrival that I could not find an offsite parking location w/ a shuttle schedule that would've provided me enough cushion for my comfort. (in case of my flight arriving late or enough extra cushion for TSA screening/etc).

 

[DopeyDame]

I usually fly out of BWI, but have flown out of DCA when it was cheaper/more convenient. I can use metro, though, so I've never had to deal with driving and parking around there. If you can find a good sleep and fly package, than it's probably worth it - if not, I'd stick with BWI. I actually like DCA as an airport, but like others said, it's a vastly different driving/parking experience than BWI.

 

[firegurl]

I would stick with BWI. It sounds like we probably live in the same area. I am about 45 from BWI and 1 hour from Philly as well. I checked all the DC airports, BWI & Philly. To me, saving $100 is not worth it when you add the room the night before and dealing with DC traffic. It doesn't matter what time of day, there is always DC traffic. Oddly, I just did the drive to BWI over labor day weekend around the time my flight will be leaving (had to take my SIL to the airport) and even WITH the Grand Prix going on, it still only took about 45 minutes.